Post by Vince on Nov 26, 2023 13:07:46 GMT -5
OK, putting on my music nerd hat for a bit here, so please indulge me.
In improvisational jazz, songs go like this: you have a basic melody/chorus (a stated theme), and then the various instrumentalists take turns improvising solos using the underlying musical structure of the melody. Some solos may go on for nine or ten choruses before the player passes the melody off to the next musician in the group. Up and coming jazz musicians still learning the craft spend a lot of time transcribing the solos of famous players and analyzing those solos against the chord "changes" that support the melody so as to leanr how it's done.
Then there is also "big band" jazz, which is closer to a traditional orchestra where the ensemble plays a long tune with all the parts are written out, with very little improvisation except some small designated solo breaks. Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, and Woody Herman (along with many others) all had big bands, which were very popular in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.
You may have also heard of something called "scat" singing, where a singer improvises a complex and rapidly moving solo as though she is a musical instrument, using random syllables instead of words (see Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme).
Enter three singers: Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross. They came up with a new concept (mostly Jon Hendricks' invention) called "vocalese" - sort of like scat singing, except you take a transcribed instrumental solo, and then create lyrics to match that solo and tell a story. It was good, but Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross wanted to go a step further - writing vocalese for a big band chart with lots of instruments. Take a chart like Count Basie's "Every Day I Have the Blues", featuring Joe Williams singing lyrics from an old blues standard:
Lots of instruments playing lots of notes, right? How do you cover all that with just three voices? Well, by multitracking and overdubbing (basically recording yourself singing multiple parts and stitching them all together)! Here's LH&R's studio version of the chart, with an explanation of what instrumental parts are being sung:
Pretty darn incredible, right, especially for 65 years ago? I love the way they even imitate how instrumentalists perform trills and shakes on extended notes.
But that's in the magic of the recording studio, where anything is possible with technology. What if you're performing it live, say at the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1959, and you only have three voices (four if you drag Joe Williams in to sing his own part)? They pull it off quite well (and have Count Basie at the piano to boot):
I first heard LH&R on a late night Jazz program in Atlanta that used to run on the classical radio station from 8pm to midnight on Saturdays. Still one of my favorite jazz groups.
In improvisational jazz, songs go like this: you have a basic melody/chorus (a stated theme), and then the various instrumentalists take turns improvising solos using the underlying musical structure of the melody. Some solos may go on for nine or ten choruses before the player passes the melody off to the next musician in the group. Up and coming jazz musicians still learning the craft spend a lot of time transcribing the solos of famous players and analyzing those solos against the chord "changes" that support the melody so as to leanr how it's done.
Then there is also "big band" jazz, which is closer to a traditional orchestra where the ensemble plays a long tune with all the parts are written out, with very little improvisation except some small designated solo breaks. Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, and Woody Herman (along with many others) all had big bands, which were very popular in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.
You may have also heard of something called "scat" singing, where a singer improvises a complex and rapidly moving solo as though she is a musical instrument, using random syllables instead of words (see Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme).
Enter three singers: Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross. They came up with a new concept (mostly Jon Hendricks' invention) called "vocalese" - sort of like scat singing, except you take a transcribed instrumental solo, and then create lyrics to match that solo and tell a story. It was good, but Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross wanted to go a step further - writing vocalese for a big band chart with lots of instruments. Take a chart like Count Basie's "Every Day I Have the Blues", featuring Joe Williams singing lyrics from an old blues standard:
Lots of instruments playing lots of notes, right? How do you cover all that with just three voices? Well, by multitracking and overdubbing (basically recording yourself singing multiple parts and stitching them all together)! Here's LH&R's studio version of the chart, with an explanation of what instrumental parts are being sung:
Pretty darn incredible, right, especially for 65 years ago? I love the way they even imitate how instrumentalists perform trills and shakes on extended notes.
But that's in the magic of the recording studio, where anything is possible with technology. What if you're performing it live, say at the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1959, and you only have three voices (four if you drag Joe Williams in to sing his own part)? They pull it off quite well (and have Count Basie at the piano to boot):
I first heard LH&R on a late night Jazz program in Atlanta that used to run on the classical radio station from 8pm to midnight on Saturdays. Still one of my favorite jazz groups.