The youth of Johanna 'Ansje' Rafalowicz, born on march 4th , 1933 in Amsterdam is for a great part darkened by the second world war. She had to go into hiding because of her Jewish descent, not to get caught by the German occupiers. And in the years after the liberation of Holland the sun still won't shine in Ansje's life. She perpetually clashes with her mother, which eventually leads to her being taken under the wings of a social welfare worker. Her dawning love for music is not without consequence: she becomes a singer with a combo, goes abroad, and soon adopts as her stage name Ann Burton.
When she enters the small Amsterdam theatre 'Het Bavohuis' in the evening of September 24th 1967 to record the first session of her first album, Blue Burton she is 34 years old and has 12 years of experience as a singer. At that moment the Beatles lead the top 10 in Holland with "All you need is love"....
Since Ann Burton made the singing of the Doris Day repertoire her business the world of popular music has seen a lot of changes - in the beginning by the arrival of rock'n' roll, later by the beat. Just so the Ann Burton repertoire underwent the necessary changes during these years. The singer broadened her musical horizon very much after getting acquainted with the jazz. After listening to the way Billie Holiday, Sara Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald handle their songs she started to put much more emotion into the interpretation of her lyrics, and this explains why she reckons Shirley Horn as one of her youngest favourites. From being just another singer Ann developed into a singer who is very careful in the handling of text and who can move and allure her audience with her sensitive voice. As Paul Visser (alias for Pete Venudor) wrote it in the original liner notes of Blue Burton: "Whether or not she is the best jazz singer in the Netherlands, others may decide. She undoubtedly is the most personal. ] And very, very blue".
Tracklist :
1 I Can't Give You Anything But Love 4:59
Written-By – Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh
2 Go Away Little Boy 7:16
Written-By – Goffin And King
3 He Was Too Good To Me 3:18
Written-By – Rodgers & Hart
4 But Not For Me 3:40
Written-By – George & Ira Gershwin
5 It's Easy To Remember 4:25
Written-By – Rodgers & Hart
6 You've Changed 5:43
Written-By – Bill Carey, Carl Fisher
7 The Good Life 2:36
Written-By – Jack Reardon, Sacha Distel
8 In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning 3:26
Written-By – Bob Hilliard, David Mann
9 Sunny 3:25
Written-By – Bobby Hebb
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Piet Noordijk (faixas: 3, 6, 8)
Bass – Jacques Schols
Drums – John Engels
Lead Vocals – Ann Burton
Piano – Louis Van Dyke 
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