Jamie Cullum pays tribute to jazz legend Jon Hendricks

Jazz star Jamie Cullum has paid tribute to influential vocalist Jon Hendricks, who died on Wednesday (22Nov17).
Hendricks, who passed away in a New York hospital at the age of 96, rose to fame in the 1950s as a member of the vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.
The group were famous for adding vocals to existing jazz standards, a practice known as ‘vocalese’, turning instrumental tracks into popular hits. Their 1957 debut album Sing a Song of Basie won a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998.
Cullum, who saw Hendricks tour in his later years, paid tribute to the star on Twitter.
“Farewell to this great man, Mr Jon Hendricks, at 96, one of the most dexterous and joyous singers to walk planet earth,” he wrote. “Attending his live shows are some of my most favourite and formative musical memories. #jonhendricks”.
Hendricks moved from the U.S. to Britain in 1968, and his tours of the U.K. and Europe attracted famous fans including members of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
In the mid-1970s he moved to California and took up a teaching posts at California State University at Sonoma and the University of California at Berkeley.
During this time he also worked as a jazz critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and wrote and narrated Somewhere to Rest My Weary Head, a documentary on jazz that won an Emmy and a Peabody Award.
In the 1980s he wrote for the popular jazz group The Manhattan Transfer and appeared on their 1985 album, Vocalese, which won seven Grammy Awards.
Hendricks also had small roles in the films White Men Can’t Jump and People I Know.
The jazz legend is survived by his daughters Aria and Michele, his son Jon Jr. His wife Judith passed away in 2015.