Jazz Singers
- - - That Other Jazz Instrument
Great Jazz Singers Crooning Thru' The Decades From New Orleans To New York. Famous Jazz Songs By George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Lorenz Hart ... How Jazz Singing Evolved With Instrumental Developments And Also Away From Them ...
Hi, Jazz Fan:
1 Jazz Singing vs Instrument Playing
The voice of jazz singers is regarded as another jazz musical instrument. Leading instrument players strive to make their music sound like the human voice. Singers of jazz songs, on the other hand, do their utmost to sound like jazz instruments.
Then there is scat singing, or scatting, wherein singers improvise with wordless syllables - imitating the "voice" of instruments.
2 Early Jazz Singers
The art of jazz singing evolved almost in tandem with developmets in the instrumental music.
In the 1920s, in New Orleans and elsewhere, singers formed an integral part of the jazz band, making only occasional appearances.
In the 1930s and 1940s, as the bands began to feature star instumentalists, the spotlight fell in solo singers, too.
Of course, the true jazz singer from the 1920s was none other than Louis Armstrong, who sang as famously as he blew his trumpet. He also used and popularised scatting, improvising melodies with wordless made-up syllables.
3 Singing and Swing to Songwriting
The big band swing era of the 1930s and 1940s inspired many singers to croon the many great songs written by renowned songwriters - Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rogers ...
And as jazz singing increased in popularity, many jazz bands were built around singers as star soloists, just as was done for famous instrumental players. Songsters gave their personal interpretation to songs and stamped each tune with their special voice.
4 Bopping and Singing
In the 1940s, bebop or bop, was in vogue. This new jazz idiom featured very fast tempos.
Jazz singing further evolved to match the frenetic music.Songsters took on fast melodies and continued to improvise. No song was sung the same way twice, and single words were stretched over several notes. And scat singing was used to generate wordless sounds to match the jazz instruments.
In the 1950s, the jazz instrumental scene was in disarray with hard bop, a variant of bebop, playing dark brooding music.
But, this time, jazz singers moved against the groove and continued with the big band style and the freeform of bebop jazz.
In addition, singers from Brazil injected Latin flavours to make American jazz more interesting and romantic.
5 Now and the Future
In the 1960s and 1970s, new jazz styles developed in instrumental jazz.
Jazz singers, however, chose to remain within the traditional context. They concentrated on refining the art of jazz singing and interpretation, and kept close to the melodies of songs.
In the 1980s, the "young lions" of instrument players engaged in reviving traditional jazz.
Jazz singers embarked on a similar revival in jazz songs in the 1990s. Instead of going for far-out improvisation, the new generation of songsters sang great songs with gusto and distinctive styles.
The future of jazz singing thus looks promising!
FURTHER INFORMATION ON JAZZ SINGERS
4.1 JAZZ LYRICS For All
Jazz Lyrics Of All Description - Written By Renowned Songwriters And Variously Interpreted & Sung By Some Of The Top Female Jazz Singers: All Here To Help You Sing-Along.
4.2 VOCAL JAZZ CLIPS
These Vocal Jazz Clips Feature The Distinctive & Beautiful Voices Of Past And Present Female Jazz Vocalists - Crooning Evergreens For Everyone.
4.3 GENERAL JAZZ LYRICS
More Lyrics Of Varied Jazz Songs
|
