Ernestine Anderson - “Someone Else Is Steppin’ In” The Concord Jazz Heritage Series: The Sampler Song released in 1985. Compilation released in 1998. Jazz-Blues
“Honey at dusk” is how Quincy Jones, a frequent collaborator and longtime friend, describes Ernestine Anderson’s sound. “She can sing the blues, and she can sing a ballad. She can swing you out of the country!” Etta James has gushed. Ernestine Anderson was a truly dynamic gem whose career outlasted many of the singers she came up with. As a teen, a vibrant Seattle jazz scene embraced her, but things really started happening for Anderson when she moved to New York City. By the late 1950s, she began to earn her due praise on a national scale, receiving a glowing write-up in Time in 1958 and the coveted “New Star” Award in the authoritative jazz publication DownBeat in 1959.
But that initial success was fleeting. Jazz would take a permanent backseat to rock and roll in the 60s and the work for Anderson dried up. She spent a couple years in the UK, where earning a living as a jazz musician was still a viable option, but she ended up back in Seattle and then decided to quit singing entirely.
After about a decade of answering phones and working as a hotel maid, Anderson agreed to perform at a jazz festival on Vancouver Island. It wasn’t long after that set that she signed a contract with the Concord Jazz label, enjoying a total career resurgence, earning more recognition and praise than when she first achieved fame. It’s not exceedingly rare, but it’s certainly uncommon for musicians to get a second sustaining wind in their careers. However, it’s almost unheard of for the comeback to outshine the past glory. During her second stint, Anderson racked up four Grammy noms and performed at countless festivals and in some of the world’s most renowned venues.
In 1985, well into her tenure at Concord, Ernestine Anderson deviated from her usual jazz and pop repertoire by releasing a blues album called When the Sun Goes Down. She had recorded the blues before, but nowhere near an album’s worth of material. And she pulled it off wonderfully.
In liner notes provided by British jazz pianist Leonard Feather, he gives some background to Anderson’s vengeful “Someone Else Is Steppin’ In”:
“Someone Else Is Steppin’ In,” a blues with a bridge, came to Ernestine’s attention when, during a visit to Houston in May of 1984, she heard it on jukeboxes sung by the composer, Denise LaSalle. “They play a lot of blues down there; I went out and bought a lot of things. It was also recorded by an incredible blues singer out of Chicago, Z.Z. Hill, who passed away a few months ago. I have three of his albums and three of Denise’s, and I love them all.” Ernestine and Red [Holloway, the album’s tenor saxophonist] capture a tremendous sense of blues vitality and authenticity on this irresistible performance.
On this recording, Anderson displays an impressive range of what she’s capable of as a vocalist, taking tried and true jazz techniques and fitting them into a blues framework. She shows off her deep and soft sultriness as well as her confident bravado. Anderson picks her spots to use nice vibrato and seamlessly reaches to low depths to produce a passionate gravelliness, which she briefly features at the song’s conclusion. The extended instrumental bridge that Feather alludes to is enjoyable as well as Red Holloway pulls off an exquisite tenor sax solo, backed by Gene Harris on piano.
Well into the second wave of her career, Ernestine Anderson delivered this tremendous piece of jazzy mid-80s blues.
