IN May, during Jazz Congress 2021—held online rather than at the conference’s usual location, Jazz at Lincoln Center in midtown Manhattan, because of the pandemic—a group of lauded vocalists met to discuss the life and work of Jon Hendricks (1921-2017), whose 100th birthday was September 16 of this year. An innovator of lyric writing in jazz and in the art of vocalese, rightly dubbed by Time magazine “the James Joyce of Jive,” Hendricks wrote for the royalty of American composers: Ellington, Basie, Monk, Horace Silver, Benny Golson, and countless others. He co-founded the most significant and artistically successful vocal trio the modern world has ever known (Lambert, Hendricks & Ross). And he was a musical father to generations of singers, including all five artists who gathered in our virtual auditorium. For one, he was a literal father as well.
The members of the panel require little introduction. Two of them, Bobby McFerrin and Sheila Jordan, are NEA Jazz Masters. Another, Jazzmeia Horn, is a swiftly rising star. Besides having had her own career since the mid-1980s, Michele Hendricks just happens to be Jon Hendricks’ eldest daughter. And the moderator, Kurt Elling, is on just about every short list of the 21st century’s most outstanding male jazz singers.
Without further ado, here’s an edited transcript of their conversation. If you’d like to experience the whole thing, you can find video on Jazz at Lincoln Center’s YouTube channel.
KURT ELLING: Bobby, what role did Jon Hendricks play for you early on?
Well, I had sat in with Jon at a piano bar. I think the piano player was Larry Vuckovich—would that be right? Do
