Ann Hampton Callaway

All Music Guide:

Pop/jazz singer and songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway is the daughter of television journalist John Callaway and vocal coach Shirley Callaway, and the sister of Broadway performer Liz Callaway. She was born and raised in Chicago. Her earliest recordings were on a series of releases by Ben Bagley's Painted Smiles label; she recorded bonus tracks for CD reissues of Noel Coward Revisited (1990), Cole Porter Revisited (1991), and Alan Jay Lerner Revisited (1992), as well as appearing on recordings of the shows Shoestring Revue and Tallulah. For the Porter album, she became the first person allowed by Porter's estate to write music for a previously unrecorded Porter lyric, "I Gaze in Your Eyes." That song became the leadoff track on her debut album, Ann Hampton Callaway, released on DRG Records in 1992. In 1993, she wrote "The Nanny Named Fran," the theme song for the television situation comedy The Nanny, and was heard performing it each week on the show. Her second album, Bring Back Romance, was released in 1994. In 1996, she teamed up with her sister for the album Sibling Revelry; later the two performed a musical of the same name in London. Callaway moved more toward jazz with her third solo album, To Ella with Love, released on After 9 Records in 1996. Barbra Streisand recorded her song "At the Same Time" on her chart-topping album Higher Ground in 1997, the same year Callaway released her fourth solo album, After Ours, on Denon, and a holiday album, White Christmas, on Capitol. The latter was reissued by Angel as This Christmas in 1998. In 1999, Streisand recorded Callaway's "I've Dreamed of You" and released it on her A Love Like Ours album in September; Callaway released her own Easy Living album on Sindrome in October; and she starred on Broadway in the musical Swing! beginning in December. The 21st century found Callaway signing with Shanachie Records, which released Signature in 2002 and Slow in 2004. Switching to Telarc Records, she released Blues in the Night in 2006. At Last followed in 2009.

Wikipedia:

Ann Hampton Callaway (born May 30, 1958) is a multiplatinum-selling singer, composer, lyricist, pianist, and actress. She is best known for writing and singing the theme to the TV series The Nanny, writing songs for Barbra Streisand and starring in the Broadway musical Swing!.

Career

Callaway was described by the New York Times in 2011 as a jazz-cabaret singer who "smolders more than she sizzles." She performed for President Clinton in Washington D.C. and was the invited guest performer for President Gorbachev's Youth Peace Summit in Moscow. She has recorded and performed the award winning show "Sibling Revelry" with her sister Broadway star Liz Callaway. Callaway is associated with her tireless devotion to The Great American Songbook and has produced two critically acclaimed public television specials called "Singer's Spotlight With Ann Hampton Callaway" featuring guests Liza Minnelli and Christine Ebersole, towards her dream of an ongoing PBS series.

Callaway signed with the Grammy Award winning label Telarc International recently and the result was the CD Blues In The Night, a tribute to her growing up in the Chicago area. Her new CD, At Last was released in February 2009 to unanimous rave reviews. Her 2004 CD, Slow from Shanachie Entertainment is her most pop-inspired album to date. Ann has recorded two holiday CDs: Holiday Pops! with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops and her solo CD, This Christmas (Angel/After 9). Her recording "Signature" features the signature songs of the great jazz legends of the 20th century, performed with pianist Kenny Barron and guest artist Wynton Marsalis. Other CD recordings include Easy Living (After 9), To Ella With Love (After 9), After Ours (Denon), Bring Back Romance (DRG), Ann Hampton Callaway (DRG) and the award winning live recording, Sibling Revelry (DRG). She has also been a guest artist on over forty CDs.

Callaway composed over 250 songs for television, Broadway, off-Broadway and several of today's leading interpreters of songs. Her music and lyrics have been performed and recorded by Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Patti LuPone, Michael Feinstein, Blossom Dearie, Peter Nero, Karrin Allyson, Donna McKechnie, Harvey Fierstein, Lillias White, Barbara Carrol, Amanda McBroom, Liz Callaway and Carole King. She composed "At the Same Time" for Barbra Streisand and that recording, Higher Ground, debuted nationally at #1, giving Ann her first of three platinum records. Ms. Streisand asked Ann to write lyrics to a Rolf Lovland melody which she entitled "I've Dreamed of You" which Ms. Streisand sang to James Brolin at their wedding. The song was later recorded on her CD, "A Love Like Ours", released as a single and selected for the album, The Essential Barbra Streisand. Ms. Streisand performed both of these songs on her live double CD, Timeless. Ms. Streisand later chose Ann's song "A Christmas Lullaby" for her holiday CD, Christmas Memories.

The Cole Porter Estate officially recognizes Ann Hampton Callaway as the only composer to have collaborated with Cole Porter, having set her music to his posthumously discovered lyric, "I Gaze in Your Eyes". It was first recorded by Ann for Ben Bagley's Cole Porter Revisited series. Later, the song was recorded by Elaine Paige and was featured in the West End hit musical revue A Swell Party. Ann was one of the creators of the Broadway musical Swing! writing "Two and Four" as well as several additional lyrics to the standards in the Tony and Grammy nominated score.

In addition to the theme for The Nanny, she has written the TV themes for Day's End, Cabaret Beat, and The Jim J and Tammy Fay Show. Ann composed incidental music for the David Weiner play, Baltimore Star and her song "Manhattan In December" was included in the 2005 off-Broadway musical revue A Broadway Diva Christmas. Her songwriting is administered by Williamson Music.

Television

Callaway has performed on numerous TV shows including The Today Show, CNN's Larry King Live, The Charlie Rose Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, and ABC News. She starred in "Midnight Swing" for the PBS television special Live from Lincoln Center and was featured in another PBS special with Keith Lockhart and Boston Pops. She has also performed for the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular and has made two appearances on NBC's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. She appeared at the Vail Jazz Festival in 2010.

Her voice has been heard in numerous TV jingles and voice-overs including spots for Coca Cola, Ethan Allen and State Farm. Ann has also done extensive broadcasting for Sirius Satellite Radio as a performer, DJ and interviewer. Ann recently appeared in the Robert DeNiro film, The Good Shepard, was heard on the soundtrack to the Queen Latifah film "Last Holiday" and was featured in the role of Mrs. White in the award winning film Volare for Jim Henson Productions, directed by Temela D'Amico.

Awards and Honors

Callaway's honors include receiving a Tony Award nomination for "Best Featured Actress in a Musical" for her work in Swing! and winning the Theatre World Award for "Outstanding Broadway Debut". She has garnered fourteen awards from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs, two Backstage Bistro Awards, The 2005 Nightlife Award, the Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award and the Norman Vincent Peale Award for Positive Thinking.

Stephen Holden of the New York Times has cited Ms. Callaway's singing for her "lachrymose emotionalism" and her contrasting "pugilistic bossiness".

Hurricane Katrina

In September 2005, Ann performed her original composition "Let the Saints Come Marching", written to honor Hurricane Katrina victims, on a national TV broadcast on the Fox News Channel. Her song "Who can see the Blue the Same Again?" was released earlier in 2005 as a single paying tribute to the tsunami survivors and raising much needed money for The Tsunami Fund of the PRASAD Project. In the aftermath of September 11th, Ann composed "I Believe in America", which she performed on Larry King Live and released as a CD single. Just days after the tragedy, Ann heard an 8,000 year old prayer from the Rigveda and composed "Let Us Be United". Ann recorded the song with Kenny Werner, the Siddha Yoga International Choir and five-year-old Sonali Beaven, who sang in honor of her father who lost his life on Flight 93. It was released on CD and DVD and its proceeds continue to benefit Save the Children and the PRASAD Project. Ann's father was the late John Callaway, Chicago's TV and radio journalist, and an author, moderator and speaker. Her mother, Shirley Callaway, a singer, pianist and coach, was featured at New York's Town Hall, singing with Ann and her sister, Liz. Ann resides in New York with her partner, Kari Strand.