Scat Singing

Overview

The history of jazz rightly begins in the city of New Orleans. In this section, we will learn about great New Orleans jazz musicians and their early recordings in Chicago. In the process, will also learn about the emerging Chicago jazz scene and some of the artists from that area who helped develop early jazz musical styles. Finally, we will do a short overview of early jazz in New York.

Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to do the following:

Define collective improvisation
Identify early jazz musicians and their contribution to jazz music
Appreciate the significance of Dixieland jazz
Recognize the impact Chicago had for musicians of early jazz
Recognize the growing importance of New York for further developments in jazz
Define chord substitutions

In addition to his unsurpassed solo performance on cornet and trumpet, Louis Armstrong also invented vocal improvisation, called scat singingA style of improvisatory singing that employs “nonsense” syllables made up by the singer while improvising a melody. . There's a marvelous story of its origin, during the recording of Heebie Jeebies ♫, when Armstrong is said to have dropped the lyrics sheet. Rather than stop the session, the story goes, he simply continued to sing, making up syllables as he went⁵. Whether or not that's how scat singing began, Armstrong's singing was nearly as influential as his horn playing. His timing and delivery served as a model, and he influenced every jazz singer who came after him.

Hotter Than That ♫ provides an excellent example of Louis Armstrong's scat singing, in addition to his superb horn playing. Guitarist Lonnie Johnson joins the group, accompanying the singer, and then "trades licks" with Armstrong in some playful call-and-response (1:55-2:14). Let's listen Hotter Than That ♫.

Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, Hotter Than That ♫ (Lil Armstrong), Chicago, December 9, 1927. Louis Armstrong, cornet and vocals; Edward "Kid" Ory, trombone; Johnny Dodds, clarinet; Lil Armstrong, piano; Johnny St. Cyr, banjo; Lonnie Johnson, guitar.

"New York seems conducted by jazz, animated by it. It is essentially a city of rhythm."

-Anais Nin

"The humor of jazz is rich and many-sided. Some of it is obvious enough to make a dog laugh. Some is subtle, wry-mouthed, or back-handed. It is by turns bitter, agonized, and grotesque. Even in the hands of white composers it involuntarily reflects the half-forgotten suffering of the negro. Jazz has both white and black elements, and each in some respects has influenced the other. It's recent phase seems to throw the light of the white race's sophistication upon the anguish of the black."

-Bix Beiderbecke

Alicia Keys covered Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'" for the 2013 movie The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan.

Songfacts