This article is about the use of nonsense syllables in jazz music. For the use of nonsense syllables in music generally, see Non-lexical vocables in music. Non-lexical vocables, which may be mixed with meaningful text are used in a wide variety of music

Ella Fitzgerald, a famous scat singer^[1]

In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with nonsense words and syllables or without words at all. Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25 1917 &ndash June 15 1996 also known as " Lady Ella " and the "First Lady of Song" is considered one of the most influential Jazz Singing can be defined by the instrumental approach to the voice where the singer can match the instruments in their stylistic approach to the lyrics improvised or otherwise or Musical Improvisation is the creative activity of immediate Musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.

Characteristics

Structure and syllable choice

Though scat singing is improvised, the melodic lines are often variations on scale and arpeggio fragments, stock patterns and riffs, as is the case with instrumental improvisers. In Popular music genres such as rock music a lick is "a stock pattern or phrase" consisting of a short phrase, or series of notes In Music, a riff is an Ostinato figure a repeated Chord progression, pattern refrain or melodic figure, often played by the Rhythm As well, scatting usually incorporates musical structure. The term musical form refers to two related concepts the type of composition (for example a musical work can have the form of a Symphony, a All of Ella Fitzgerald's scat performances of "How High the Moon," for instance, use the same tempo, begin with a chorus of a straight reading of the lyric, move to a "specialty chorus" introducing the scat chorus, and then the scat itself. Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25 1917 &ndash June 15 1996 also known as " Lady Ella " and the "First Lady of Song" is considered one of the most influential " How High the Moon " is a Jazz standard with Lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. 2266-Tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl or TEMPO is the Chemical compound with the formula (CH23(CMe22NO ^[2] Will Friedwald has compared Ella Fitzgerald to Chuck Jones directing his Roadrunner cartoon—each uses predetermined formulas in innovative ways. Will Friedwald (born 1961 is an American Author and Music critic. Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones ( September 21, 1912 &ndash February 22, 2002) was an American Animator, ^[2]Among the greatest exponents of the scat style was Mel Torme, a child prodigy drummer who went on to become one of the most influential jazz performers of the 20th century. Torme's effortless scatting was built on his outstanding big band arrangement and multi-instrumentalist skills.

The deliberate choice of scat syllables also is a key element in vocal jazz improvisation. Syllable choice influences the pitch articulation, coloration, and resonance of the performance. In Music, articulation refers to the direction or performance technique which affects the transition or continuity on single note or between multiple notes or In Phonetics and Phonology, a sonorant is a Speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the Vocal tract. ^[3] Syllable choice also differentiated jazz singers' personal styles: Betty Carter was inclined to use sounds like "louie-ooie-la-la-la" (soft-tongued sounds) while Sarah Vaughan would prefer "shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee" (fricatives, stop consonants, and open vowels). Betty Carter ( May 16, 1929 &ndash September 26, 1998) was an American Jazz Singer who was renowned for her Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as ^[4] The choice of scat syllables can also be used to reflect the sounds of different instruments. The comparison of the scatting styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan reveals that Fitzgerald’s improvisation mimics the sounds of swing-era big bands with which she performed, while Vaughan’s mimics that of her accompanying bop-era small combos. Sarah Lois Vaughan (nicknamed " Sassy " and " The Divine One ") ( March 27 1924, &ndash April The Swing Era was the period of time (1935&ndash1946 when Big band Swing music was the most popular music in America. A big band is a type of Musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late Bebop or bop is a form of Jazz characterized by fast Tempos and Improvisation based on Harmonic structure rather than Melody ^[5][a]

Another method of scat singing is practiced by guitarists who scat along with their solos note for note. Notable practitioners include George Benson, Sheldon Reynolds, Rik Emmett, Prince, and Jack Black. George Benson (b March 22 1943, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania) is an American musician whose recording career began at the age of twenty-one Sheldon Reynolds ( 10 December 1923 &ndash 25 January 2003) was an American Television producer best known for his Richard Gordon (Rik Emmett (born July 10 1953 in Toronto Ontario) is a vocalist Guitarist, and founding member of the Canadian Prince Rogers Nelson (born June 7 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American musician Thomas Jack Black Jr (born August 28 1969 is an American Actor, Comedian and Musician.

Humor

Humor is another important element of many scat performances. Humour or humor (see spelling differences) is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke Laughter and provide Amusement Cab Calloway exemplified the use of humorous scatting. Cabell "Cab" Calloway III ( December 25, 1907 &ndash November 18, 1994) was a famous American Jazz Singer ^[6] Another classic example of humorous scatting is Slim Gaillard, Leo Watson, and Bam Brown's 1945 "Avocado Seed Soup Symphony," in which they scat variations on the word "avocado" for much of the recording. Bulee "Slim" Gaillard ( January 4, 1916 &ndash February 26, 1991) was an American jazz singer songwriter pianist and guitarist Leo Watson ( 27 February 1898 &ndash 2 May 1950) was an American Jazz Vocalese Singer, Drummer ^[7] In addition to such nonsensical uses of language, humor is communicated in scat singing through the use of musical quotation. For the Wikipedia quotation templates see:CategoryQuotation templates. Leo Watson, who performed before the canon of American popular music, frequently drew on nursery rhymes in his scatting. A nursery rhyme is a traditional Song or Poem taught to young children originally in the nursery. ^[8] Ella Fitzgerald, who performed later, was able to draw extensively on popular music in her singing. For example, in her classic 1960 recording of "How High the Moon" live in Berlin, she quotes over a dozen songs, including "The Peanut Vendor", "Heat Wave", "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes". " How High the Moon " is a Jazz standard with Lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. The Peanut Vendor (original title El Manisero) is a popular Cuban Song in the style of a street-seller known as a Son pregón " Heat Wave " is a popular song It was written by Irving Berlin for the 1933 musical As Thousands Cheer. A Tisket A Tasket is a Nursery rhyme from the 19th century In 1938 the rhyme was used as the basis for a song written by Al Feldman and Ella Fitzgerald " Smoke Gets in Your Eyes " is a Show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for their 1933 Operetta ^[9]

Technical difficulty

Vocal improvisation is arguably more difficult than instrumental improvisation, making scat singing technically challenging. According to Jeff Pressing, a psychologist who has studied improvisation extensively, vocal improvisers lack the benefit of "feedback redundancy" that instrumental improvisers have. ^[10] All improvisers use feedback from their playing in order to judge what to play next; the more feedback that exists, the easier the improviser's task is. For the instrumentalist, aural, visual, proprioceptive (i. e. body awareness), and touch feedback work in tandem. For the vocalist, however, only aural and proprioceptive feedback are available. Pressing uses this discrepancy to account for violin improvisation being more difficult than sax improvisation, and vocal improvisation more difficult still: "For every first-rate scat-singer in the world," he writes, "there must be 500 talented jazz saxophonists. "^[10]

History

"That Haunting Melody" excerpt

Al Jolson's scatting during his 1911 recording of "That Haunting Melody" has been cited as one of the earliest examples of scat singing. Al Jolson (May 26 1886 October 23 1950 born in Lithuania, Russian Empire, was a highly acclaimed American singer comedian and actor and the first openly — 322 KB

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Origins

Though Louis Armstrong's 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies" is often cited as the first song to employ scatting, there are many earlier examples. Louis Armstrong (August 4 1901 &ndash July 6 1971 nicknamed Satchmo or Sachimo and Pops, was an American Jazz Trumpeter Songs " Heebie Jeebies " is the name of more than one melody ^[11] One early master of ragtime scat singing was Gene Greene who recorded scat choruses in his song "King of the Bungaloos" and several others between 1911 and 1917. Eugene Delbert Greene ( June 9 1881 &ndash April 5 1930) better known as Gene Greene was an American Entertainer Entertainer Al Jolson even scatted through a few bars in the middle of his 1911 recording of "That Haunting Melody". Al Jolson (May 26 1886 October 23 1950 born in Lithuania, Russian Empire, was a highly acclaimed American singer comedian and actor and the first openly Gene Green’s 1917 "From Here to Shanghai," which featured faux-Chinese scatting, and Gene Rodemich's 1924 "Scissor Grinder Joe" and "Some of These Days" also pre-date Armstrong. ^[11] Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards scatted an interlude on his 1923 "Old Fashioned Love" in lieu of using an instrumental soloist. ^[11][12] Even Jelly Roll Morton boasted he was responsible for the practice: "I must take that credit away from [Armstrong]," he once said, "because I know better. Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton ( ca September 20, 1885 or October 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941) was an Tony Jackson and myself were using scat for novelty back in 1906 and 1907 when Louis Armstrong was still in the orphan’s home. This article is about the United States composer For the UK bass guitarist see Tony Jackson (bass player. "^[11] Don Redman and Fletcher Henderson also featured scat vocals in their recording of "My Papa Doesn’t Two-Time No Time" five months prior to Armstrong’s 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies. Donald Matthew Redman ( July 29, 1900, Piedmont, West Virginia - November 30, 1964, New York) was an American Fletcher Hamilton Henderson Jr ( December 18, 1897 &ndash December 28, 1952) was an American pianist bandleader Arranger "^[11]

"Heebie Jeebies" excerpt

Louis Armstrong's recording of "Heebie Jeebies" was the most influential early example of scat singing. Louis Armstrong (August 4 1901 &ndash July 6 1971 nicknamed Satchmo or Sachimo and Pops, was an American Jazz Trumpeter — 168 KB

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It was Armstrong's 1926 performance, however, that was the turning point for the medium. ^[13] According to Armstrong, when he was recording the song "Heebie Jeebies," soon to be a national bestseller, with his band The Hot Five, his music fell to the ground. Not knowing the lyrics to the song, he invented a gibberish melody to fill time, expecting the cut to be thrown out in the end, but somehow the song was ultimately included on the album. ^[11] The story is widely believed to be apocryphal,^[14] but the influence of the recording was nonetheless enormous. Louis Armstrong served as a model for Cab Calloway, whose 1930s scat solos inspired Gershwin's use of the medium in his Porgy and Bess;^[15] it was from the 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies" arose the techniques that would form the foundation of modern scat. Cabell "Cab" Calloway III ( December 25, 1907 &ndash November 18, 1994) was a famous American Jazz Singer George Gershwin (September 26 1898 &ndash July 11 1937 was an American Composer. Porgy and Bess is an Opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, Libretto by DuBose Heyward, and ^[13]

Later development

On October 26, 1927 Duke Ellington's Orchestra recorded "Creole Love Call" featuring Adelaide Hall singing wordlessly. Events 740 - An Earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing much damage and death Year 1927 ( MCMXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29 1899 &ndash May 24 1974 was an American Composer, Pianist, and Bandleader. Adelaide Hall ( 20 October 1901 &ndash 7 November 1993) was an American -born British Jazz Singer "She sounds like a particularly sensitive growl trumpeter", according to Nat Hentoff. Growling is a Multiphonic technique of playing Wind instruments ( Saxophone, Trumpet) Nat Hentoff (born June 10, 1925) is an American Historian, Novelist, Jazz Critic, and Columnist for The creativity must be shared between Ellington and Hall as he knew the style of performance he wanted, but she was the one who was able to produce the sound. In 1932, Ellington repeated the experiment in one of his versions of "The Mooche", with Baby Cox singing scat after a muted similar trombone solo by Tricky Sam Nanton. Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton ( February 1, 1904 - July 20, 1946) was a famous Trombonist with the Duke Ellington Bands such as The Boswell Sisters regularly employed scatting on their records, including the high complexity of scatting at the same time, in harmony. The Boswell Sisters were a Close harmony singing group that attained national prominence in the USA in the 1930s An excellent example would be their version of It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing). " It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing " is a 1931 composition by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Irving Mills, now accepted as a

Over the years, as jazz music developed and grew in complexity, scat singing did as well. During the bop era, more highly-developed vocal improvisation surged in popularity. ^[15] Annie Ross, a bop singer, expressed a common sentiment among vocalists at the time: "The [scat] music was so exciting, everyone wanted to do it. "^[16] And just about everyone did: Ella Fitzgerald, Eddie Jefferson, Betty Carter, Anita O’Day, Joe Carroll, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Jon Hendricks, Babs Gonzales, and Dizzy Gillespie all were important singers in the idiom. ^[15] Fitzgerald once hailed herself as the “best vocal improviser jazz has ever had,” and critics since then have been in almost universal agreement with her. ^[1] In the 1960s, traditional scatting gave way to the free-jazz movement, which allowed scat singers to include sounds in their repertoire that had before been considered non-musical, such as screams, cries, and laughter. Free jazz and the influence of world musicians on the medium pushed jazz singing nearer to avant-garde art music. ^[15] The bop revival of the 1970s renewed interest in bop scat singing, and young scat singers viewed themselves as a continuation of the classic bop tradition. The medium continues to evolve, and vocal improvisation now often develops independently of changes in instrumental jazz. ^[15]

Protopunk band The Stooges songs would often descend into scat singing at the end or midway through track in their albums Raw Power and Fun House with the lead singer Iggy Pop spouting strange vocal imporovisations and screams. The Stooges are an American rock band that was active from 1967 to 1974 then reformed in 2003 Raw Power is a 1973 album by American Protopunk group The Stooges. For other uses see Funhouse (disambiguation Fun House is the second album by the American rock band The Stooges. James Newell Osterberg Jr (born April 21, 1947) better known by his Stage name Iggy Pop, is an American rock singer Songwriter

Jazz artist Scatman John renewed interest in the genre briefly during the mid-90s. John Paul Larkin ( March 13, 1942 — December 3, 1999) better known as Scatman John (sometimes credited as Scatman This has continued to a degree in recent years, following popular television series The Mighty Boosh's use of scat singing as a recurring theme, along with the scat-related singing style of crimping. The Mighty Boosh, colloquially referred to as The Boosh, is the collective name for the creators of the British television situation comedy written by and starring

Vocal improviser Bobby McFerrin’s recent performances have shown that “wordless singing has traveled far from the concepts demonstrated by Louis Armstrong, Gladys Bentley, Cab Calloway, Anita O’Day, and Leo Watson”. ^[17]

Music historical explanations

Paul Berliner has suggested that scat singing arose from instrumental soloists like Louis Armstrong (pictured) formulating jazz riffs vocally. Paul Berliner can refer to Paul Berliner (ethnomusicoligist, a professor at Duke University Paul Berliner (trader, a trader who settled Louis Armstrong (August 4 1901 &ndash July 6 1971 nicknamed Satchmo or Sachimo and Pops, was an American Jazz Trumpeter ^[18]

Some writers have proposed that scat has its roots in African musical traditions. The music of Africa is as vast and varied as the continent's many regions, nations and Ethnic groups Although there is no distinctly pan-African ^[15] In much African music, "human voice and instruments assume a kind of musical parity" and are "at times so close in timbre and so inextricably interwoven within the music’s fabric as to be nearly indistinguishable. "^[19] Dick Higgins likewise attributes scat singing to traditions of sound poetry in African-American music. Dick Higgins (born Cambridge England 1938 died Quebec Canada 1998 was a composer poet printer and early Fluxus artist Sound poetry is a form of literary or Musical composition in which the Phonetic aspects of Human speech are foregrounded at the expense of more conventional ^[20] In West African music, it is typical to convert drum rhythms into vocal melodies; common rhythmic patterns are assigned specific syllabic translations. ^[15] However, this theory fails to account for the existence—even in the earliest recorded examples of scatting—of free improvisation by the vocalist. ^[15] It is therefore more likely that scat singing evolved independently in the United States. ^[15]

Others have proposed that scat singing arose from jazz musicians' practice of formulating riffs vocally before performing them instrumentally. ^[18] (The adage "If you can’t sing it, you can’t play it" was common in the early New Orleans jazz scene. ^[18]) In this manner, soloists like Louis Armstrong became able to double as vocalists, switching effortlessly between instrumental solos and scatting. ^[18]

Critical assessment

Scat singing can allow jazz singers to have the same improvisational opportunities as jazz musicians: scatting can be rhythmically and harmonically improvisational without concern about destroying the lyric. ^[21] Especially when bebop was developing, singers found scat to be the best way to adequately engage in the performance of jazz. ^[16]

Scatting may be desirable because it does not "taint the music with the impurity of denotation". ^[22] Instead of conveying linguistic content and pointing to something outside itself, scat music—like instrumental music—is self-referential and "d[oes] what it mean[s]. "^[23] Through this wordlessness, commentators have written, scat singing can describe matters beyond words. ^[22][24] 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 real" that they are unspeakable; his words "bypass our ears and our brains and go directly for our hearts and souls". Will Friedwald (born 1961 is an American Author and Music critic. ^[24]

Various psychological and metaphysical theorists have instead proposed that vocal improvisation allows for revelations from the soul’s depths. ^[25] Musician and lecturer Roberto Laneri has proposed a theory of improvisation based on "different states of consciousness" that draws on the Jungian model of the collective unconscious. Collective Unconscious or known to laymen as Collective Subconscious is a term of Analytical psychology, Coined by Carl Jung. ^[25] The music stemming from Laneri’s improvisatory "consciousness expansion" tends to be vocal, as the voice is regarded as the "primal instrument". ^[25]

Scat singing has never been universally accepted, even by jazz enthusiasts. Writer and critic Leonard Feather offers an extreme view: he once said that "scat singing—with only a couple exceptions—should be banned. "^[16] Many of the finest jazz singers, including Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, and Dinah Washington, have avoided scat entirely. ^[26] Jazz singers Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, and Anita O’Day are at times cited as examples of vocalists who should have avoided scat singing. ^[26]

See also

• List of scat singers
• Non-lexical vocables in music
• Vocalese (jazz vocal improvisation using lyrics instead of nonsense syllables)

Notes

References

Works cited

• Berliner, Paul (1994), Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-04381-4 . Paul Berliner can refer to Paul Berliner (ethnomusicoligist, a professor at Duke University Paul Berliner (trader, a trader who settled The University of Chicago Press is the largest University press in the United States
• Crowther, Bruce & Pinfold, Mike (1997), Singing Jazz, London: Miller Freeman Books, ISBN 0879305193 . Miller Freeman Inc was a San Francisco based publisher of trade books and business magazines as well as a manager of trade and industry expositions
• Edwards, Brent Hayes (2002), “Louis Armstrong and the Syntax of Scat”, Critical Inquiry 28 (3): 618-649, ISSN 0093-1896 . Inquiry''''' is a Peer-reviewed journal in the Humanities published out of the University of Chicago Press. An International Standard Serial Number ( ISSN) is a unique eight-digit number used to identify a print or electronic Periodical publication. Brief excerpt available online.
• Friedwald, Will (1990), Jazz Singing: America's Great Voices from Bessie Smith to Bebop and Beyond, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0684185229 . Will Friedwald (born 1961 is an American Author and Music critic. Charles Scribner's Sons is a publisher The firm published Scribner's Magazine for many years
• Giddins, Gary (2000), Rhythm-A-Ning: Jazz Tradition and Innovation, Da Capo Press, ISBN 0306809877 . Gary Giddins (Born March 21, 1948) critic author director best known for his longtime work with The Village Voice. Da Capo Press, a Publishing company with offices in New York City, Cambridge Massachusetts, Philadelphia and Emeryville California
• Grant, Barry Keith (1995), “Purple Passages or Fiestas in Blue? Notes Toward an Aesthetic of Vocalese”, in Gabbard, Krin, Representing Jazz, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, ISBN 9780822315940 . Duke University Press is a book publisher and a part of Duke University.
• Higgins, Dick (1985), “A Taxonomy of Sound Poetry”, in Kostelanetz, Richard & Scobie, Stephen, Precisely Complete, Archae Editions, ISBN 0932360637, <http://www.ubu.com/papers/higgins_sound.html> . Dick Higgins (born Cambridge England 1938 died Quebec Canada 1998 was a composer poet printer and early Fluxus artist Richard (Cory Kostelanetz ( 14 May, 1940, New York City) is a prolific American Artist, Author and Critic. Stephen Scobie (born 31 December 1943) is a Canadian Poet, Critic, and Scholar.
• Leonard, Neil (Spring-Summer 1986), “The Jazzman’s Verbal Usage”, Black American Literature Forum 20 (1/2): 151-159, ISSN 0148-6179 . An International Standard Serial Number ( ISSN) is a unique eight-digit number used to identify a print or electronic Periodical publication.
• Pressing, Jeff (1988), “Improvisation: Methods and Models”, in Sloboda, John, Generative Processes in Music, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0198508465 . John Sloboda (b June 13th 1950 is the Executive Director of the Oxford Research Group, an NGO that seeks to develop non-violent approaches to national and international
• Robinson, J. Bradford, “Scat Singing”, in Macy, L. , New Grove Dictionary of Music Online, <http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?from=az&section=music.24717> . The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an Encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians Accessed October 30, 2007. Events 637 - Antioch surrenders to the Muslim forces under Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of Iron bridge. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
• Stewart, Milton L. (1987), “Stylistic Environment and the Scat Singing Styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan”, Jazzforschung/Jazz Research 19: 61-76, ISSN 0075-3572 . An International Standard Serial Number ( ISSN) is a unique eight-digit number used to identify a print or electronic Periodical publication.