Vocal jazz innovator Annie Ross dies aged 89

Veteran jazz singer, actress and jazz innovator Annie Ross died on July 21, four days before her 90th birthday. In 1957, Ross, a chic redhead with a cool, tart sound, teamed with Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks to form the historic vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, which explored a genre known as vocalese — the setting of lyrics to modern jazz solos. Ross could lurch into the vocal stratosphere, imitating trumpets and saxophones and tearing through bebop lines with swinging rhythm, NPR says. "I only wanted to sing and be free" - she told years later...