Jazz and blues singer Ernestine Anderson worked her way from singing in the gospel choir as a child to being featured on the world’s most famous stages. Born in Houston, Texas, on November 11, 1928, Anderson’s family moved to Seattle when she was 16. She was hired by a local band for her first taste of the professional musician’s life, and after tours with Johnny Otis and Lionel Hampton, she moved to New York City to pursue music in earnest.

She began her recording career in the late 1950s on Mercury Records, although her 1961 album My Kinda Swing would be her last for more than 15 years, when a 1976 performance at the Concord Jazz Festival earned her fresh attention and a new record deal from Concord. This began a strong second act of her career, as her albums Never Make Your Move Too Soon (1981) and Big City (1983) were both Grammy-nominated in the Best Jazz Vocal category. She made the most of her resurgence, and performed at iconic venues like Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, as well as the Monterey Jazz Festival.

In the ‘90s, she reconnected with Quincy Jones -- a fellow band member from her Seattle days -- and released a pair of Grammy-nominated albums for his Qwest label: 1993’s Now and Then and 1996’s Blues, Dues and Love News. She continued to record and perform until her death in Seattle on March 10, 2016.

Ernestine Anderson

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