Jazz or Ersatz: The
Criteria of Authentic Jazz Singing*, an excerpt
The
best sources for arriving at a definition of jazz singing are the
classic jazz singers themselves: Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita
O'Day, Sarah Vaughan, and Carmen McRae,
who were born between the years 1915 and 1924 and whose lives paralleled
the history of jazz. These women developed their art within the evolving
jazz form, which can be said to have been “born” in 1917 and to have
reached maturity in the mid-1960s, and, like the reciprocal nature of
the music itself, were both inspired by and inspirational to the
musicians with whom they worked. To listen to their singing is to hear
jazz singing in its authentic form. The techniques and characteristics
of their singing define the art.
Though it has undergone many permutations since its inception, jazz -
instrumental or vocal - is basically characterized by two elements:
improvisation and swing.
However, the complex art of singing jazz
cannot be defined by these elements alone. The classic jazz singers do
more than simply improvise and swing. The most basic requirement is a
beautiful vocal instrument. Though there have been great jazz
singers whose voices were not particularly beautiful - Louis
Armstrong and Billie Holiday are obvious examples - most of the
classic singers have exceptionally lovely voices. Sarah Vaughan,
for example, had a multi-octave range and could have had an operatic
career if she had had the opportunity and
motivation.
More often than
not, however, the voices of the great jazz singers are from the lower
register, that range being most pleasing to the ear.
The second attribute is a highly developed sense
of time. Elemental to jazz is a complex,
driving rhythm, produced most often by the bass, drums, and piano - the
standard rhythm section of a jazz group. Though her back-up group
produces the beat, the singer sets the tempo. The accompanying
musicians correlate with her tempo, which may not synchronize exactly
with the beats they play. Some singers intentionally sing behind or
ahead (less frequently) of the beat, as part of their interpretation of
the song. That is not to say that they are not keeping good time;
they are merely not hitting the beats at the same time as the rhythm
section. Billie Holiday and Carmen McRae, both famous for their
lyric interpretation, sang behind the beat in order to achieve an
emotional suspense. As part of having a good sense of time, a jazz
singer is able to sing in various tempos, from fast bebop tunes to
languid ballads. Not only does she have an unerring sense of time, but the
classic jazz singer also
improvises. She approaches a song creatively, expressing her own
musicality and personality by embellishing and embroidering the song in
various ways. She may reconstruct the melody, singing notes differently
from how they are written. However, these notes cannot be just any
notes; they must make musical sense. An example of simple improvising is
to sing a note an octave above or below what’s written. Or, she may
completely reconstruct the melody, recomposing it spontaneously.
Needless to say, the improvised notes will need to have a musical logic
of their own, or the effect will be jarring.
Some singers improvise a great deal, and
others to a more subtle degree. Sarah Vaughan could completely
deconstruct a melody, yet she never lost touch with the written notes.
Her improvisations were highly elaborate, yet always logical.
Though Carmen McRae improvised consistently, in nearly every
line, her improvisations were understated, rather than obvious.
However, improvising the melody is not the only way a jazz
singer may reinterpret a song. She may play with the time, altering
the tempo or singing ahead or behind the beat, for example. Like her
contemporary, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O’Day was a master at
improvising time, as can be heard in her tour de force rendition of
“Sweet Georgia Brpwn" (from the documentary
"Jazz on a Summer's Day," the Newport Jazz Festival, 1958.)
In addition to
playing with time, a jazz singer may phrase (group) the lyrics her own
way, either to express her interpretation of the song’s meaning or
simply to enhance the rhythm. Also, a jazz singer may employ any of an
actor’s vocal devices: changingdynamics, pitch, tone, or
emphasis. She may also, as CarmenMcRae was apt to do, add
an aside or comment as part of her interpretation of the song’s story.
While a jazz singer is improvising, keeping or setting the tempo,
she is also interacting with her back-up group. Though she may
have a leader among the trio or quartet – usually the piano player – she
must communicate with him what she wants the group to do: lay out (cease
playing), take solos, add a chorus, speed up the tempo, end the song, or
whatever. He then will pass on her wishes to the rest of the group. This
communication will usually occur through subtle facial expressions, hand
gestures, or musical cues not obvious to the audience.
Unless a singer is scatting - using sounds instead of
words, a technique Ella Fitzgerald
took to a fine art.
A singer is
also concerned with expressing the meaning and emotional content of a
song’s lyrics. More than anything else, singing is communicating.
The singer is the messenger, the means by which the meaning of the song
is conveyed to the audience. She must phrase the lyrics – grouping words
in meaningful clusters - to convey the literal and emotional meaning of
the lyrics. Her improvisational and tempo decisions are, of course,
subject to her interpretation of the song’s message. Phrasing,
improvisation, and tempo contribute not only to her lyric
interpretation, but also to her melodic expression. Some singers place
more emphasis on lyric interpretation - Billie Holiday and Carmen
McRae, especially; and others on melodic improvisation - Sarah
Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald were masters at using their voices as
instruments.
A beautiful voice, a superior sense of
rhythm, a highly developed musicality, and a sensitivity to lyrics -
these are the qualities of an authentic jazz singer. But there is
another attribute that is much more difficult to describe. The term
most often used for this indefinable quality is “soul.” A singer
is often said to possess“ soul” or to have sung a song “soulfully. A
singer with soul puts a great deal of feeling into her singing,
which is then transferred to the listener. No singer was able to
convey emotion like Billie Holiday.
The great jazz singers - Billie
Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day, Sarah Vaughan, and Carmen McRae -
learned the language of jazz from direct experience, through performing
and interacting with the innovators of the music, musical geniuses such
as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and
Miles Davis. The jazz language, which has as its elements improvisation
and rhythm, but also involves reciprocity of communication - “call and
response” - and emotional expressiveness, or to use the jazz term,
“soul,” became as natural to these singers as speaking. Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day,
Sarah Vaughan, and Carmen McRae. are the measure of jazz singing.
