I am a musician, a jazz vocalist and pianist. I am a human rights defender, co-chair of the Ginetta Sagan Fund for Women and Children at Amnesty International USA. I am the mother of two beautiful daughters who remind me every single day why life is worth living. Rarely do all aspects of my experience come together as an integrated whole, at least on the surface. But they are in fact fundamentally related: jazz artists have a long and powerful history as activists for social justice. Defending the rights of women and of children – victims of egregious injustice and brutality the world over – requires similar determination against powerful, entrenched resistance. The work is never done, and it often feels as if every advance is just a drop in the ocean.

As jazz artists, we make music in challenging conditions, with small triumphs and big frustrations. Live music venues go dark, standard gig payments shrink (and regular gigs disappear), audiences stay home, whether due to financial hardship or simple inertia. There’s no real villain in this story – popular culture evolves, and jazz has not been central to it for decades – but the mainstream neglect of America’s greatest indigenous art form in some ways parallels common indifference to the plight of the repressed and the displaced worldwide: it’s too complicated, too big, too hard to get my head around. Don’t really get it, don’t have time. Put on something with a simple 4/4 beat and couple of triads and let me relax, will ya?

[Bitter Side Comment: The dumbing-down of popular music and music appreciation in this country is one of the unintended tragedies of the rock-and-roll revolution. Don’t get me wrong – I love rock, and it certainly holds an important place in the pantheon of American musical genres (rooted in the blues, lest we forget). But pop and rock now take up all the (broadcast) air in the room. There was a time in the not-too-distant past when teenagers would come to school humming the latest Charlie Parker melody. Can you imagine any kid (other than serious jazzheads) bothering to take the time to learn something like “Billie’s Bounce” – much less be able to sing it on pitch – today? And that’s one of his simpler heads. “Donna Lee” would just about kill them. It’s not really their fault: when you are fed only soft foods all your life, your teeth will eventually crumble from disuse; sadly, there are precious few meaty morsels offered today’s youth and as a result few musical incisors left out there anymore. But I digress.]

Raising children is all at once the greatest joy and greatest agony of my life. Yes, agony – bear with me for a second. My girls are a joy because they are genuinely, unabashedly loving, open and true. Their love comes with no strings attached, and no artifice whatsoever – it is perfect love. But children also bring agony because I know that as each new phase of their development begins and each season passes it brings me closer to the day they will leave me. This is a day I dread for totally selfish reasons: while I want them to become humane, successful adults someday (and not still living in my basement at the age of 30), I think they are outstanding individuals, full of warmth, wit, and heart, and I will miss having them in my life every day. Yet more interior conflict in this last, most sacred element in my splintered life.

Taking the time to consider my day to day reminds me to stay restless, never settle, weave the threads together in a meaningful way, and, to paraphrase Mahatma Ghandi, strive to be the person you would want to count as a friend.

(Ethical caveat: I would post every one of these songs in mp3 form for you to listen to right here and now, but an artist has to make a living, you dig? I will instead encourage you to spend the buck – or splurge on the whole source CD if you love the single – at one of any number of reputable online purveyors. Musical brilliance doesn’t just grow on trees.)

The Singers and the Songs
The following songs contain not only great vocal performances by superb singers, they also demonstrate the voice as instrument and integral part of the band. The vocalists use improvisation, scat solos, phrasing and interactions with the instrumentalists to create an exciting, unpredictable vibe. They embody the heart and soul of jazz vocal performance.

1. Dee Dee Bridgewater, “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” (Live at Yoshi’s)

This song opens with a lightning fast bass/piano line leading seamlessly into a vocal scat solo, then finally lyric choruses. A great example of vocalist as instrumentalist interacting with her bandmates.

2. Kurt Elling and Jon Hendricks, “Goin’ to Chicago” (Live in Chicago)
3. Kurt Elling “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (same)

The first song, a duet recorded live at Elling’s home base The Green Mill, shows how powerfully a groove can be established with a single instrument (bass). The vocal blends seamlessly into the blues groove and expands on the established themes. The vocal duo then play off one another’s melodic ideas with wit and precision. A key to this song’s success is the audience’s enthusiastic participation – a critical element in an exciting jazz performance.

“Smoke,” a classic Jerome Kern ballad, shows how inventive arrangement makes a song fresh. Opening a capella and rubato, Elling slides into the chorus alongside the bass and makes the song his own with extensive back-phrasing and melodic improvisation. The song ends with an extended original coda, an elegant take on the ballad’s established themes.

4. & 5. Sarah Vaughan, “Great Day” (The Roulette Years) “Autumn Leaves” (Crazy & Mixed Up)
Sarah Vaughan takes a traditional African-American spiritual and uses melodic improvisation, modulation, tempo and phrasing to make it her own. Jazz has roots in gospel music, and this heritage is evident here; a perfect blend of spiritual and swing. Vaughan’s version of “Autumn Leaves” hasn’t a single word in it – she scats an improvised melody over the changes for the entire length of the song. Recorded late in her career for the only album she alone produced and exercised complete creative control over, this song shows a brilliant musician with a lifetime’s experience using her voice as an instrument to create a song on the spot. A paramount vocal achievement.

6. Carmen McCrae, “It’s Over Now/Well You Needn’t” (Carmen Sings Monk)
Making an incredibly difficult melody line sound easy and off-handed, McRae is a master of vocal understatement, placing notes with precision to devastating effect. After the first chorus and solos, she trades fours with the drummer (an improvised call/response in which vocalist and drummer take turns taking four bar solos) and closes out with a lyric chorus. McRae’s improvisations are a lesson in the power of simplicity.

7. Ella Fitzgerald, “If You Can’t Sing It, You’ll Have To Swing It” (Ella Returns to Berlin)
Recorded live in Berlin, this song’s varied and unpredictable arrangement demonstrates the best of Ella’s vocal range, scat mastery, and interaction with band and audience. Her improvised scat transitions are rhythmically and melodically playful and inventive.

8. Annie Ross, “Twisted” (King Pleasure Sings)
A prime example of a vocal style called Vocalese wherein an original lyric is set to an already recorded instrumental (usually improvised) solo. In this case, vocalist Annie Ross wrote (and sang) the words to tenor sax player Wardell Gray’s solo. Ross’s witty lyric suits the style of the bebop solo to perfection.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these songs, or other vocal performances that you find inspiring. Drop me a line at andrea at this domain.

Cheers-
Andrea