Good Recommendations For Scat Singing Please
Mel Torme was one of the few who could approach Ella's skill and was her biggest fan: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wzq8BqVnQJY The great John Hendricks: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul54NWmwLxs In a more modern bag: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q--qzL0TLgo For something really different: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eJuFDvH8wGs Enjoy! |
Sarah Vaughn and Mel Torme. Mel was an outstanding musician and the most underrated jazz singer in history.His perfect time showed how he listened to and respected the "guys in the band" . He had a truly amazing ability to instantaneously mimic the overtones of any instrument that came in. Never heard anything like it or ever expect to this side of heaven. To my jaded ears, great as Ella was. I could never shake the feeling she'd rather be somewhere else doing something else. With Sarah it seemed she wished for nothing but to sing and that the song would never end. |
. Fellas, I'm familiar with those who scat. I'm looking for suggestions of specific albums or songs by these artists where they actually scat. To go through Ella's & Torme's catalog to find examples of scatting would take forever. I'm hoping that you could point me to specific albums or songs. thanks, mitch . |
Mitch, start with " Mel Torme Swings Schubert Alley" on Verve 5166798 . A 1960 recording before he became the " Velvet Fog". Not a lot of scating on it but what there is constitutes a Master Class. Simply the best male vocal album I ever heard. The rest of my Torme is loaned out to a friend. Best scatting I ever heard was "Autumn Leaves" on Sarah's album "Crazy and Mixed UP" " a 1982 Pablo Release. A real jazz album. Another great album is "Sarah Vaughn with Clifford Brown" which is in lovely 1954 mono. Not too much scatting but what there is is sublime. " Lullaby of Birdland " in particular. Sarah was a good pianist and musician, from what I've heard a singer is who IS a musician gets to the heart of the matter better than someone who just has a good or even great voice . IMO she was the greatest of all female jazz vocalists. |
One of the few singers who could take Ella to school was the late great Qualli singer, Nusrat Fatah Khan. This is devotional music, gospel if you will. Sounds like a stretch or off topic, but if you listen you will be astonished. He released many records, but eh Real World release is readily available. |
Berkbob, you're going to have to do better than that ("could take Ella to school"). How so? This is an honest question and I am genuinely interested in understanding why you feel this way. There is value in all genres; particularly ethnic music. I listened to some of Khan's music and while I can't say that I was "astounded" I heard some real vocal skill. But, "take Ella to lunch?". Man, that's quite a comment. Putting aside purely technical prowess, one of the things that made Ella great was her ability to improvise (scat) over the harmonic changes of a tune with a command of harmony and the language of jazz like that of a good instrumentalist. Khan's music is harmonically very rudimentary with no changing harmony to speak of. Please explain your comment. Regards. |
Tania Maria - 66 year old jazz bandleader, composer, pianist and vocalist from Brazil who sings in both Portuguese and English (with a very pronounced Portuguese accent). Most of her music is very high energy, lots and lots of percussion. Her music leans a little more to the instrumental side than the vocal side but not by much. Even if you've never heard of her, trust me, Tania Maria is a true jazz master. She has recorded about 25 albums mostly on the Concord label. She does scat quite a bit on the 4 albums I have (The Lady from Brazil, Bela Vista, Come with Me, Outrageous). The Bela Vista album would be an excellent place to start with nine tracks (2 are covers and 7 are original compositions). Every one of the nine tracks involves scat singing, some a little, some a lot. |
