Let's cover jazz singing first, since it is very, very uncomplicated (and it comes first in the title of this post).
There are really only two elements that combine to make a good jazz singer, and we can cover the first element in three words: just sing pretty. The mistake many contemporary "jazz singers" make today is in their misguided approach: "I have to sound 'jazzy.'" So, instead of just singing pretty and carrying the melody and letting the jazz combo that's playing behind them provide the real jazz element, they try to sing in a 'jazzy' style, and they end up sounding like they mostly listen to contemporary pop music (because they do). Their idea of "jazzy" is not much more than a parody of some of the more popular recordings of Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, and (ugh) Bobby Darin's rendition of "Mack the Knife." In fact, that recording of Bobby Darin's is exactly what I'm talking about.
Obviously, just singing pretty applies mostly to the slow and medium tempo numbers. But what about singing something that needs more energy, like "Mack the Knife"? You can't just croon that song. How do you make it sound authentic as a jazz singer?
The difference between contrived and authentic when it comes to singing jazz is also very uncomplicated and is the second element: YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO JAZZ. A LOT. The reason that Ella and Tony and Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday could sing jazz so well is because they were immersed in it. It wasn't just something they happened to hear occasionally in movie soundtracks. And what exactly were they hearing more than anything else? Instrumental jazz. They got the sound and the feel of the horns and the drums and the bass in their blood; they absorbed jazz, real jazz (see my first post in this category), into the way they thought and breathed and phrased. So when they opened their mouths to sing, it was right there.
If you want to sing jazz but never or rarely listen to it, you'll never be more than a poser. This is true for any genre of music you wish to perform.
Now for scat singing. It's also not very complicated.
"What?!" you say. "Scat singing is uncomplicated??"
Quite. And you will understand why in a moment. It comes back to what I was just saying about being immersed in the genre.
If you want to learn how to scat, here is what you DON'T do: listen to Louis and Ella. I have heard so many mediocre scat singers, and I know why they are mediocre. Because they thought listening to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald (widely considered the masters of the art form) would be the best way to learn. So very wrong.
Louis' idea of scat singing was simply to do an improvised horn solo with the human voice. The syllables he used were always secondary to the phrase or lick he wanted to execute, and the phrasing and the licks came straight from what he knew as a horn player. Louis didn't "invent" scat singing. As soon as jazz improvisation was born, jazz musicians were scat singing in their heads or to each other in rehearsals - "Yeah, play the lick this way: ba-buh-duh bop bop BOW!" Louis was apparently the first to capitalize on the idea that this could be an entertaining, legitimate way of performing an improvised solo.
Now, take Ella. She wasn't an instrumentalist. However, since the moment she joined Chick Webb's orchestra and throughout her entire career, she was surrounded by some of the best jazz instrumentalists in the world. In her early career, Ella would be sitting next to the band while they did their instrumental numbers, absorbing (whether she was trying to or not) the sound of a good tenor sax solo, a good trombone solo, or a good trumpet or piano solo. Louis had pioneered scat singing, giving other jazz musicians (instrumentalists and singers alike) the green light to have a go at it. So, when Ella opened her mouth to scat, it was already in there, ready to come out. It was IN HER BLOOD, because she had been immersed in the jazz idiom. She was known to mimic Louis in her concerts, and did it very well (and it always drew good-natured laughs as she wasn't mocking him). But when Ella was scatting in earnest, you weren't hearing Ella trying to scat like Louis. Let me just hit the nail on the head right here: you weren't hearing a jazz vocalist trying to sound like another jazz vocalist who sounded like an improvised horn solo. With Ella, you were hearing the culmination of her years of hearing great instrumental jazz improvisation practically dropped in her lap.
You want to be a good scat singer? Get out your Count Basie CDs and start learning to sing along with the instrumental solos. It takes time and repetition before you'll be able to sing one all the way through, and if you really don't love jazz, you'll probably lose interest after awhile. On the other hand, your enjoyment of and love for jazz may just shoot through the roof. And remember, don't worry about the syllables you use. They will provide themselves as you learn to imitate the phrasing and nuances of the solos. Change octaves as necessary. Don't look know, but you're absorbing.
Before you know it you'll be able to sing through every solo on the CD, as well as sing along with the band arrangements. It's a lot of fun, actually. Don't think for a moment that you have to sit in front of your stereo for hours on end to do this. No. Have the CD playing in the background while you do the dishes or while driving to work or to the store. Sometimes you'll tune in and start singing along with passages you're beginning to remember; sometimes you'll be talking to someone and not really listening, but you'll be absorbing it nonetheless. And of course there will be those times when you actually have a few moments where you're sitting in your living room and really concentrating on it and rewinding to catch a missed phrase. It's really no different from learning any other CD you're familiar with. It's all about repetition and absorbtion. And as you do this, you will be informing your jazz singing as well (without really trying) with an authenticity it never had before.
Musically, I am not known as a vocalist. I can be an excellent addition to a chorus, and I can actually do a decent job singing some musical theatre styles (though hardly anyone knows this because I just don't do it anymore). My voice is not spectacular in any way, but for theatrical work it is at least utilitarian (which isn't really saying much, I know). But I can say this unequivocally and without boasting where my voice is concerned (and NOBODY knows this about me, because they've never heard me) - when it comes to scat singing, I am one of the best. Take anyone in the business who has been hailed as a great scat singer, and I could easily hold my own on stage with them anytime, anywhere. With a lot of them, I could probably scat their ass right off the stage. How can I say that? Because most of today's scat singers sound like a vocalist trying to sound like a vocalist who sounds like a horn player.
I learned my scatting from listening (for the last 33 years) to the leaders and sidemen of the Basie, Miller, Goodman, Ellington, Kenton, and Dorsey bands. I improvise like a horn player - a really good one. Don't believe me? Set up a challenge. I'm ready.
But this isn't about me. YOU want to learn to sing jazz and to scat. I would recommend you take my advice. It's simple, and it works.
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