Ernestine Anderson discusses taking a break from music.

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Ernestine Anderson discusses her singing style over time.

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Ernestine Anderson discusses being a jazz singer.

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Q: “You’re a jazz singer and I’ve said to other people that you’re a jazz musician and they’ve said ‘oh, don’t say that!’ because it puts a frame around it or whatever, but I think that’s something to achieve – to become a jazz musician or a jazz singer, and especially a singer because there are so few. I don’t think there are a dozen people who qualify as jazz singers.”

A: “Well, you know why? I think one of the reasons why is because jazz is, I think, the one art form, musical art form, that suffers the most, you know. I mean, it's the most ... well, there has to be a love. You have to love it. You'll have to want to do this. You know, it's just a natural thing that you become a jazz personality, you know. I don't know if maybe some people said how to do it, I didn't. But it just turned out that way. I think, well, what happened, I entered a talent contest when I was twelve years old and they asked me what key. I knew two songs all the way through. One was Sunny Side of the Street and the other song was So Long, you know. And so they asked me what key and I didn't know anything about keys, but out of my mouth came C, you know, because that was ... I'd heard that some place or something, so I said C and it was the wrong key. So I had to improvise, you know, because I just couldn't stop. You know, that was too embarrassing and my grandmother had always told me, you know, I used to play for her and play piano in church for her and once we were doing this song and she sang it different than we had rehearsed it and I stopped. So she told me, you know, never, never ever do that, you know. No matter if it's wrong or whatever, just keep on going. So this stuck in my mind, right? So I went on through with the song and when I finished one of the guys came over to me and said, "You're a jazz singer." And you know, I still didn't know what he was talking about. I didn't have a clue and later on, I discovered that was what he meant.”