Jon Hendricks, legendary jazz singer passes away

Jon Hendricks (96), the legendary jazz singer and lyricist, has passed away in New York, United States on November 22, 2017. Hendricks found fame in the 1950s and ’60s teaming with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross. The Jazz singer wrote the lyrics to existing Basie songs, and the three recorded their own voices in layers instead of using backup singers. The trio’s first album, “Sing a Song of Basie,” won acclaim for its use of vocalese, in which the voices mimic the instrumental parts. Others experimented with vocalese before Hendricks, but he is widely regarded as the father of the spirited singing style for popularising it. After the group broke up in 1962, he pursued a solo career in London, worked as a jazz critic in San Francisco and released several solo albums.