Life-changing jazz albums: ‘Ella Sings Gershwin’

There was an obvious choice for this – it’s an album my dad [jazz trumpeter Leslie ‘Jiver’ Hutchinson] gave me for my birthday when I was 15: Ella Sings Gershwin, with Ellis Larkins. I still listen to it [holds up record sleeve], it’s almost moth-eaten! 10” LPs – you remember those?!

I wasn’t even thinking of singing then, but when my dad gave this to me, it started me off. Well, I was singing in school, like everyone does; but more seriously, I was playing piano, studying classical, doing music festivals and Associated Board exams and all that. I was thinking of being a concert pianist. The only little black child in Wood Green [London] doing the music festivals! Though I didn’t think about that then; and never have since, actually – it‘s never been an issue.

There was always music around the house, of course. It was mainly Basie and Ellington; Charlie Barnet, Harry James, that sort of ilk. Plus my dad was always rehearsing with his friends. In fact, he sent me to his pianist at the time, Colin Beaton; and said to him, “Have a listen to her – she might want to sing”. Colin thought I sang in tune, and could handle phrasing; and he taught me the American Songbook. So he was a bit of a Svengali. We did television shows, with Jack Parnell and so on. There, I was taught how to work to the camera. It was a bit pedantic, to be honest; but it was useful. Then he got me into the chorus of a show that he was the musical director of: Finian’s Rainbow. So he definitely steered my career very early on. Dad was with Geraldo for many years, but then he formed his own band and wanted a singer – and who was cheaper than me?!

During this time, I was still doing piano; I’d got up to Grade 7 – then I met Brahms! I was quite a talented pianist, but a bit cocky; and I think it’s the hard workers that get there in the end. Anyway, the more singing I did, the more that took over. The piano didn’t go to waste – my ear was being trained.

When I started to sing with my dad, it gave me the opportunity to learn my trade. He must have been quite nervous for me; but I could hold a tune, and I knew about the shape of a tune. There probably wasn’t a great deal of expression in it, because I didn’t know who I was in those early days. You have to find out what it is you want to say musically.

By singing with the band, I was launched. When my dad died, his manager, Vic Lewis, took me on. For 12 years, I did working men’s clubs in the North. It was hard graft, often 16 shows a week. You’d do 40 minutes in one club, then the comedian would come on, and they’d load you into a van and take you to the next club. They were huge places, full of smoke, very noisy. Doing that, you find out how to hold an audience. I’d be in digs with people like Anita Harris, Mike and Bernie Winters, Mike Yarwood, Englebert Humperdinck – we were all up there because there was so much work. It was a great learning curve – you find out how to structure an act, and how to perform on stage. After all that, you can deal with anything – nothing phases me! It was tough, and sometimes lonely, but thank goodness I did it.

When I got the Ella record, it wooed me. I kept putting it on and putting it on, and learning all those songs. They are so wonderful – and she just sings the song [straight]. In a way, it’s only now that I can see how important it was for me in my development. Even today, my pianist and I love to do just piano and voice – you’re in tune, the two of you. Ellis Larkins is brilliant, too – this old style, the stride; wonderfully unintrusive, great support. It’s lovely. The album was a concept, all under the Gershwins’ umbrella. You sit back in your chair, you enjoy, then you soon get up and turn the record over – it’s only a ten-inch! Listening now, Ella is almost too young to sing the songs somehow – she’s really like a young girl. As I was when I got it!

This article originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of Jazzwise. Never miss an issue – subscribe to Jazzwise today