A Singer’s Singer – Ethel Ennis

In the long history of jazz vocalists, there have always been a few who have been respectfully described as a ‘singer’s singer’. Some of them have been very well-known, but others have sort of flown below the radar. One that might qualify as the latter is Ethel Ennis, who is still entertaining fans after a career that has stretched for more than fifty years. Along the way she has appeared with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington, and she even toured Europe with Benny Goodman.

Ethel Ennis first began to attract attention while still in high school in her native Baltimore. Although she was a talented pianist, she soon found that it was her singing that would be her ticket to a professional career.

Within a few years she had managed to land a recording contract, and by 1955 had generated enough singles to produce her first album, Lullabies for Losers. It would be the first of many, and in later years those albums would provide her fans with a way to enjoy her singing long after she had retired from active touring.

Of course, folks in her beloved Baltimore can still catch her live from time to time.

Ethel Ennis – “Serenade In Blue”