“Scatting”A popular vocal jazz

technique

“Airmail Special”Ella Fitzgerald (1957

)

Vocal improvisation through nonsense syllables, vowel sounds, or random vocal sounds.

Vocal imitation of instrumental sounds.Melody is based off of other quoted songs and melodies or of variations of scales, arpeggios, riffs and stock patterns (lick).

What is Scat Singing?

Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996)• Nicknamed the “First Lady of

Song”• Famous jazz singer, known

for mastering the scat technique into a form of art

• Started to experiment with scat singing after the style began to shift in big band to “bebop”

• First scat song “You Have to Swing it” (1936)

The “Scat Artist”

Scat originated in the New Orleans melting pot of jazz Louis Armstrong made scat popular after some sources

say he literally “invented” the technique in 1925. Armstrong dropped his trumpet music in the middle of

recording “Heebie Jeebies” and made up nonsense imitative syllables instead.

Where did Scat come from? How did scat become popular?

Can you hear the similarities in both versions of “Airmail Special?”

Benny Goodman Sextet playing Ella Fitzgerald “scatting”

VS.

What are some instruments Ella imitates?

What “recent” jazz hits does she quote in the melody of “Airmail Special?”

“The Christmas Song”- Nat King Cole

(1946)

“Banana Boat Song”- Harry

Belafonte(1954)

“The Music Goes Round and Round”-

Ella Fitzgerald (1935)

“Ballad of Davy

Crockett”- Fess Parker

(1955)

“And the Angels Sing”- Martha Tilton,

Benny Goodman (1939)

“Mama Look a Boo Boo”

Harry Belafonte (1956)

“That’s Amore”- Dean Martin (1953)

http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/about/biography.html http://www.biography.com/people/ella-fitzgerald-9296210?page=http://

www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/526796/scat2 http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Scat_singing.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EL7XyME-k8 http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/archive/armstrong_singer.html http://www.scaruffi.com/history/jazz1.html http://www.metrolyrics.com/banana-boat-song-lyrics-harry-belafonte.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__kQ1PCP6B0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__kQ1PCP6B0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-O_%28The_Banana_Boat_Song%29 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heXQ-zgyfQY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txcRQedoEyY http://www.metrolyrics.com/mama-look-a-boo-boo-lyrics-harry-belafonte.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafonte http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/November/saxophoneday.htm

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