Jazz Vocals

[David B]

I see only one previous mention of Mark Murphy in this thread, so here are some clips to rectify this.

[Strickland]

Jack Teagarden
Chet Baker
Julie London

[Bill C]

I hesitate to say this on a jazz forum but ... Mark Padmore

[Groyniad]

i am so all about mark murphy at the moment

have you heard his latest album - with HIM playing the damn piano

oh my god the man is a genius

[joelf]

Sometimes a thing looks good on paper, but though you try you can't make yourself like it---like certain singers, even ones you know are great. Sometimes you can put your finger on why, sometimes not. The following are credible, even wonderful singers whose work I just can't seem to embrace:

Billy Eckstine: I guess b/c he takes the same approach, with that wide vibrato, on every song, and it always seems to be more about him than the song. I have the guilties about this b/c he was an early champion of bebop with a great band---that he subsidized with his 'pop' vocals.

Mel Torme': a fabulous singer, musician and songwriter. I always found him a bit corny on the swing numbers, especially scatting. Like his ballads very much, though.

Bob Dorough: this kills me to say, b/c we recently lost him, and I've performed with him and he liked one of my songs. A great guy. I found that he didn't have much range, technically or emotionally. When he recorded some fine duets with Blossom Dearie to me she came off the way better singer. Wonderful songwriter, though (Love Came on Stealthy Fingers, for one).

Nobody shoot me please! I respect and admire all of these folks. It's just that...

Maybe others here have similar quirky opinions of fine singers? And let's be nice! Just respectfully state the singer and your reasons, please---OK?

[joelf]

Al Jarreau (sp?) totally surprised me when I heard his first record from '64---no overdone craziness. He really had a unique sound and vision. I'm just not in love with where he took it sometimes...

[Doctor Jeff]

I want to like Joe Williams more. I love his deep voice--what an instrument. But on most songs he just doesn't let loose the way I expect him to. A lot of the songs of his that show up on jazz shows on the radio just aren't great songs.

Somebody point me to a GREAT Joe Williams album. I'd love to find out I've been missing something.

Vocals are definitely a case of to each his own. I love Lucinda Williams for instance and my girlfriend can't stand her. C'est la vie.

[joelf]

Cher: never took her seriously as a singer, as an actress any day. In fact, I disliked tremendously---anything you could name---about her singing. Then I heard her sing Alfie, and she shocked me. I love that---being proved wrong. Video to follow

[joelf]

The key's a bit high for her, she's straining a bit---but what a belter! And I never could feature Hal David's pop fluff, glossy lyrics. I always thought Bacharach deserved a better lyricist. But that's a minority opinion, I know---the vox populi has spoken...

[joelf]

I want to like Joe Williams more. I love his deep voice--what an instrument. But on most songs he just doesn't let loose the way I expect him to. A lot of the songs of his that show up on jazz shows on the radio just aren't great songs.Somebody point me to a GREAT Joe Williams album. I'd love to find out I've been missing something.Vocals are definitely a case of to each his own. I love Lucinda Williams for instance and my girlfriend can't stand her. C'est la vie.

I always dug his restraint, especially on blues. Where's it written that blues singers have to scream and shout? He zigged where others zagged, and I can dig that. Reminds me of Ahmad Jamal's Night Mist Blues: it lends a jazz sophistication and lightness to a form that's as malleable as Silly Putty...

[Doctor Jeff]

Well I'm contradicting myself, cause here are some of his great songs...

"There ain't nothing in Chicago for a monkey woman to do..."

From the Judy Garland show...

[MarkRhodes]

Somebody point me to a GREAT Joe Williams album. I'd love to find out I've been missing something.

I'm fond of this one.

[neatomic]

couldn't disagree more about hal david...one of my fave lyricists..so simple but great...like chuck berry...deceptively simple but with cleverness

cher aint no dionne...(she'd probably be first to admit! she was great in moonstruck tho!!)

cheers

ps- i'll up the stakes...i'm no fan of sinatra...the jersey accent..ugh..i'll take dino or tony bennet over him anyday

[joelf]

David is a fine craftsman---like the Bergmans, who I also don't love. But IMO he nearly ruined a masterpiece---A House is Not a Home---with lines like 'But it's all a crazy game', and 'no one there to hold you tight...'. Just not my cup of tea, and why bother with people like Joni Mitchell or so many others around---others who don't 'do' gloss? I know it's a different kind of thing. He does what he does very well, but it's very candy cane to me...

[joelf]

cher aint no dionne...(she'd probably be first to admit! she was great in moonstruck tho!!)

All I meant was that she surprised me. Better than I'd thought, that's all...

[neatomic]

All I meant was that she surprised me. Better than I'd thought, that's all...

no aspersions cast!!! i like cher on certain tunes too..important part of early la scene...she had hits for decades!!!...

but dionne!! haha

one of my fave bacharach/david tunes-

here as done (early on) by a celebrated wordsmith himself


i just don't know what to do with myself- as done by elvis costello (& he's no dionne either!! haha)

cheers

[joelf]

no aspersions cast!!! i like cher on certain tunes too..important part of early la scene...she had hits for decades!!!...

but dionne!! haha

one of my fave bacharach/david tunes- as done (early on) by a celebrated wordsmith himself


i just don't know what to do with myself- as done by elvis costello (& he's no dionne either!! haha)

I
cheers

I just don't know---this song. Really, hadn't even heard of it.

I guess you have to evaluate these kind of lyrics differently than you would the so-called 'conversational' lyricists like Joni. They give themselves wider berth, and pure hit-making pop writers have to be tight and say it in under 3 minutes. That takes discipline and sweat. I thought Goffin-King were terrific, and Paul Simon a putz for saying Carole King's lyrics 'make me think of toast' after they started together in the biz in the Brill building years before. He's a brilliant writer, though---musically, too. How does he come up with some of those progressions? Wow.

Do you know Teddy Randazzo? Goin;' Out of My Head and some things for Sinatra. He was quite an amazing talent---I heard some of his home studio recordings. I never met him, but he studied with my teacher John Foca (wanted to learn theory and the classics), and my friend Ralph was living, I think, in a house in back of his. He got to know Teddy.

[wintermoon]

I do like Dorough, though his singing isn't your traditional type, great musician however.
Can't say I'm a big fan of Costello though he's a very good writer. I like his wife's piano playing ok, but her singing, meh.
Anita O'day doesn't float my dingy either, though I do really like some female big band singers like Doris Day, Jo Stafford, June Christy, etc.

[joelf]

I don't know Elvis Costello's work too much. I should catch up---a lot of good people respect him.

I didn't love Almost Blue. Thought the lyric gimmicky and there are way better tunes of that type. It was a comedown for Chet, I thought.

But I probably missed the good stuff. Such as?

[joelf]

Betty Carter is an acquired taste for some. I've acquired it. Her tone is as unique as any instrumentalist's. She grew from the days of the Ray Charles pairing---which was great. I didn't love all the later quirks, but she was in total control, a chance-taker, developer of talent in her bands---and started a record company.

And the record with Carmen was divine...

[wintermoon]

Yes, great lp w Carmen, though I've yet to hear a bad Mcrae recording. Everyone points to the Charles/Carter pairing but she was making waves at least 6 yrs earlier.
Check out her '58 recording "Out There" big band w Melba Liston arrangements
Also happens to have very cool cover art.

[wintermoon]

p.s. first saw Betty performing at the foot of the steps of the Phila Museum of Art (you know, the "Rocky" steps)
She had an 11 yr old organist in her band sitting on a pile of phone books on the bench that stole the show....a certain Mr Joey Defrancesco

[neatomic]

i'm not huge elvis costello fan...if anything i liked his early first few punk-ish records way more than his later adult singer songwriter type statements...and havent really listened to him in decades...

but


he wrote/cut great one..shipbuilding...with chet baker on trumpet...chet walks the tightrope..but treads ever so sweetly...(despite the rest of the instruments then "modern" production!)

i know this thread is about popular singers who don't ring your bell

but many don't care for chet bakers vocals

to which i present..

his scatting is amazing!!..you may not like his timbre but his phrasing is 100%...beyond!

and great doug raneys rolled back tone and nhops precise bass..what a trio!!!!

an album every jazz lover should hear!!

cheers

[wintermoon]

dig it NA, bought that when it came out, and most of the other Steeplechase Baker records.
I know some don't dig Chet's singing but they're in the minority.
His scat singing was superb too, but tone aside I feel his trumpet playing was at his peak towards the end and that's saying something in my book.

[neatomic]

to me betty carter has always been about louie A...she almost invokes him physically when she sings!!

cheers