On the Record: Ernestine Anderson's "Never Make Your Move Too Soon"

Houston-born vocalist Ernestine Anderson began her professional life as a teenager in the 1940s, working with the band led by Robert “Bumps” Blackwell – a Seattle-based bandleader who mentored a stunning range of musical talent including Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Herb Alpert, and Little Richard, among others. At 18, Anderson worked with Johnny Otis and Lionel Hampton before making her way to New York.

After the release of her 1958 debut Hot Cargo and her subsequent win of DownBeat magazine’s “New Star” award, the vocalist became a major name on the scene, recording a succession of fine albums for the Mercury label. In his jazz column for the San Francisco Chronicle, eminent jazz critic and radio host Ralph Gleason wrote, “she is the best new jazz singer in a decade. She has good diction, time, an uncanny ability to phrase well, great warmth in her voice, a true tone and, on top of all that, she swings like mad."

After the recording of her third and final Mercury date, 1960s’s My Kinda Swing, she moved to London as rock became the predominant popular music in the U.S. After a lone Columbia date and an obscure session for the small Sue label, Anderson enjoyed a much-deserved career resurgence following a memorable 1976 performance at the Bay Area’s Concord Jazz Festival.

Recorded at San Francisco’s famed Coast Recorders, Never Make Your Move Too Soon was released by Concord Records in 1981 and became a career highpoint. The album boasts a sterling backing band including pianist Monty Alexander, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Frank Gant on a program of finely rendered gems including “Old Folks,” “As Long as I Live,” “Poor Butterfly,” and “My Shining Hour.”

Although the album's production credit goes to label president Carl E. Jefferson, Ray Brown was a critical figure as arranger and ad hoc producer. In critic Edith Hamilton’s liner notes, Anderson says:

“I trust Ray’s judgment. He knows I won’t do something I don’t want to do, and I have to want to sing a song to do it justice. But Ray, now, he’s a pretty good salesman. I came into this recording session with a list of songs and arrangements I wanted to do, and Ray took one look at it and started crossing out things, moving stuff around, changing everything. I knew it was going to happen, and it all came out right. It’s beautiful, what he does.”

The Stix Hooper and Will Jennings-penned title tune, an infectious blues shuffle that became her enduring theme song, tells of bad luck, smart planning, and good fortune with lyrics that read:

Three days of snow in Birmingham
Thought you would wonder where I am
Rang our number all night long
It's no comfort on the telephone
Ran out and caught a midnight flight
Thought a little love would make everything all right
The landlord said, "You moved away"
And left me all your bills to pay"
Look out baby, you might have made your move too soon

Left me with a Keno card
This life in Vegas sure ain't hard
I ran it up to about fifty grand
Cashed it in and held it in my hand
That kind of word can get around
And make a lost love come up found
I hear you knocking baby at my door
But you know you ain't living here no more
It's too bad
I think you made your move too soon

I've been from Spain to Tokyo
From Africa to Ohio
I never tried to make the news
I'm just a man who plays the blues
I take my lovin' everywhere
I came back, and they still care you know
One love ahead
One love behind
One in my arms and one on my mind
It's one thing baby
I never make my move too soon

I've been from Spain to Tokyo
From Africa to Ohio
I never tried to make the news
I'm just a man who plays the blues
I take my lovin' everywhere
I come back, you know they still all care
One love ahead and one behind
One in my arms you know, one on my mind
And it's one thing people
I never make my move too soon

The album received a GRAMMY nomination, Anderson’s first, for Best Jazz Vocal Performance at the 24th GRAMMY Awards in 1981, placing Anderson alongside other illustrious nominees that year including Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James.

The success of Never Make Your Move Too Soon and its 1983 follow-up (and fellow GRAMMY nominee) Big City elevated Anderson’s profile considerably and she toured the world regularly, making her Carnegie Hall debut in 1988.

After sixteen years and eleven albums with Concord, Anderson signed with Quincy Jones’ Qwest label in 1993, receiving GRAMMY nominations for her two releases on the imprint before joining the roster of Joe Fields’ HighNote label in 2003. Her final recording, 2011's Nightlife, is a collection recorded during various dates at Lincoln Center's intimate Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola with an all-star lineup including saxophonist Houston Person, pianist Lafayette Harris, Jr., bassists Lonnie Plaxico and Chip Jackson, and drummers Jerome Jennings and Willie Jones III. Anderson passed in 2016 at age 88.

SFJAZZ presented Ernestine Anderson in 2008 during that year’s SFJAZZ Spring Season.

Marina Crouse performs the music from Ernestine Anderson’s Never Make Your Move Too Soon on 11/21. Tickets and more information are available here.