Foghat

One of the most beautiful interpreters of song are Jazz singers. The abilities of the human voice is phenomenal in the fact that one could imitate another person or instrument, or sing several octaves on the piano. The human voice can also interpret emotion in a way only a human can. Jazz instruments can express emotion, but the natural gift from within the human voice is conveyed in a variety of ways.

For example, each singer has his or her own style they were born with. Some of them may not be the best singers that Simon Cowell would compliment. However, there are many Jazz legends and people like them who have their own unique style. The je ne sias quoi x factor of a voice that is unusual, yet pleasing to the ears. The Jazz singers who have this quality have been heard in many clubs, and recordings in the past.

These Jazz Legends have helped make Jazz music popular especially with the use of the voice. There are four different types of Jazz singers that made it in the world of Jazz music. One style is the well-known crooner sound from singers such as Ivie Anderson, Harry Connick Jr., Mel Torme` Michael Buble`, Tony Bennett, Billy Eckstine, Mildred Bailey, Michael Kaczurak, Sathima Bea Benjamin, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Johnny Hartman, Bing Crosby, and Nat King Cole. The signature element of the crooner sound is a voice with a smooth and sophisticated resonance made for the microphone as clear as a radio announcers speaking voice.

Another style of Vocal Jazz Singers is the soulful bluesy sound with Singers such as Diane Schuur, Nina Simone, Bessie Smith, Etta James, Della Reese, and more. The soulful sound of voice is the skill of ornamentation of the voice running up and down the scale with ease. Bluesy and soulful is also a depth in the range of the voice that sound as if it comes direction from the soul. There are Jazz music Virtuoso’s who have the ability to do anything from vocalese to scat to ballad to fast and complex in perfection. The Jazz singers of this category are Ella Fitzgerald, Phoebe Snow, Eva Cassidy, Ernestine Anderson, Betty Carter, Cab Calloway, Sammy Davis Jr., Eddie Jefferson, Bobby McFerrin Jr., Jon Hendricks, Slim Gaillard, Rachelle Ferrell, Annie Ross, Etta Jones, Dame Cleo Laine, Sarah Vaughn, Carmen Mercedes McRae, Mabel Mercer, Nikoletta Szoke, and Nancy Wilson.

The Virtuoso can croon a ballad and articulate it in a unique way. The virtuoso Jazz singer can also be strong and sassy and scat in great complexity with ease. There is no doubt that the virtuoso Jazz singer is the total embodiment of what Jazz is all about. The last type of vocalist has an ethereal appeal that seems to come out of another place with uniqueness in sound, and suitable to the world of Jazz.

The unique style of Jazz singers is a sound that one doesn’t usually hear. For example, the uniqueness can come from the sound quality of the voice or by doing something that sets the Jazz singer on a different plane than the others. Singers of this category are Amos Leon Thomas, Billy Holiday, Lee Wiley, Blossom Dearie, Shirley Horne, Rita Reys, Eartha Kitt, Anita O’Day, Ray Reach, Ethel Waters, Monica Zetterlund, Jimmy Rushing, Louis Armstrong, Cassandra Wilson, Al Jarreau, and Dennis Rowland. Each one has a particular sound of raspy, lush, high pitched, yodeling, vibrato, or gift of humor.

There are also the average Jazz singers who deserve to be in the spotlight also for having what it takes to make it successfully in Jazz.

Lena Horne is one of the most popular African-American jazz legend singers. She was born in 1917 Lena Mary Calhoun Horne in New York City. She performed with the greatest jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington and Artie Shaw. She lives in New York City today and does not appear in the public eye anymore. Lena is most famous for the movie Stormy Weather, in which she sung the title song, in the 1940′s. Contrary to how music careers usually begin, Lena grew up in an elite family. She lived in a black bourgeois area in Brooklyn, New York.

Her father Edwin Horne left them when she was three-years-old. Her mother Edna Scottron, daughter of an inventor, was an actress with a black theater group and traveled a lot. Lena’s grandparents raised her. Though, she was said to have been a part of the Black elite, racial discrimination still existed. Lena Horne and her friend Paul Robeson embarked on a lifelong effort to fight for Civil Rights.

In fact, she took the civil rights movement so seriously to the point of rejecting the offer to perform to a segregated audience or to an audience where the black people were there only to serve white people. Lena Horne was apart of the March on Washington just for the purpose of receiving well-deserved treatment equal to the privileged white people. In addition, Lena Horne committed herself to speaking along with performing for the NAACP, National Council For Negro Women and to assist former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in passing the anti-lynching law in America’s Congress.

Even with all those serious concerns she still found time to become one of the most memorable Jazz singers in history. She performed at the caf society, a club imitating the European cabarets to show the talent of undiscovered African American which led to the success of Lena Horne, Paul Robeson, Big Joe Turner, Ella Fitzgerald, Lester Young, Hazel Scott, Sarah Vaughn, Josh White, Pete Johnson and Mary Lou Williams.

From 1947 to 1971 Lena Horne remarried again to a Jewish man Lennie Hayton a musical conductor and arranger for MGM studios later to admit in her autobiography titled “Lena” by author Richard Schickel that she married him to help her career. Nevertheless, the interracial couple as always had to face pressures same race couples do not, but she stayed with him until he passed away. Lena Horne was in several Broadway musicals, and won a 1958 award for her performance in the calypso titled “Jamaica”. Lena Horne won a Tony Award For her one woman show titled “Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music”.

In her success, she has to her credit one of the longest solo performances in history to run more than the usual record time. Lena Horne in great modesty did not accept a lot of musical projects, yet agreed upon a recording with Frank Sinatra and Quincy Jones as producer which did not happen. However, Lena Horne worked on a solo recording that featured duets with Sammy Davis, and Joe Williams titled “The Men In My Life” in the year 1988. The next year she won a Grammy Life Time Achievement Award to add to her list of credits of success she mastered in her career. In her eighties she continued to record albums titled 1994 “We’ll Be Together Again”, 1995 Live album that won her a Grammy for the Best Vocal Jazz Album. 1998″Being Myself”. Finally, she had the chance to sing on an album with Frank Sinatra to the song “Embraceable You”.

In 2000 she recorded another album to lend her voice to a “Classic Ellington” recording. Lena Horne is a member of the sorority Delta Sigma Theta and has been on the label Blue Note Records since 1995.

In 2005 ,Oprah Winfrey stated that she may to ask singer/musician Alicia Keys to play the part of Lena Horne in a movie.

There is nothing more exciting that masses of Jazz lovers all in the same place competing in a competition to showcase the skills they have honed. High school educators all around the country unite at different location to enter their vocal Jazz ensembles, Jazz Bands, Jazz Orchestra’s in a competition to represent their schools. All who enter this Jazz competition have been preparing and working hard at learning the music most of the school year.

The music educators gather a small stack of repertoire that will really make their students stand out as unique. The key to performing for the Jazz competition is to know the music, and express it exactly the way the teacher has taught them to do. The truth of the matter is that all Jazz singers should sing out , and not hold back unless the teacher motions for you to do so. All the instrumentalist should follow the music and shape the sound. Jazz music is an expression that should come as a personal interpretation of the piece. After all, how do the winners in the Jazz competitions exist if the right music and interpretation of the musicians did not exist?

Fortunately, the successful Jazz Group must possess something that allows them to feel at ease with showing soulful emotion with the instrument of voice. When every member does the same thing it makes the most magical atmosphere of music that would send chills up the spine. One can play the piece of music plainly as written, or one can perform the music as written shaping it into something beautiful. Emotion should always be involved with music performance. Moreover, the music performed in Jazz competitions should be believable to the listeners.

Meaning, if you do not feel the music no one else will feel it. Therefore, a performance without emotion is dull and uninteresting. If emotion is something hard to grasp at anything in your life, you should try the Mr. Holland’s Opus strategy.

There was a girl who could not play her instrument the way she wanted to. He told her in the film to think of something that means a lot to her. She thought of that and was able to perform. If the piece you are playing does not move you personally you might find it hard to perform. However, if you are familiar with what the music is about it will be easier to interpret it. For instance, “Georgia On My Mind” written by Stuart Gorrell and Hoagie Carmichael, one may have never traveled to the state of Georgia. Nevertheless, the music is an expression of adoration for the state of Georgia.

All students participating in high school Jazz competitions should use that emotion to the fullest when performing. In other words, think of something you adore and perform with that though in mind. The thought can be a person, a place or even an object that you hold dear. Be prepared to shine in high school Jazz competition, and feel the music from your heart. It wouldn’t hurt for the teachers to choose the right music to show off your talents.