Originating in vocal jazz, scat singing or scatting is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, https://scat69.com/ nonsense syllables or with out phrases in any respect.[2][3] In scat singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms utilizing the voice solely as an instrument slightly than a speaking medium. That is different from vocalese, which uses recognizable lyrics which are sung to pre-existing instrumental solos.

Characteristics[edit]

Structure and syllable alternative[edit]

Though scat singing is improvised, the melodic strains are often variations on scale and arpeggio fragments, inventory patterns and riffs, as is the case with instrumental improvisers. As nicely, scatting normally incorporates musical structure. All of Ella Fitzgerald's scat performances of "How High the Moon", for instance, use the same tempo, start with a chorus of a straight reading of the lyric, move to a "specialty chorus" introducing the scat chorus, after which the scat itself.[4] Will Friedwald has in contrast Ella Fitzgerald to Chuck Jones directing his Roadrunner cartoon-each uses predetermined formulation in revolutionary methods.[4]

The deliberate choice of scat syllables is also a key ingredient in vocal jazz improvisation. Syllable choice influences the pitch articulation, coloration, and resonance of the performance.[5] Syllable selection also differentiated jazz singers' private kinds: Betty Carter was inclined to use sounds like "louie-ooie-la-la-la" (mushy-tongued sounds or liquids) while Sarah Vaughan would favor "shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee" (fricatives, plosives, and open vowels).[6] The choice of scat syllables can be used to mirror the sounds of various instruments. The comparability of the scatting styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan reveals that Fitzgerald's improvisation mimics[a] the sounds of swing-era massive bands with which she performed, while Vaughan's mimics[b] that of her accompanying bop-period small combos.[10]

Humor and quotation[edit]

Humor is one other vital ingredient of scat singing. Bandleader Cab Calloway exemplified the usage of humorous scatting.[11] Other examples of humorous scatting embrace Slim Gaillard, Leo Watson, and Bam Brown's 1945 tune "Avocado Seed Soup Symphony," wherein the singers scat variations on the phrase "avocado" for much of the recording.[12]

In addition to such nonsensical makes use of of language, humor is communicated in scat singing by means of the usage of musical citation. Leo Watson, who carried out before the canon of American standard music, incessantly drew on nursery rhymes in his scatting. This is named using a compression.[13] Similarly, Ella Fitzgerald's scatting, for example, drew extensively on widespread music. In her 1960 recording of "How High the Moon" live in Berlin, she quotes over a dozen songs, together with "The Peanut Vendor," "Heat Wave," "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes."[14]

History[edit]

Origins[edit]

Improvisational singing of nonsense syllables occurs in many cultures, corresponding to diddling or lilting in Ireland, German yodeling, Sámi joik, and talking in tongues in numerous religious traditions.

Although Louis Armstrong's 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies" is usually cited as the primary modern song to make use of scatting,[15][16] there are various earlier examples.[17] One early grasp of ragtime scat singing was Gene Greene who recorded scat choruses in his music "King of the Bungaloos" and several other others between 1911 and 1917.[18] Entertainer Al Jolson scatted through just a few bars in the course of his 1911 recording of "That Haunting Melody."[19] Gene Greene's 1917 "From Here to Shanghai," which featured faux-Chinese scatting,[18] and Gene Rodemich's 1924 "Scissor Grinder Joe" and "A few of As of late" also pre-date Armstrong.[20] Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards scatted an interlude on his 1923 "Quaint Love" in lieu of using an instrumental soloist.[21][22] One of the early feminine singers to use scat was Aileen Stanley, who included it at the end of a duet with Billy Murray of their hit 1924 recording of "It Had to be You" (Victor 19373).

Jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton credited Joe Sims of Vicksburg, Mississippi, because the creator of scat across the flip of the 20th century.[23] In a dialog between Alan Lomax and Jelly Roll Morton, Morton recounted the historical past of scat:[2]

Lomax: "Well, what about some extra scat songs, that you just used to sing way back then?" Morton: "Oh, I'll sing you some scat songs. That was approach earlier than Louis Armstrong's time. By the best way, scat is one thing that a lot of people do not perceive, and they start to consider that the primary scat numbers was ever performed, was carried out by one among my hometown boys, Louis Armstrong. But I need to take the credit score away, since I know better. The first man that ever did a scat number in history of this nation was a man from Vicksburg, Mississippi, by the identify of Joe Sims, an outdated comedian. And from that, Tony Jackson and myself, and several extra grabbed it in New Orleans. And located it was fairly good for an introduction of a tune." Lomax: "What does scat mean?" Morton: "Scat doesn't suggest anything but just one thing to offer a song a taste."[2]

Morton additionally as soon as boasted, "Tony Jackson and myself had been using scat for novelty again in 1906 and 1907 when Louis Armstrong was still in the orphan's house."[24] Don Redman and Fletcher Henderson also featured scat vocals in their 1925 recording of "My Papa Doesn't Two-Time No Time" five months prior to Armstrong's 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies."[25]

Heebie Jeebies[edit]

It was Armstrong's February 1926 efficiency of "Heebie Jeebies," nonetheless, that is taken into account the turning level for the medium.[15] From the 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies" arose the techniques that will type the foundation of trendy scat.[15] In a probably apocryphal story,[26] Armstrong claimed that, when he was recording "Heebie Jeebies" along with his band The hot Five, his sheet music fell off the stand and onto the bottom.[17] Not understanding the lyrics to the music, he invented a gibberish melody to fill time, expecting the cut to be thrown out in the long run, but that take of the music was the one launched:[17]

"I dropped the paper with the lyrics-right in the midst of the tune. . . And I didn't want to cease and spoil the record which was transferring alongside so wonderfully . . . So when i dropped the paper, I immediately turned back into the horn and began to scatting . . . Just as nothing had occurred . . . After i finished the document I just knew the recording folks would throw it out . . . And to my surprise they all came operating out of the controlling sales space and stated-'Leave That In.'"[17]

Armstrong's "Heebie Jeebies" became a national bestseller and, consequently, the observe of scatting "grew to become carefully related to Armstrong."[19] The track would function a model for Cab Calloway, whose thirties scat solos inspired George Gershwin's use of the medium in his 1935 opera Porgy and Bess.[27]

Widespread adoption[edit]

Following the success of Armstrong's "Heebie Jeebies," plenty of widespread songs featured scat singing. In June 1927, Harry Barris and Bing Crosby of bandleader Paul Whiteman's "The Rhythm Boys" scatted on several songs together with "Mississippi Mud," which Barris had composed.[28]

On October 26, 1927, Duke Ellington's Orchestra recorded "Creole Love Call" that includes Adelaide Hall singing wordlessly.[29] Hall's wordless vocals and "evocative growls" have been hailed as serving as "one other instrument."[30] Although creativity must be shared between Ellington and Hall as he knew the type of efficiency he wished, Hall was the one who was in a position to supply the sound.[29] A 12 months later, in October 1928, Ellington repeated the experiment in one in every of his variations of "The Mooche," with Getrude "Baby" Cox singing scat after a muted similar trombone solo by Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton.[31]

During the nice Depression, acts such as the Boswell Sisters usually employed scatting on their data, together with the high complexity of scatting at the identical time, in harmony.[32] An example is their model of "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)."[32] The Boswell Sisters' "inventive use of scat singing was a source for Ella Fitzgerald."[32] As a younger lady, Fitzgerald usually practiced imitating Connee Boswell's scatting for hours.[33]

Fitzgerald herself would change into a talented scat singer and later claimed to be the "finest vocal improviser jazz has ever had," and critics since then have been in nearly common settlement with her.[1] During this nineteen thirties period, other famous scat singers included Scatman Crothers[34]-who would go on to movie and tv fame[34]-and British dance band trumpeter and vocalist Nat Gonella[35] whose scat-singing recordings had been banned[c] in Nazi Germany.[35]

Later growth[edit]

Over the years, as jazz music developed and grew in complexity, scat singing did as properly. In the course of the bop period of the 1940s, more extremely developed vocal improvisation surged in recognition.[27] Annie Ross, a bop singer, expressed a typical sentiment among vocalists at the time: "The [scat] music was so thrilling, everyone wished to do it."[36] And lots of did: Eddie Jefferson, Betty Carter, Anita O'Day, Joe Carroll, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Jon Hendricks, Babs Gonzales, Mel Torme and Dizzy Gillespie were all singers in the idiom.[27]

Free jazz and the affect of world musicians on the medium pushed jazz singing nearer to avant-garde art music.[27] In the 1960s Ward Swingle was the product of an unusually liberal musical education. He took the scat singing idea and applied it to the works of Bach, creating The Swingle Singers. Scat singing was additionally used by Louis Prima and others within the tune "I Wan'na Be Such as you" in Disney's The Jungle Book (1967).

The bop revival of the 1970s renewed curiosity in bop scat singing, and young scat singers seen themselves as a continuation of the traditional bop tradition. The medium continues to evolve, and vocal improvisation now usually develops independently of modifications in instrumental jazz.[27]

Through the mid-1990s, jazz artist John Paul Larkin (higher often called Scatman John) renewed interest within the genre briefly when he began fusing jazz singing with pop music and electronica, scoring a world-wide hit with the track "Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)" in 1994. Vocal improviser Bobby McFerrin's performances have proven that "wordless singing has traveled far from the ideas demonstrated by Louis Armstrong, Gladys Bentley, Cab Calloway, Anita O'Day, and Leo Watson."[37]

Vocal bass[edit]

Vocal bass is a form of scat singing that is meant to vocally simulate instrumental basslines which might be typically carried out by bass players. A method mostly utilized by bass singers in a cappella groups is to simulate an instrumental rhythm part, usually alongside a vocal percussionist or beatboxer. Some notable vocal bass artists are Tim Foust, Adam Chance, Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, Reggie Watts, Alvin Chea, Joe Santoni, Avi Kaplan, Matt Sallee, and Geoff Castellucci.

Use in hip hop[edit]

Many hip hop artists and rappers use scat singing to give you the rhythms of their raps.[38] Tajai of the group Souls of Mischief states the next within the book The way to Rap: "Sometimes my rhythms come from scatting. I often make a scat sort of skeleton after which fill within the phrases. I make a skeleton of the circulation first, and then I put words into it."[38] The group Lifesavas describe an identical course of.[38] Rapper Tech N9ne has been recorded demonstrating exactly how this technique works,[39] and gangsta rapper Eazy-E used it extensively in his music "Eazy Street."

Historical theories[edit]

Some writers have proposed that scat has its roots in African musical traditions.[27] In much African music, "human voice and instruments assume a sort of musical parity" and are "at times so close in timbre and so inextricably interwoven inside the music's fabric as to be nearly indistinguishable."[41] Dick Higgins likewise attributes scat singing to traditions of sound poetry in African-American music.[42] In West African music, it's typical to convert drum rhythms into vocal melodies; frequent rhythmic patterns are assigned specific syllabic translations.[27] However, this theory fails to account for the existence-even within the earliest recorded examples of scatting-of free improvisation by the vocalist.[27] It is subsequently extra seemingly that scat singing advanced independently in the United States.[27]

Others have proposed that scat singing arose from jazz musicians' follow of formulating riffs vocally before performing them instrumentally.[40] (The adage "If you cannot sing it, you can't play it" was common in the early New Orleans jazz scene.[40]) On this method, soloists like Louis Armstrong grew to become able to double as vocalists, switching effortlessly between instrumental solos and scatting.[40]

Scat singing additionally resembles the Irish/Scottish follow of lilting or diddling, a kind of vocal music that entails utilizing nonsensical syllables to sing non-vocal dance tunes.[43]

Critical evaluation[edit]

Scat singing can allow jazz singers to have the same improvisational opportunities as jazz instrumentalists: scatting may be rhythmically and harmonically improvisational without concern concerning the lyric.[44] Especially when bebop was growing, singers discovered scat to be the most effective approach to adequately interact in the efficiency of jazz.[36]

Scatting could also be desirable as a result of it does not "taint the music with the impurity of denotation."[45] Instead of conveying linguistic content material and pointing to one thing outdoors itself, scat music-like instrumental music-is self-referential and "d[oes] what it mean[s]."[46] Through this wordlessness, commentators have written, scat singing can describe issues beyond phrases.[45][47] Music critic Will Friedwald has written that Louis Armstrong's scatting, for example, "has tapped into his own core of emotion," releasing emotions "so deep, so actual" that they are unspeakable; his words "bypass our ears and our brains and go directly for our hearts and souls."[47]

Scat singing has by no means been universally accepted, even by jazz fans. Writer and critic Leonard Feather presents an excessive view; he once said that "scat singing-with solely a couple exceptions-ought to be banned."[36] He additionally wrote the lyrics to the jazz music "Whisper Not," which Ella Fitzgerald then recorded on her 1966 Verve release of the identical title. Many jazz singers, including Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, and Dinah Washington, have averted scat completely.[48]

Jazz portal
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References[edit]

Notes[edit]

^ In her 1949 efficiency of "Flyin' Home," Fitzgerald alternates the bilabial "b" and "p" plosives with the alveolar plosive "d".[7] The "b" and "p" sounds are formed similarly to the sounds of jazz wind instruments, which sound by the release of built-up mouth air stress onto the reed, while the "d" sound is similar to the tonguing on jazz brass devices.[7] William Stewart, a Seattle researcher, has proposed that this alternation simulates the trade of riffs between the wind and brass sections that is widespread in huge bands.[8]^ Sarah Vaughan tends to make use of the fricative consonant "sh" along with the low, back of the mouth "ah" vowel. The "sh" closely resembles the sound of brushes, common in the bop era, on drum heads; the "ah" vowel resonates similarly to the bass drum.[9]^ Scott 2017, p. 302: In thirties "Nazi Germany, the data of British trumpeter and bandleader Nat Gonella had been banned there and scat singing was a criminal offence."[35]Citations[edit]

^ a b Friedwald 1990, p. 282^ a b c Hill 2014^ Edwards 2002, p. 622^ a b Friedwald 1990, p. 145^ Berliner 1994, p. 125^ Berliner 1994, pp. 125-126^ a b Stewart 1987, p. Sixty five^ Stewart 1987, p. 66^ Stewart 1987, p. 69^ Stewart 1987, p. 74.^ Crowther & Pinfold 1997, p. 129^ Edwards 2002, p. 627^ Friedwald 1990, p. 140^ Edwards 2002, p. 623^ a b c Crowther & Pinfold 1997, p. 32^ Edwards 2002, p. 618^ a b c d Edwards 2002, pp. 618-619^ a b Edwards 2002, p. 619^ a b Gioia 2011, p. 59^ Edwards 2002, p. 619^ Edwards 2002, p. 620^ Friedwald 1990, p. 16^ Nicholson 1993, p. 89^ Edwards 2002, p. 620^ Edwards 2002, p. 619^ Giddins 2000, p. 161^ a b c d e f g h i Robinson 2007^ Hendricks 2003, p. 66^ a b Williams 2003, p. 113^ Hentoff 2001^ Lawrence 2001, p. 136^ a b c Wilson 1981, p. Four^ Nicholson 1993, pp. 10-12.^ a b New York Times 1986^ a b c Scott 2017, p. 302^ a b c Crowther & Pinfold 1997, p. 130^ Crowther & Pinfold 1997, p. 135^ a b c Edwards 2009, p. 114^ Godfrey 2010^ a b c d Berliner 1994, p. 181^ Berliner 1994, p. 68^ Higgins 1985^ Ó Nualláin 2002, pp. 306-307^ Crowther & Pinfold 1997, p. 132^ a b Grant 1995, p. 289^ Leonard 1986, p. 158^ a b Friedwald 1990, p. 37^ Giddins 2000, p. 162Bibliography[edit]

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