Scat

"Anyone who attempts to sing extemporaneously, that is scat, will tell you that the hardest aspect of that kind of singing is to stay in tune. You are wondering all over the scales, the notes coming out of your mouth a millisecond after you think of them." ---Mel Torme.

Scat is the art of creating an instrumental-style improvisation vocally. This requires a vocabulary of vowels and consonants related less to identifiable words and more to the tone and articulation of jazz instrumentalists such as in the trumpet-like "Oop-Pop-a-Da" by Babs Gonzales or Sarah Vaughan's saxophonic "Shulie-abop." first done on records by Louis Armstrong.

Scat is most closely associated by the general public with Ella Fitzgerald and her many imitators. Brought to an early peak of perfection by Leo Watson who, by introducing occasional real words inspired the development of a vocal-orchestra.

Louis Armstrong’s improvisational approach to written lyrics, mixing, jumbling, and reinventing the words along expressive musical lines, echoed new directions in jazz. As early as 1926, Armstrong dropped the lyrics to "The Hebbie Jeebies" and spontaneously substituted scatting for the words. The technique was copied so often that an actual jazz form develpoed. Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys, featuring Bing Crosby, were thought to be the first white group to use the scat style. Whiteman’s national radio programs promoted scat, however, it wasn’t until Ella Fitzgerald adopted the styles that scat became a house-hold word.

Ella seemed to add dazzle to scatting and clearly defined it as a vocal improvisation using phonetic sounds similar to the instrumental sounds of jazz. To paraphrase a popular song, if Louis named scat, Ella claimed it! With her recording of "Flying Home" (thought to be her first scat based song, released in 1947) she introduced variations of scat which showcased a segment of songs made famous by other performers. These sampling, variations included the works of Lionel Hampton, Chick Webb, Slam Stewart and Dizzy Gillespie. In fact the recording also showed that Ella was already educated on the fast emerging bebop movement.

Other singers added to the early ideas of scat including Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra. During the bebop era, Sarah Vaughan was able to vocalize much of the notes that Charlie Parker was playing. Vaughan was also key in bringing jazz, and scat into the American home, with a number of radio and TV programs beginning in the late 1960s. In more recent years, Mel Torme gained fame as a scat singer, again keeping the style alive, thanks to his recordings and world tours. Today scat has scaled new heights of virtuosity with such performers as Bobby McFerrin, who was even able to put a few scat songs on the Top 40 Charts during the late 1980s and early 90s.Oleh:meltingpot.fortunecity