Meaning of Vocalese in Music
Vocalese is a term used in music to describe two distinct concepts:
1. **Vocal exercises**: In classical music, a vocalise is a musical passage sung on a single vowel sound, typically used as an exercise to develop flexibility and control of pitch and tone. It is also known as solfeggio.
2. **Jazz singing style**: In jazz, vocalese refers to a style of singing in which new words are created and sung to existing instrumental improvisations. This style is pre-composed and should not be confused with scat singing, which is wordless improvisation. Notable artists like The Swingle Singers and Jon Hendricks have popularized vocalese in jazz.
It's important to note that the term "vocalese" can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is used.
The practice of adding words to instrumental jazz melodies, improvised melodies, or improvised jazz solos. Similar to the term vocalise, vocalese is a pun that combines "vocal" and the suffix "ese" meaning a vocal in a unique language. Singers began the vocalese style as early as the 1940's as they tried to use their voice to mimic the improvised solos of instruments. It was the vocal trio, "Lambert, Hendricks and Ross" (Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross), that brought vocalise into the mainstream with their innovative sound in the late 1950's. Other vocal groups such as Manhattan Transfer continue to keep this style of singing popular. Vocalese is similar to scat singing, which is an improvised form of vocalese.
Leave a Reply