What exactly is a jazz singer?

Sitting at Espresso Royale the other day, a conversation arose amongst my fellow NEC students as to what exactly constitutes a jazz vocalist. It is a difficult question considering most instrumental jazz music is defined by some form of improvisatory playing. It would be tough to argue that improvisation is what makes a singer deserving of the qualifier “jazz” for a number of reasons. Take for instance Ella Fitzgerald; it is often a point of discussion that many of her scat solos are strikingly similar from take to take and perhaps “composed”. Furthermore many well established jazz singers do not improvise at all. Also it seems to be the case (among those who do improvise) that the more commercially successful the singer the less improvisation is involved on the record. Kurt Elling for instance, once reined over Chicago’s green mill is able to improvise and sing transcriptions of horn players solos as if he actually and buttons on his vocal chords.

[many critics of course take this improvisatory style to be a tad ridiculous...regardless of your opinion it is definitely and impressive show of virtuosity]

As he becomes more commercially successful we see a conscience departure from that kind of music. This is generally the case with many vocalists including Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater(to a lesser extent), Sarah Vaughn, as well as a host of other singers who simply don’t improvise at all. Repertoire is perhaps an equally troublesome consideration for what makes a jazz singer. Most singers in the first half of the century drew their repertoire from great american song book and tin pan alley composers such as Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter and more. Everyone from Tony Bennett to Frank Sinatra to Ella to Billie all have recorded essentially the same core of material: All of Me, Night and Day etc. Modern “jazz” singers run into the same problem, adding of course the music of antonio carlos jobim as well as covers of pop and classic rock and folk tunes. Perhaps the term jazz singer refers to the style and attitude with which a vocalists interprets the material. As the jazz began to developed beyond swing and bebop, there began to be a new type of singer that emerged. In an almost paradoxical approach we see more and more singer imitating the sounds of instrumentalist in a very versatile and virtuosic way. Also taking cues from instrumentalists many singers strayed further and further from the melody feeling and exploring the freedom to intrepret these popular and classic songs in ways that often baffle the audience. In my opinion Betty Carter did this better than ANYONE!

[feel free to disagree with me... but I will always stand firm on this point]

Before I go on … Take a listen!


To me, no other singer freely interprets he repertoire quite like Betty. She also defies notions of vocal technique and what a singer is suppose to sound like (sort of the antithesis of a crooner). In many ways she all leaves the melody completely behind, especially in the recording above. Furthermore, despite not really taking “solos” in the bebop sense of the word, Betty’s phrasing is distinctly improvisatory. However if that is the measure of a jazz vocalist, then it becomes an incredibly subjective job to qualify these musicians. So I ask, of the following clips what makes the following vocalists Jazz singers?





Truthfully... I am not sure it really matters...but it’s an interesting thing to ask!