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Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 250 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
When we think of jazz we often think of instrumentalists, like horn players and pianists, sometimes overlooking the voice itself as an instrument. In the realm of jazz, there are two time-honored traditions of using one’s voice to do just that, however they are often identified incorrectly as being one and the same; I’m talking about scatting and vocalese and the artists who are masters of their craft in those traditions.
Give a listen to vocalist Patti Austin giving a brief lesson on scat to the audience in the Netherlands at Edison Jazz/World in LantarenVenster:
The Master Class website has this description of scatting:
Musicologists trace the roots of scat singing to West African traditions, but modern scatting has origins in twentieth-century jazz history.
- Early origins: New Orleans pianist Jelly Roll Morton claimed he used scat singing in live performances as early as 1906. Other pioneering jazz musicians, like pianist Tony Jackson, featured scatting in their performances in the early twentieth century.
- 1920s: Trumpeter and jazz singer Louis Armstrong’s 1926 recording of “Heebie Jeebies” is one of the first prominent songs to employ scat syllables.
- 1940s–1950s: Scatting flourished during the bop and bebop eras of the 1940s and950s. Ella Fitzgerald utilized scat choruses in her jazz singing repertoire, as did other jazz performers like Dizzy Gillespie, Anita O’Day, and bandleaders Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. During this period, singers like Jon Hendricks and Eddie Jefferson developed a form of jazz singing called vocalese. However, vocalese is not the same as scatting; vocalese singers use recognizable words to mimic jazz.
- Today: Entertainer Mel Tormé used scatting in his jazz vocals in the 1960s and 1970s, and John Paul Larkin—also known as Scatman John—introduced scatting to dance, pop, and hip-hop sounds. Bobby McFerrin is a contemporary scat vocalist.
Cab Calloway actually sang a tune entitled “The Scat Song”:
I admit I grinned when I read this piece from The Guardian on Calloway and his lack of explanation when it comes to scatting:
No matter into what ecstasies Mr Cab Calloway urges his audiences at the Palladium he will sorely disappoint the musical scholars who go to him hopefully for an explanation of “scat” singing in terms of aesthetics or musical derivation. When asked today how scat singing came about, and how he devised his “hi-de-his,” “ho-de-hos,” and the other unintelligible sounds, half between a gurgle and a gargle, which he punctuates the rhythm of his “hot” jazz tunes, he shrugged his lean shoulders and said quite modestly that he did not know quite where they came from. They were, he said, improvisations which came into his head as he sang, and he was modest enough to shun the word “inspiration.” Certain sounds suited certain notes, certain rhythmic groups – that was all. And when he was asked how the word scat came about he would only say: “Well, you know, when you say ‘scat,’ meaning ‘get away’ – well it doesn’t mean ‘scat’ in that way,” and discreetly left it at that.
You can hear Louis Armstrong scat in this 1933 film clip from his tour in Denmark:
At the 1976 Grammy Awards ceremony, Mel Tormé asks Ella Fitzgerald “How do you explain to people what jazz is? They then proceed to bring the house down with an incredible scat duet.
Before I leave the subject of scat, I have to post this famous “Scat Duel” comedy sketch from Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, known for their comedy series Key & Peele:
As stated earlier, vocalese is often confused with scatting—and they are not the same.
James Zimmerman, a senior producer at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and a vocalese musician, gives an overview and history of vocalese through on song in this video produced for the museum:
Enjoying Jazz Music has this definition of vocalese as well as the difference between that and scatting:
Vocalese is a form of appreciation of the solo performances of a Jazz composition incorporating vocals. This music style has a root word “vocal”. It is actually lyrics of a melody which was originally part of an all instrumental composition or improvisation. Jazz critic Leonard Feather used this term to explain the song of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross album entitled “Sing a Song Basie.” He explained that the overdubbing of the song was using the voice of the three singers to replace the entire horn section of Count Basie Orchestra.
So, based on this explanation we can see the difference with scatting. Scat itself is a singing improvisation which incorporates nonsense syllable. An example of which is “doo wap ba dee do wap”. Try to sing the syllables using swing to get an idea of the style. But when we are speaking about this style, it is all an arranged lyrics which become a song. This style is originally developed by Eddie Jefferson. He used the tune of Coleman Hawkins entitled “Body and Soul.”
[…]
Pioneers of this genre would include names such as King Pleasures and Bab Gonzales. The group incorporating this style back in those days was the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross which had members who were John Hendricks, Dave Lambert, and Annie Ross. Other performer of this style include Bob Dorough, Giancomo Gates, Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau, Mark Murphy, Roger Miller, Manhattan Transfer, and Take6.
Where things get a bit confusing is the attribution of the beginnings or originators of the craft. There have been multiple contributors to what evolved as a jazz genre.
Here’s King Pleasure’s recorded version, followed by Eddie Jefferson performing it live.
Vocalese as an art form would be put on the map by the jazz trio of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross:
The premier jazz vocal act of all time, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross revolutionized vocal music during the late ’50s and early ’60s by turning away from the increasingly crossover slant of the pop world to embrace the sheer musicianship inherent in vocal jazz. Applying the concepts of bop harmonies to swinging vocal music, the trio transformed dozens of instrumental jazz classics into their own songs, taking scat solos and trading off licks and riffs in precisely the same fashion of their favorite improvising musicians. Vocal arranger Dave Lambert wrote dense clusters of vocal lines for each voice that, while only distantly related, came together splendidly. Jon Hendricks wrote clever, witty lyrics to jazz standards like “Summertime,” “Moanin'” and “Twisted,” and Ross proved to be one of the strongest, most dexterous female voices in the history of jazz vocals. Together Lambert, Hendricks & Ross paved the way for vocal groups like Manhattan Transfer while earning respect from vocalists and jazz musicians alike.
The act grew out of apartment jam sessions by Lambert, a pioneering arranger and bop vocalist who had appeared in groups led by Gene Krupa and Buddy Stewart — though he had also gained infamy leading a vocal choir on the disastrous “Charlie Parker with Voices” session recorded for Clef in 1953. That same year, Lambert met Jon Hendricks, who had similar vocal specialties that extended to lyrical changes. The pair debuted with a radically reworked version of “Four Brothers,” which featured lyrics by Hendricks and note-for-note duplications of the original solos by Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz and Woody Herman. They recorded a few other sides but were unsuccessful until a chance meeting with solo vocalist Annie Ross hit paydirt.
The first LP by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross was 1957’s Sing a Song of Basie. Though the trio originally intended to hire a complete vocal choir to supplement their voices, the general incompetence of the studio voices led them to multi-track their own voices. The results were excellent, incredible vocal recreations of complete solos from Basie classics like “One O’Clock Jump,” “Down for Double” and “Avenue C” with added lyrics by Hendricks. The next year’s follow-up, Sing Along with Basie, featured the bandleader himself and his group in a supporting role.
Here they are performing “Avenue C” live with Count Basie, a tune from their first album, “Sing a Song of Basie”:
I was a student at the High School of Music & Art in New York in the 1960s and a group of us used to gather outside the building and sing Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Our “rite of hipness” was the ability to sing “Cloudburst” all the way through. I can still do it.
To get more of an idea of instrumentals becoming vocals, give a listen to Miles Davis’ 1959 instrumental “Freddie Freeloader” which he recorded with John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Wynton Kelly, and Paul Chambers.
Here’s the “Freddie Freeloader” vocalese version, which Jon Hendricks recorded with friends Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, and George Benson:
Last, but not least (I’ll be posting lots more scat and vocalese to the comments section below) is this Jon Hendricks & Company full concert from 1982.
As the World of Jazz notes on Jon Hendricks and this concert:
Jon Hendricks, the originator of ‘vocalese’ which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs, was performing with his group Company in which he was sharing the vocal duties with wife Judith Hendricks, his daughter Michele Hendricks, and Bob Gurland.
Jon Hendricks is the most swinging bebop singer known in jazz history. He is clearly born to scat sing, easily maneuvering through difficult twists and turns in Charlie Parker solos, swinging through Count Basie’s book and singing Duke Ellington’s music with integrity and spirit.
The album ‘Love’ was a collaboration with daughter Michelle, wife Judith, and Bob ‘The Human Trumpet’ Gurland, which was released in February 1982. Consequently they toured Europe and visited the North Sea Jazz Festival in the summer of 1982 when this concert was recorded.In this concert John Hendricks, Michelle Hendricks, Judith Hendricks and Bob Gurland play repertoire including;‘Sandman’ (Count Basie)‘Caravan’ (Duke Ellington )‘I’ve got a mind to ramble’ (Alberta Hunter) featuring Bob Gurland ‘The Human Trumpet’ Gurland ‘One o’clock jump’ (Count Basie)
The concert was recorded at the North Sea Jazz Festival 17 July 1982 in The Hague, The Netherlands.
For more on vocalese, check out this 2020 story.
Please join me in the comments section below and post your favorite scatting and vocalese.
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