The most maligned and the most celebrated instrument in jazz…perhaps in all music…is the human voice. A singer can be a trend setter, defining how to swing. A singer can introduce new material into the cannon. A singer can connect with the audience better than most instrumentalists. A singer can be an amazing thing.
Then again, here’s a joke most musicians could tell: “How do you know when there is a singer at your door? They can’t find the key and don’t know when to come in”. And there is a slightly more sexist variation to that joke.
Jazz throughout most of its history has been a “boys club.” With just a few exceptions, up until about the 1980s the roles for women in Jazz have been as singers. And the best known singers are every bit as good musicians as the men. Probably more so in a few cases--Nina Simone comes to mind…but as a pianist as well, she already is an exception for her generation.
However there are probably more under qualified singers (both men and women) claiming to be jazz musicians than on other instruments. And the parade of pretty people who have been propped up as “jazz singers” through the years is almost embarrassing. It’s similar to all the guitar players who play instrumental tunes with an improvised section and call it jazz while rarely straying from pentatonic scales. Some of these people make fine fine music, but calling it “jazz” can be stretch.
BUT there are many many excellent singers (and guitar players) throughout the history of jazz. Im obviously leaving out a few key people today. Too many singers for one diary! And I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone obvious on this week’s poll. I like the polls and they seem to stir some discussion, but I make no claims for this poll or any poll to be comprehensive!
Please jump through the orange squiggly rabbit hole to engage in this week’s Jazz Essentials
DISCLOSURE: I love singers, wish I could sing better, and fantasize fronting a big band as a singer…or a blues band doing my best impersonation of Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. Speaking as a piano player, we tend to have particular sorts of relationships with singers. As a 21 year old man in Italy at a jazz clinic, I gladly accompanied every young and attractive Italian woman who asked. This was fine until of course I got tired of playing My Funny Valentine with everyone. To offer his condolences, Walter Bishop Jr agreed with me about how singers can become a burden for piano players…though I’ll never forget the story he told as example: “Ild be playing with Bird on 52nd street and in would walk Harry Belafonte and I’ld go ‘shit, there goes the grove'…with his protest songs and all…..” Pianist have a love/hate relationship with singers. Lets focus on the love......
I think there are three people with whom one could start with singers. One of those people Im going to leave out until the very end. For another, Im just going to touch on slightly with the first singer below. But since he is the star of the Ken Burns documentary, it’s easy to find more stuff on him. Which leaves just one option to start with…and she is arguably the greatest American singer of the 20th century.
Ella Jane Fitzgerald, April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996 Official Website
Ella first recorded with the Chick Webb orchestra and her first “hit” was a bit of a novelty number. I really did look hard for the clip of her doing this in the Abbott and Costello movie, but its not currently on youtube best I could tell.
Notice the shift from the major key to the minor key? Its not a compositional device used much anymore, but you can hear it in several big band arrangements from the 30s.
So….who was one of the other two singers I alluded to? Louis Armstrong of course! His phrasing while singing is a lesson in how to swing and simply how to state a melody. This next tune is hands down one of my favorite recordings ever. I just love her voice and his.
Ella certainly embraced show biz. And she certainly pioneered scat singing.
And she can swing
One more with satchmo before we move on
There are so many wonderful singers in jazz. It was overwhelming trying to figure out whom else to spotlight.
Sara Vaughn, March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990
Betty Carter, May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998 Official Website
With geri allen on piano. There have been many more women instrumentalists emerging over the last 30 years and Geri Allen is an amazing pianist active today.
There is an excellent live recording with Geri Allen and Betty Carter, but the youtube links don't seem to embed properly.
Nancy Wilson, born February 20, 1937
And that’s just a few! (Carmen McCrae is on the “editing room floor” to be engaged in a future diary)
And Im compelled to include this next man. Is he a jazz singer? Well, more so than Dino was! This man is an entertainer and he was one of the most skilled and versatile entertainers of his time…and certainly among his “pack”. The opening jokes he tells are cringe worthy in 2014. But what gets me is his ability to impersonate a few famous singers. This is not jazz per se...
Let's change eras......
Al Jarreau born March 12, 1940 Official Website
I love Al Jarreau. I even liked his pop hits in the early 80s. One of my best friends since my teen years could sing just like him too, though he doesn’t sing much anymore and has developed into an excellent classical composer.
Check out this 1965 recording of Al doing the same tune as Nancy above. Doesn’t he sound a little like Johnny Mathis at this point?
The recordings he did in Germany in 1976 are just brilliant to me
heres a few guys with some serious skills...
singers adding lyrics to famous instrumental solos....its a practice that's been going on for decades.
Cassandra Wilson born December 4, 1955 Official Website
Due to friends of my dad’s, I’ve been aware of Cassandra Wilson since the mid 1980s. I’m not sure if there is any singer from her generation or younger more worthy to carry the torch of jazz vocalists into the future. And while I think the word gets tossed around too much (fame and market success are NOT enough to earn this title)…she is the diva of the 21st century.
She was (is?) part of the M-Base collective with Steve Coleman back in the 80s. There are some amazing recordings from that period that are not on youtube (“First sunrise” is an old tune of hers I always loved), but I think part of the M-Base philosophy was to give the artists control of their recordings (for financial reasons, among others). Hence, I don’t have much issue with them keeping their recordings off of you tube. Jazz doesn’t earn enough to give everything away for free…heck people still think “we cant pay you much, but you can eat and drink what you want”…is an acceptable offer of compensation for a performance (keep your food, we’ll grab a slice of pizza. We need the $ more).
Ms Wilson has done many “pop songs” from the rock and roll era.
But she is a jazz musician through and through
Jazz today is blessed to have a number of great singers. Singers are obviously easier to market than instrumentalists. Here are two men recording and performing in their prime today,
Greg Porter born November 1971, Official Website
Kurt Elling born November 2, 1967 (hey! That’s 8 days after me!) Official Website
As always, that’s a lot. But, as always, it’s never enough! I know there are some glaring omissions, especially Jon Hendricks and Joe Williams and Carmen McCrae. There will just have to be another vocalist diary in the future. And if you want to make your case for Diana Krall, please do so below. I appreciate her success and she seems like she’s a very cool person. But in terms of being an icon in jazz? She has a lot still to show, though plenty of time in which to do it.
Thanks again for reading and listening. Thanks to the community spotlight people. Don’t forget to support your local jazz musicians!
Oh…and no, I havnt forgotten “her”. Never! She gets the last word…
