Vocalese

Vocalese is a style or genre of jazz singing wherein lyrics are written for melodies that were originally part of an all-instrumental composition or improvisation. Where 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 private language.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pioneers of vocalese include King Pleasure, Eddie Jefferson and Babs Gonzalez. The best-known practicioners are probably Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, which was made up of Jon Hendricks, Dave Lambert and Annie Ross. Ross's 1952 lyrics for the song "Twisted", a blues improvisation by saxophonist Wardell Gray, are considered a classic of the genre. Latter-day performers known for vocalese include Al Jarreau and Manhattan Transfer.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some performers, notably Slim Gaillard, Cab Calloway and Leo Watson, combine vocalese improvisations with scat singing.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Genre: A genre is a division of a particular form of art according to criteria particular to that form. In all art forms, genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries. Genres are formed by sets of conventions, and many works cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conve...

Jazz: :For other article subjects named Jazz see jazz (disambiguation)....

Singing: Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, often constrasted with speech. Air is expelled with the diaphragm as with ordinary breathing, and the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming. A piece of music that is sung is called a song; s...