EngAGE Stories

Tune in to Experience Talks, our “Radio Magazine for the Experienced Listener.” Saturdays 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 99.5 China Lake, 93.7 N. San Diego, streaming live online and now syndicated on up to 100 Pacifica Network stations! You can also enjoy hearing all of our previous shows on the Listen Page of our Experience Talks website.

Saturday, 5/31 at 8 AM PT: Bobbee Zeno Musical Rewind Tribute – Part Two

Join us for another great Bobbee Zeno interview, this one from 2006 with Ernie Andrews, who is now 86 years old and still going strong.

The soulful energy of jazz vocalist Ernie Andrews was forged in his mother’s Baptist Church in Philadelphia. In his early teens, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he studied drums at Jefferson High School and continued singing.

He was discovered by songwriter Joe Greene in 1947, when he won an amateur show at the Lincoln Theatre on Central Avenue in Los Angeles. Greene was so impressed that he immediately took Andrews into the studio to record at age 17. With a 300,000 seller hit, “Soothe Me” with “Wrap It Up And Put It Away” on the flip side, Ernie Andrews became a singer to be reckoned with.

In 1959, Andrews joined Harry James’ band, touring the U.S. and South America for nine years, which time he considers his most valuable learning experience.

In 1969, Baltimore became home base for Andrews, where he worked the East Coast and the Midwest, again scoring big with his hit record of “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” In 1974, he returned to Los Angeles, where he resided with his wife of 53 years, Dolores, who recently passed away, but Ernie goes on, sharing the lives of his five children, his grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

He also continues to play clubs, concerts and jazz festivals throughout the world, and often performs in Las Vegas. Los Angeles Times critic Don Heckman said of a recent performance at the Jazz Spot in Los Angeles, “[H]e blends a hard-swinging, outgoing vocal style with a quick-witted sense of humor . . . he does so with a rich timbre, a gift for drama and a singular capacity to stimulate an audience,” and “[H]e was a musical whirlwind, bringing life, love, humor and musicality to everything he sang.”

Learn more about Ernie and get his performance schedule on his website. Los Angeles area fans will have an opportunity to see him in Newport Beach in July, and at LACMA in September.

And be sure to stop by Burbank Senior Artists Colony on Saturday afternoon for our EngAGE in Creativity celebration which is dedicated to Bobbee this year.