A good selection of vocal jazz available locally
By Paul W. Blair
JAKARTA (JP): What makes a vocalist a jazz singer? I'd say it's the ability to imitate the phrasing and even the timbre of a wind instrument played in the jazz style.
The breathing, pacing and delivery of a jazz singer tends to resemble that of a jazz saxophonist or trumpet player rather than more conventional vocalists. Jazz singers are likely to use the song as a point of departure, much as any jazz improviser does. Yet scatting -- wordless vocalizing -- isn't a necessary element. While some of the singers mentioned below do scat, others never do.
Maybe the most acceptable definition would simply be this: jazz singers are singers who jazz listeners most enjoy listening to.
As it happens, there's quite a good assortment of jazz vocal cassettes at local music shops, all but one issued in Indonesia on the Jakarta-based Legend label, which has secured the local rights to issue recordings that originally appeared on such U.S. labels as Prestige, Riverside, Pablo, Milestone and Fantasy.
Cassettes, I maintain, are a wise buy for those who want to sample unfamiliar music since they're less than one-fourth the cost of the average compact disc, which usually sound only marginally better and may contain only the same amount of music. Remember to punch out the two little tabs on the rims, so you won't accidentally record over the music; local producers never do that for you in advance. And do try to put a label of your own on each tape; Indonesian-made cassettes usually come without any indication of what's on them.
First-class jazz singing started, of course, with Louis Armstrong. While the eleven tunes on Mack the Knife certainly aren't Louis at his creative peak of a decade or two earlier, they're all brightened by his particular brand of magic. This set was recorded live at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, soon after Louis' appearance in High Society, and includes two songs featured in that movie: Now You Has Jazz and High Society Calypso.
Joe Turner, in his later years, had almost no teeth and no vocal range left. In addition, he'd ballooned so much that he had to perform sitting down. Yet his huge hollow voice remained as compelling as ever, the epitome of the Kansas City blues style he helped to established in the Thirties.
On The Midnight Special, recorded in 1979, Turner is hampered not at all by the totally undistinguished band backing him. The last track, Stoop Down Baby, a loping medium-tempo blues in which Turner strings together a series of totally unrelated but outrageously salacious blues couplets, is worth the price of the album all by itself.
Two cassettes on Legend preserve the good times enjoyed by an enthusiastic crowd at Marla's Memory Lane Supper Club in Los Angeles over the course of two nights in May, 1986. On the bandstand were two distinctive jazz vocal stylists: Etta James (probably better known to the general public as an R&B star) and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, along with a real crackerjack of a band kicked along by organ player Jack McDuff.
Of the two cassettes (Blues in the Night and The Late Show), I prefer the former because it includes two masterful vocal performances by Cleanhead (Kidney Stew and a hilarious Railroad Porter Blues) plus a fine duet with Ms. James on Please Send Me Someone to Love. Both tapes are good, though. Play them loud on a decent stereo and you'll feel part of the crowd at Marla's yourself.
Don't confuse Etta James with Etta Jones, a singer with a far less heated style whose Don't Go To Strangers (1960) contains several songs that jazz singers rarely attempt: I Love Paris, On the Street Where You Live and even Yes Sir, That's My Baby. She brings something different to each one with a style somewhat reminiscent of late-period Billy Holiday. The title song is especially compelling, as is the tasty instrumental backing which highlights Frank Wess' flute. This one is highly recommended, too.
The white Mississippi-born singer-pianist Mose Allison has had a large and loyal following ever since the Fifties when he began performing blues originally recorded by black artists. These days, he records mostly original material (his White Boy Who Stole the Blues on a recent album is a wry comment on that earlier practice). But Mose Allison's Greatest Hits collects songs from 1957-59: his versions of Sonny Boy Williamson's Eyesight to the Blind, Willie Dixon's The Seventh Son, Percy Mayfield's Lost Mind and thirteen more, including some pop standards like Blueberry Hill and Don't Get Around Much Anymore. I honestly can't imagine anyone not liking what Mose does.
Jazz phrasing
No singer in this survey better illustrates my point about jazz phrasing than Abbey Lincoln. To hear the way she moves from one note to another, much as a trumpet soloist might, deliberately smearing a bit here and there and carefully altering her vocal tone from phrase to phrase, is to understand that the best jazz, vocal and instrumental, involves a certain degree of subtlety that singers like Dianne Schuur lack completely. While Abbey Lincoln never over-sings a song, she always manages to get her message across most feelingly.
The all-star group that accompanies her on Afro-Blue (originally released in 1960) provides backing that's all the more effective because it's so minimal. Songs include classics like Softly As In a Morning Sunrise and Lost in the Stars, along with several original Abbey Lincoln tunes that she turns into instant classics. This is surely one of the finest vocal albums ever. Grab it while you can.
Performances in Jakarta this week by Jon Hendricks & Company have demonstrated how exciting vocal jazz can be. Works by the vocal jazz forefather Eddie Jefferson are collected on Letter From Home, which dates from 1962 and includes the words he penned to fit such jazz standards as Billie's Bounce and A Night in Tunisia. Though his lyrics were never as coherent, literate or funny as those Hendricks has written over the years, this is a set worth hearing because Jefferson's trick voice is so appealing and his sense of time so keen.
There are eleven very good performances by Chris Connor on the album Chris Connor Classics, recorded in 1986. The participation of a hot quintet led by alto saxophonist Paquito d'Rivera makes a fine contrast to Connor's essentially cool, no-strain approach. Songs include Laura, Blame It On My Youth and We'll Be Together Again.
On The Tony Bennett-Bill Evans Album, pianist Evans shares equal billing with singer Bennett. He deserves it. Now well into his fifth decade as a music great, Bennett is even finding an audience among the MTV crowd. But some of his biggest fans insist that this set of 1975 duo performances is his best. There are splendid treatments of Young and Foolish, But Beautiful, My Foolish Heart, The Touch of Your Lips and five other songs. It's a pity that this pair only pooled their talents once.
Chet Baker played trumpet very well. But his breathy singing voice won him even more attention. Chet Baker Sings collects a dozen vocals from 1958, when his voice sounded especially boyish. Nightbird (released on an Australian label called ESMMC and available locally) captures Baker live on one 1986 night at Ronnie Scott's London jazz club. It hardly sounds like the same person, given the rigors of the life Baker led in the interim. Actually, I prefer the latter because it includes a bit more trumpet playing.
Finally, there's September Ballads, a set recorded in 1987 by Mark Murphy. Here's a singer who seems to make a point of avoiding the well-worn standards of repertoire. Instead, he prefers to polish little-known gems by good composers. This particular collection includes material by writers as diverse as Michael Franks, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Willie Nelson and Steve Allen, among others. Of all the singers working in the jazz field today, I know of no one with better technical skills and -- even more important -- more refined musical tastes than Mark Murphy. Local listeners who enjoy this far-ranging collection will also want to catch him some night next week when he performs at the Jakarta Blue Note.
For an interesting sampling of jazz vocal styles -- nine singers doing fourteen songs -- pick up The Jazz Vocals, a locally-assembled anthology on Legend that includes two tracks each by Mark Murphy, Chris Connor and Sarah Vaughan, as well as contributions from Eddie Jefferson, Ella Fitzgerald, Flora Purim and a host of others.