Annie Chagnot

This is Annie Barbazza’s first solo album. She was a young drummer in love with progressive rock when Greg Lake discovered her talent as a singer and wanted her on stage with him for the concert which would later become the posthumous “Live in Piacenza”. Again Lake produced “Moonchild”, the duo with pianist Max Repetti for Manticore Records where she sang many songs formerly sang by Lake with ELP and King Crimson. If these were the beginnings of Annie’s career, now she is a rising star of the international Avant / Prog scene. Her friendship with John Greaves (Henry Cow, National Health …) leads her to collaborate permanently live with the Welsh musician and to collaborate on his latest albums (“Piacenza” for Dark Companion and “Life Size” for Manticore). Another one of her stable collaborations is the one with legendary writer-singer-songwriter Paul Roland with whom Annie regularly performs live as a bassist and singer and in the studio also as a drummer.

This album was originally recorded in 1971. You might guess that date roughly from the songs that Annie Ross sings, with hippie anthems like Stoned Soul Picnic and touches of love and peace in the last two items. The date is also given away by the boogaloo rhythms and the jazz-rock in many items. Yet somehow Annie Ross transcends any particular time, as her vocals have long-lasting appeal.
Of course, she is best known as an exponent of vocalese in the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, but she left them in 1962 and has since continued her career as a solo singer and seems inexhaustible: still wowing audiences at the age of 89…