RFI: Vocal jazz songform

Will Friedwald definitely does not like Eddie Jefferson. One of his blind spots, like Jackie and Roy, although lots of people don’t care too much for them I guess.

Didn't know there were lyrics added--thread-relevant after all! Oscar Brown Jr. would be just the guy to do it.
Oh one other thing about Lambert Hendricks and Ross: on their trio=formative Sing A Song of Basie they got into/emerged via overdubbing, when that was not well-known (Sidney Bechet had done it, maybe Les Paul by then). I think they would add up to four tracks each---not seeing that exact figure here, but Friedwald makes the point, while describing the creative situation:
https://www.wnyc.org/story/great-jazz-and-pop-vocal-albums-lambert-hendricks-and-ross-sing-song-basie/ Maybe a career-making album, even though it elaborated quite a bit on what became their signature sound (at least live; I don't know if they ever took it this far in the studio again).

Adding lyrics to a melody not quite the same as vocalese. But yeah, thread needs all the help it can get.

Just picked up Dee dee bridgewater version of Afro Blue which was reissued by Mr Bongo a few weeks back.
Nice.

Also there's a recording by John Hendricks with an early version of the Grateful Dead on the compilation of their pre1st lp recordings that came with the Golden Road box.

What?

Bob Weir:

”Jon’s mind and mouth are so fast that he’s able to get a lot of words into each measure with perfect enunciation. Just being in his presence made us think. Truckin’ has that same vocalese and vocal-harmony feel in places. I thought of Jon as we worked on Truckin’.”

Don’t know how I feel about Jon Hendricks being blamed for “Truckin’”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16VLBmF8kXc

suddenly want to hear a LHR or maybe Andrews Sisters cover of “truckin”

Maybe, but only if done in a medley with "Bei Mir Bistu Shein."

Annie Ross, 1938

https://youtu.be/99OB6YeGjeU

sorry, her star turn is at 4:44

xxxxpost Speaking of Dee Dee B. and words added to instrumentals: dunno when Horace Sliver wrote lyrics of "Song For My Father"---maybe when he wrote the melody, but I didn't hear it sung 'til Andy Bey; my fave version is Bridgewater's, but worth hearing by whomever:

I wrote a song for my father in hopes it would give him a thrill after seeing Brazil.
My father’s music came through me but never got to me until
I went down to Brazil---
In Rio all day long, I heard my father’s song...
His father was Portuguese-Cape Verdean, born on a CV island.

Thanks for the Dee Dee tip, Dow, really enjoy this “song for my father” performance of hers here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AapII8zmsdc

Oh your're welcome; yeah, she did a whole album of songs by and associated with Silver, lots of other sets worth checking out too--most recently, I think, a tribute to Nina Simone. Just now turned on the radio and heard most of a Radio Deluxe ep from 15 years ago: Annie Ross just happens to drop in on Jessica Molasky and John Pizzarelli, and hey Dad Bucky P. and a pianist are here too--they talk and listen to a couple of tracks from Annie's latest, I Want To Sing---more talking than singing, but tenacious, savoring the beat---also they listen to Joni Mitchell's version of "Twisted," and she tells how xpost Sing A Song of Basie came about, calling up Miles for him to listen to an early take ect., more stories,---quite a visit.
https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioDeluxe/aug-1-annie-ross-recalled/

Also, elements of "Song For My Father" appear in/are built on in Steely D.'s "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and Stevie W.'s "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing."

From "Interlude," with lyrics credited here to Sarah Vaughn, later known as "A Night in Tunisia," words by Ella Fitzgerald? But wiki sez Raymond Laveen---anyway https://www.jazziz.com/a-short-history-of-a-night-in-tunisia-dizzy-gillespie-1942/ Striking, militant take from Tunisiatourism.info: https://www.tunisiatourism.info/en/articles/a-night-in-tunisia-histoire-dune-chanson I've long liked Chaka Khan's version, maybe I'll try to post it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZEMoXjl-Xg

From What Cha' Gonna Do for Me(1981), which I may still have somewhere. Liked it pretty well---remember it as blending her trademark sound w elements of jazz in various ways.
wiki: reminds me it haswith a guest appearance by Gillespie himself as well as what today would be called a 'sample' of Charlie Parker's legendary four bar alto break from his 1946 recording of the title. Khan's vocal interpretation also features lyrics written by the singer herself.[8]

"Boy, you suck. Just my luck. I'd rather get hit by a truck. Lose/My/Number lose. It." sings Allegra Levy on Lose My Number: Allegra Levy Sings John McNeil, where she adds words and sometimes acatting to the trumpeter's tunes. She's usually more subtle than that, I think---she could be a little louder sometimes, she makes me listen more, and never oversings. Got a tight, kinetic piano trio, and McNeil himself shows up sometimes, like on "C.J.," where the scatting first appears, and the bracing "Strictly Ballroom." "Dover Beach" is my fave headphones ballad, with unusually-well mic'd cymbals and drums (bass always sounds great), never obtrusive. Gonna try to link it from YouTube, c'mon ilx,do me right:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=allegra+levy+%2B+lose+my+number

Oh well at least Firefox shows the playlist link, if not the link in image.

here's the front cover of CD (out Fri.), w personnel listed:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61Nnge4usEL._SL1417_.jpg

listened to the title track, good stuff

Yeah, and forgot to mention that the album sometimes reminds me of Sheila Jordan and Steve Kuhn's albums, also that they and Steve Swallow performed the music he wrote for Robert Creeley's poems, on the album Home. Playground might be a better place to start w Kuhn-Jordan or Jordan-Kuhn projects overall, but think this is the most thread-relevant.
(Complete personnel:
Steve Swallow - electric bass
Sheila Jordan - voice
Steve Kuhn - piano
David Liebman - saxophones
Lyle Mays - synthesizer
Bob Moses - drums)

And I was wondering about who sings Coltrane, when I saw this, on Rolling Jazz--if my first ever attempt to post a link from one thread to another doesn't work, just search on there (or YouTube) for John Coltrane Giant Steps Carnatic Scatting
Rolling Jazz Thread 2020

I love Les Double Six's version of Naima. Big influence on Robert Wyatt, I think.

Will have to check Les Double Six, thanks for reminder.

Last night on John Pizzarelli's and Jessica Molasky's xpost Radio Deluxe, LH&R casually twisted me a new earhole once again, sending me toward rabbithole--now I'm wondering about these 4-albums-on-2-CDs sets, reissued on Avid, also others on Acrobat, Jasmine, Sony Canada, for that matter---do they sound good??
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=lambert+hendricks+and+ross&crid=2FOPQHGG1GODK&sprefix=lambert+h%2Caps%2C195&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_9

I’ve never listened to that show but it sounds like I finally should. John’s website has them but it seems to be a week behind?

Oh but the show has its own site as well.

There might be more that they've posted on Soundcloud---see the one I linked upthread.
B-but you didn't answer *my* question!

Mixcloud, that is (the link is right).

I must say I’ve been enjoying Dee Dee Bridgewater’s Horace Silver album a lot... but I think I love her album of Kurt Weill songs even more. Favorite new-to-me artist of the year!

Great, glad you dig her. I like Ja'l Deux Amours too, from 2007, when she was living in France:
Dave Gelly of The Guardian stated, "'J'ai Deux Amours' was the number with which Josephine Baker captivated Paris in the early 1930s, and Dee Dee Bridgewater is her nearest equivalent today, a star both at home in the US and in her adopted country. Her singing is as expressive as ever, but what really caught my attention was the arrangements, a collaborative effort by the singer and her band. Harmonically sophisticated and at times fairly abstract, they quickly banish any idea of sentimental, Gallic wallow."
...Jason MacNeil of AllMusic commented, "These Parisian café tunes bring out the best in this stellar jazz singer, particularly on the opening title track. Accompanied by accordion, which introduces the song, Dee Dee Bridgewater takes you from Paris down to the French Riviera with a warm, slightly island sound as she sings en français. And she has no problem creating her soothing jazz pipes regardless of language."
...[1] The Buffalo News review stated, "Bridgewater still shows her skill at shaping a phrase, her ability to bring out the depths of every word. She sings in French with obvious relish. But I hope she doesn't forget her fans back home."[3] She hasn't, but
also went further South and made Red Earth with Mali musicians.
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%27ai_Deux_Amours

Sounds rad, will check it out!

There might be more that they've posted on Soundcloud---see the one I linked upthread.
B-but you didn't answer *my* question!

Sing A Song Of Basie is phenomenal!!

It’s sand, man!

Yeah, that one is great.

jaymc would something like amina claudine myers' african blues fit with style you were looking for? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk2fg2cE27I

So today on WBGO for Dave Brubeck’s centennial (which is actually today), Michael Bourne played a musical Brubeck wrote with his wife Iola, The Real Ambassadors, starring Louis Armstrong and featuring Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, which I was glad to hear, since I had read about but never listened to it. The musical was recorded in the studio first, but by the time it was performed live at the Monterey Jazz Festival Annie Ross was gone and had been replaced by Yolande Bavan. I went down a tiny rabbit hole and found this [u=https://www.jazzwax.com/2007/11/a-chat-with-yol.html]extremely interesting 3-part interview[/u] with Bavan, and am now listening to the live albums of that trio, including Live at Newport ‘63, featuring another centennial artist of this month, Clark Terry.

Oh yeah, Clark Terry's "Mumbles" routine counts as vocalese or close enough. Had neglected the LH & Bavan era, thanks for tip.

Yeah, I enjoyed a few of those Mumbles routines today, "Mumbles" itself and this one called "Never."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7XtciQyhJA

LH & Bavan from the 1962 (not 1963) Newport Jazz Festival
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgxfCsGTVhY

Thanks! Don't think I've ever heard that line-up before---what a position to be in, having to follow the tenure of starpowered Annie Ross. So I think I read that Dave Lambert stopped to help a stranded, maybe injured motorist and got struck himself, fatally. Hendricks, with his offspring or whomever, used to irritate me on radio shows in the 80s: his voice had gotten too dry and stiff for all that spotlight, and maybe it always was, other than brief solo breaks in the trio format. But good to hear more prime-of-life trio, thanks again.

Yes, that’s what happened to Dave Lambert, unfortunately. Bavan tells a somewhat detailed version of the story in that interview I linked.

Yeah, didn't want details; I know and know of several people that's happened to, resulting in major injury at least (Andre Dubus got all tore up, lastingly). Reminds me also of a transcribed conversation between Jon Savage and JG Ballard: Savage mentions how motorway design and construction lead to psychopathic behavior, making it so easy to hit and be hit, thus hard not to run.

In some areas, anyway.

Hey, check it out. https://jazztimes.com/reviews/books/peter-jones-this-is-bop-jon-hendricks-and-the-art-of-vocal-jazz-equinox/

Reviewer A.D. Amorosi in the spirit: "Having a fellow jazz singer and the author of the award-winning This Is Hip: The Life of Mark Murphy tackle the roots of bop vocalese and its firestarter...is sort of like asking one of the Apostles to take on the entire Bible...requires nothing less than a surgeon’s skills and a comedian’s ability to pace oneself to the punchline." Author Peter Jones is a jazz singer too? Is he good?

No idea. Good question.

Michelle Hendricks, daughter of Jon, brings words, voice, and something of a new spark to an old fave, "Song from The Old Country," by and with the now late great, always jumpin' Adams-Pullen Quartet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpZW5ulfWYM

(Lewis Nash in there, doing just fine in the wake of Dannie Richmond RIP)