Gretchen's Post--Jazz Singers

As I mentioned throughout my presentation yesterday, I am intrigued by the “art vs. entertainment” debate that has permeated the jazz community. This controversy is particularly applicable to our discussion of “jazz” singers yesterday. Just like fusion artists, Paul Whiteman, and Kenny G, vocalists have frequently faced the threat of marginalization within the jazz canon and among its critics, resulting from their perceived commercialism and entertainment-oriented performances. As Dr. Porter mentioned at the beginning of class, even though jazz is primarily accepted as an instrumental music, most of its sales and popular appeal are credited to the vocalists (Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Diana Krall). While unfortunate, it makes sense that the mass public might relate more to music with lyrics they could understand over purely instrumental music. However, in the jazz community, as Paul de Barros articulated, “Success in the marketplace is often related in inverse proportion to respect from peers and critics.” It even bears the question—if such jazz-influenced styles as fusion had not reached such mass popularity, would jazz critics have been so quick to condemn them as commercial and “not jazz?” I am by no means suggesting that all fusion is artistically equivalent to the innovations of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, but the politics behind its relegation at least merit consideration.

It seems that this inverse relationship between marketplace success and respect from jazz critics suggests that performances geared toward audience entertainment lack in musical intellectualism and innovation. It appears that many jazz critics find art and entertainment to be mutually exclusive camps. As a result, they suggest that artists or musical styles cannot equally represent both. As I described yesterday concerning Harry Connick Jr.---Connick’s rise to stardom following his vocal album for When Harry Met Sally, when he originally had recorded as a pianist, led to endless criticism in which he was “accused of everything from dilettantism to downright disloyalty to his jazz roots.” This critical idea that what is entertainment cannot be art seems to have cast its shadow over the position of the jazz vocalist within the larger jazz community. Many vocalists who have sung with jazz bands—including Connick, Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Bobby Darin—have also (if not primarily) been considered pop singers. So how does a vocalist bridge the gap from “pop” singer to “jazz” singer?
Here, it is necessary to consider the question of the day—as Tara wrote in her first post, “what is a jazz singer?” Of all of the potential definitions we discussed yesterday (improvises, collaborates with the ensemble, simply is associated with jazz music), the one that seemed the most impressive to me was “uses voice like an instrument.” Obviously, this definition in itself is very vague, and can be interpreted on many different levels. However, there is no denying that in their own ways, both Ella and Billie used their voices like instruments. While Ella explored range and harmony in both her interpretations of the melody and improvisatory scat singing, Billie explored nuance and the projection of deep, heartfelt emotions. Similarly, I must say that I consider Frank Sinatra to be a jazz singer. The depth, both emotionally and in vocal quality, with which he performed such selections as “Hello, Young Lovers” is very powerful and personal. Every nuance in his projection of the lyrics sounded deliberate. While pleasant, some of the other vocalists’ versions of “Hello, Young Lovers” did not reveal such musical intellectualism and deliberate consideration of the lyrics. Even the original by Deborah Kerr—which I loved—revealed somewhat of a superficial accuracy and beauty.

Perhaps “jazz singer” is one of those terms that we won’t ever be able to completely put into words—just like “swing feel” and even “jazz” itself. The question is, how necessary is it for us to establish a definition?

Check out Wikipedia’s list of who is considered a “jazz singer”—pretty much anybody you could ever think of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category%3AAmerican_jazz_singers

Is it our job as jazz musicians and members of the jazz community to make sure that a clear distinction is made between pop singers who sing with jazz ensembles, and jazz singers? If it is, how will we go about doing this?