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He is a singer and lyricist born in Newark,
Ohio. His father was a pastor and he is
one of 15 children. He moved to
Toledo with his family and went
to Toledo University
to study law after he had completed his military service in the Army in
WWII. He began singing on the
radio with Art Tatum prior to the war and after he gave up University he
moved to New
York to pursue a
career in music. He became part
of the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross in 1957 and together they
introduced the art of vocalese, which is adding lyrics to instrumental
songs, to an international audience and Melody Maker awarded them
"Number One Vocal Group in the World" five years running. In 1968 after the group had
disbanded he moved to London
with his family and became well known to British audiences. He moved back to America
in 1973 and became a teacher at the California
State University
as well as Berkeley, a critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and from 2000
he has been Distinguished Professor of Jazz Studies at the University
of Toledo where he has received
an honorary doctorate and formed the group Jon Hendricks Vocalastra. During the terms of Presidents
Carter, Reagan and Clinton he served as a member of the Kennedy Center
Honors Committee. Artists such as Al Jarreau and
Bobby McFerrin were influenced by him as well as Manhattan Transfer,
who he collaborated with for their album Vocalese
,
which received seven Grammy Awards. As a writer, he has written
Evolution of the Blues
which ran in the theatre for five years, and Somewhere to
Rest my Weary Head
which was an Emmy winning documentary.
He currently writes lyrics for
vocalese versions of classical music and has premiered
Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade
and
Rachmaninov's "Piano Concerto No. 2".
Matt Bianco Recordings
Yeh Yeh
(Rodgers Grant/Pat Patrick/Jon Hendricks)
Sources:
- http://www.harmonyware.com/JonHendricks/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks
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