Lecture 15

Vocal Jazz
Billie Holiday (1915 1959)

Born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915 in Baltimore, Maryland

Holiday is generally regarded as one of the greatest female jazz vocalists
Her professional pseudonym was taken from Billie Dove, an actress she admired,
and Clarence Holiday, her probable father
Nicknamed Lady Day by Lester Young (who she dubbed Prez)

Early Years
According to Holidays accounts, she was recruited by a brothel, worked as a
prostitute, and was eventually imprisoned for a short time
It was in Harlem in the early 1930s that she started singing for tips in various
night clubs
She was working at a club named Monettes in 1933 when she was discovered
by John Hammond
Hammond arranged for Holiday to make her recording debut on a 1933 Benny
Goodman date
She began recording under her own name in1936, producing a series of
extraordinary performances with groups comprising the Swing Eras finest
musicians
Strange Fruit
Holiday was recording for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was
introduced to Strange Fruit, a song based on a poem about lynching written
by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx
It was eventually heard by Barney Josephson, proprietor of Caf Society, an
integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village, who introduced it to Holiday
She performed it at the club in 1939, with some trepidation, fearing possible
retaliation
Holiday later said that the imagery in Strange Fruit reminded her of her
fathers death, and that this played a role in her persistence to perform it
When her producers at Columbia found the subject matter too sensitive,
Commodore Records Milt Gabler agreed to record it for his label
The Decca Years
In addition to owning Commodore Records, Milt Gabler was an A&R man for
Decca Records, and he signed Holiday to the label in 1944
Her first recording for Decca, Lover Man, was a song written especially for
her

Although its lyrics describe a woman who has never known love, its themea
woman longing for a missing loverand its refrain, Lover man, oh, where
can you be?, struck a chord in war-time America and the record became one
of her biggest hits
Holiday continued to record for Decca until 1950, including sessions with the
Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras, and two duets with Louis
Armstrong

Good Morning Heartache

Recorded June 7, 1956 in New York City
Personnel
Tony Scott (clarinet & musical director)
Paul Quinichette (tenor saxophone)
Charlie Shavers (trumpet)
Kenny Burrell (guitar)
Wynton Kelly (piano)
Aaron Bell (bass)
Lennie McBrowne (drums)
Later Years & Death
Holidays personal life was as turbulent as the songs she sang
Holiday began using hard drugs in the early 1940s
By the 1950s, Holidays drug abuse, drinking, and relations with abusive men
led to deteriorating health
In 1959, she was taken to Metropolitan Hospital in New York suffering from
liver and heart disease
Shortly after, she was placed under house arrest at the hospital for possession
Holiday remained under police guard at the hospital until she died from
cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 44

Ella Fitzgerald (1917 1996)

Born Ella Jane Fitzgerald on April 25, 1917 in Newport News, Virginia
Fitzgerald is known as the First Lady of Song
She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th Century
She is also widely considered to have been one of the supreme interpreters of the
Great American Songbook
With a vocal range spanning three octaves, she was noted for her purity of tone,
faultless phrasing and intonation, and a horn-like improvisational ability,
particularly in her scat singing

Early Years
In her youth, Ella wanted to be a dancer, though she loved listening to jazz
recordings of Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters

She made her singing debut at seventeen on November 21, 1934 at the Apollo
Theater on 25th Street in Harlem, New York
Competing in one of the earliest of its famous Amateur Nights she won the
first prize of $25
Shortly thereafter, she began swinging regularly with Chick Webbs Orchestra
at Harlems Savoy Ballroom
When Webb died in 1939, the band was renamed Ella Fitzgerald and Her
Famous Orchestra

Solo Career
The advent of bebop caused a major change in Fitzgeralds vocal style,
influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespies big band
It was in this period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major
part of her performance repertoire
The mid-1950s saw Ella become the first African-American to perform at the
Mocambo, after Marilyn Monroe had lobbied the owner for the booking
Shiny Stockings
Ella Fitzgerald with Count Basie and His Orchestra
Composed by Frank Foster
Oh, Lady Be Good
Recorded live at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1957

Sarah Vaughan (1924 1990)

Born Sarah Lois Vaughan on March 27, 1924 in Newark, New Jersey
Vaughans nicknames included Sassy and The Divine One
Although Vaughan is usually considered a jazz singer, she avoided classifying
herself as such

Vocal Style
Vaughan stuck throughout her career to the jazz-infused style of music that
she came of age with, only rarely dabbling in rock-era styles that usually did
not suit her unique vocal talents
While Vaughan was a proficient at scatting, the improvisatory aspect of her
art was focused more on ornamentation, phrasing and variation on melodies,
which were almost always jazz standards
Vaughan approached her voice more as a melodic instrument than a vehicle
for dramatic interpretation of lyrics, although the expressive qualities of her
style did accentuate lyrical meaning and she would often find unique and
memorable ways of articulating and coloring individual key words in a lyric
Key Largo
Reissued on the compilation album Jazz Profile: Sarah Vaughan

How High the Moon

Recorded live at Mister Kellys in Chicago on August 6, 1957
Personnel
Sarah Vaughan (vocals)
Jimmy Jones (piano)
Richard Davis (bass)
Roy Haynes (drums)

Mel Torme (1925 1999)

Melvin Howard Torm on September 13, 1925 in Chicago

He is best known as one of the great male jazz singers
His singing at New York's Copacabana led a local disc jockey, Fred Robbins, to
give him the nickname The Velvet Fog" thinking to honor his high tenor and
smooth vocal style, but Torm detested the nickname
He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and
television, and the author of five books
He composed the music for the classic holiday song The Christmas Song

Early Career
In 1943 he also formed the vocal quintet Mel Torm and His Mel-Tones,
modeled after Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers
The Mel-Tones were among the first jazz-influenced vocal groups
Later in 1947, Torm went solo
Torm made his movie debut in Frank Sinatras first film, the musical Higher
and Higher
He went on to sing and act in a number of films and television episodes
throughout his career, even hosting his own television show in 195152
His appearance in the 1947 film musical Good News made him a teen idol for
a few years
Collaboration with Marty Paich
From 1955 to 1957, Torm recorded seven jazz vocal albums for Red Clyde's
Bethlehem Records, all with groups led by Marty Paich, most notably with
The Marty Paich Dektette
These recordings proved a creative peak for Torm and for Paich, a leading
figure in the West Coast jazz of the time
Torm and Paich reunited for two albums in the 1980s
Too Close for Comfort
By Mel Torm with the Marty Paich Dek-tette
Released January 21, 1960
Personnel
Mel Torm (vocals)

Art Pepper (alto saxophone)

Bill Perkins (tenor saxophone)
Bill Hood (baritone saxophone)
Vince DeRosa (French horn)
Al Porcino & Stu Williamson (trumpets)
Frank Rosolino (trombone)
Red Callender (tuba)
Marty Paich (piano)
Joe Mondragon (bass)
Mel Lewis (drums)

On the Street Where You Live

By Mel Torm with the Marty Paich Dek-tette
Released January 21, 1960
Personnel
Mel Torm (vocals)
Art Pepper (alto saxophone)
Bill Perkins (tenor saxophone)
Bill Hood (baritone saxophone)
Vince DeRosa (French horn)
Al Porcino & Stu Williamson (trumpets)
Frank Rosolino (trombone)
Red Callender (tuba)
Marty Paich (piano)
Joe Mondragon (bass)
Mel Lewis (drums)

Vocalese

Vocalese is a style of jazz singing wherein lyrics are written for melodies that
were originally part of an all-instrumental composition or improvisation
Whereas scat singing uses improvised nonsense syllables in solos, vocalese uses
lyrics, either improvised or set to pre-existing instrumental solos
The word vocalese is a play on the musical term vocalise and the suffix
-ese, meant to indicate a sort of language
Most vocalese lyrics are entirely syllabic, as opposed to melismatic leading to the
use of many words sung quickly in a given phrase, especially in the case of bebop

Eddie Jefferson (1918 1979)

Eddie Jefferson was a jazz vocalist and is credited with inventing vocalese
Perhaps his best-known song is Moodys Mood for Love, though it was first
recorded by King Pleasure, who cited Jefferson as an influence
Jeffersons songs Parkers Mood and Filthy McNasty were also hits
Jefferson was shot and killed leaving a club in 1979

The suspect was later identified as a disgruntled dancer that Jefferson had once
fired from a gig
The suspect did not have enough evidence against them to be held in jail, and was
later acquitted

King Pleasure (1922 1982)

Born Clarence Beeks on March 24, 1922 in Oakdale, Tennessee

Pleasure was an early master of vocalese
King Pleasure first achieved popularity by singing the Eddie Jefferson vocalese
classic Moodys Mood for Love

Parkers Mood
Written by Eddie Jefferson over Charlie Parkers solo on Parkers Mood
Moodys Mood for Love
Moodys Mood for Love is saxophonist James Moodys instrumental solo on
the song Im in the Mood for Love
Later, jazz singer Eddie Jefferson wrote lyrics to this improvisation by Moody
This particular arrangement of the song did not come to be known by its now
common title of Moodys Mood for Love until King Pleasure released a very
popular vocal version featuring Blossom Dearie in 1952
The lyrics are often incorrectly attributed to King Pleasure because he was the
first to record it
However, when Pleasure was asked to write more lyrics to solos he confessed
that he had not written this one
Impact of Moodys Mood for Love
Another repercussion of Jeffersons lyrical marriage to Moodys solo was the
impact it had on jazz singer Jon Hendricks
The story goes that Hendricks was sitting in a caf when the King Pleasure
recording of Moodys Mood came on the jukebox
According to Hendricks, he had been writing unpopular songs for some
time, but when he heard the recording and realized that it was a saxophone
solo with words he decided to change his approach to songwriting: I didnt
have to stop at 32 bars. Now I could write lyrics for all the parts in the
orchestra

Jon Hendricks (b. 1921)

Jon Hendricks was born September 16, 1921 in Newark, Ohio

He is a jazz lyricist and singer
He is considered one of the originators of vocalese
He is considered one of the best practitioners of scat singing

In 1957, he teamed with jazz singers Dave Lambert and Annie Ross to form the
legendary vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross

A vocalese trio formed in 1957
The trio perfected the art of vocalese and took it around the world
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross were voted Best Vocal Group in the Down Beat
Readers Poll from 1959 to 1963
Annie Ross left the group in 1962, replaced by vocalist Yolande Bavan
The renamed Lambert, Hendricks and Bavan made three live albums before
disbanding in 1964
Any hopes of a reunion of the original trio ended with Lambert's 1966 death
in a car accident
Sing a Song of Basie
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross multi-tracked their voices and recorded the album
Sing a Song of Basie in which they sang lyrics by Hendricks to the full
arrangements of the Count Basie Orchestra
Ross sang all the trumpet parts, Hendricks sang the saxophone parts and
Lambert sang the trombone parts
With the exception of a small rhythm section all 13 horn parts were
reproduced by the three voices dubbed over
Sing A Song of Basie was awarded a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998
Everyday
From the album Sing a Song of Basie
Featuring the Basie rhythm section
Twisted
The Lambert, Hendricks & Ross song Twisted featured Annie Ross lyrics set
to a Wardell Gray melody
It was later featured in Woody Allens 1997 film Deconstructing Harry
It has been covered by Joni Mitchell and Bette Midler

Sources
History and Tradition of Jazz by Thomas E. Larson
Jazz for Dummies by Dirk Sutro
Jazz a film by Ken Burns
http://en.wikipedia.org

Discography
1. Billies Bounce by Eddie Jefferson
from the album Vocal Ease
32 Jazz 32123
2. Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday
from the album Lady Sings the Blues
Verve 314 521 429-2
3. Good Morning Heartache by Billie Holiday
from the album Lady Sings the Blues
Verve 314 521 429-2
4. Shiny Stockings by Ella Fitzgerald
from the album Ken Burns Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald
UMG Recordings
5. Oh, Lady Be Good by Ella Fitzgerald
from the album Ken Burns Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald
UMG Recordings
6. Key Largo by Sarah Vaughan
from the album Jazz Profile: Sarah Vaughan
Blue Note Records
7. How High the Moon by Sarah Vaughan
from the album Sarah Vaughan at Mister Kellys
Verve B0009404-02
8. Too Close for Comfort by Mel Torme & the Marty Paich Dek-tette
from the album Mel Torme Swings Shubert Alley
Verve 821 581-2 YH
9. On the Street Where You Live by Mel Torme & the Marty Paich Dek-tette
from the album Mel Torme Swings Shubert Alley
Verve 821 581-2 YH
10. Parkers Mood by King Pleasure
from the album Moodys Mood for Love: Golden Classics
Collectable Records COL-CD 5197
11. Moodys Mood for Love by King Pleasure
from the album Moodys Mood for Love: Golden Classics
Collectable Records COL-CD 5197
12. Everyday by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
from the album Sing a Song of Basie
Impulse!
13. Twisted by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
from the album The Hottest New Group in Jazz
Sony