Vocal jazz or jazz singing is a genre within jazz music where the voice is used as an instrument.
Vocal jazz began in the early twentieth century. Jazz music has its roots in blues and ragtime and can also traced back to the New Orleans jazz tradition. Jazz music is characterized by syncopated rhythms, improvisation, and unique tonality and pitch deviation. In vocal jazz, this includes vocal improvisations called scat singing where vocalists imitate the instrumentalist's tone and rhythm.
Lady in Satin is an album by the jazz singer Billie Holiday, released in 1958 on Columbia Records, catalogue CL 1157 in mono and CS 8048 in stereo. It is the penultimate album completed by the singer, and the last to be released in her lifetime. Her final album, Last Recording, was recorded in March 1959, and released just after her death. The original album was produced by Irving Townsend and engineered by Fred Plaut.
View the full Wikipedia page for Lady in SatinOriginating in vocal jazz, scat singing or scatting is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms using the voice solely as an instrument rather than a speaking medium. This is different from vocalese, which uses recognizable lyrics that are sung to pre-existing instrumental solos.
View the full Wikipedia page for Scat singingThe Mills Brothers, sometimes billed The Four Mills Brothers and originally known as Four Boys and a Guitar, were an American vocal jazz and traditional pop vocal quartet who made more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies and garnered at least three dozen gold records.
The Mills Brothers were the first black artists to have their own show on national network radio (on CBS in 1930); they made appearances in film; and were the first to have a No. 1 hit on the Billboard singles chart, with "Paper Doll" in 1943. They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.
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