Jim Pepper- Defining Jazz Singers, and the Jazz vs. Pop debates

Throughout our class, we talked about the question addressed in the reading over “what is a jazz singer.” The reading and our discussion show that the answer can vary across the board, and I feel that because of the vagueness of the term “jazz singer,” we will always be able to find an exception whenever we come up with a concrete and solid definition. I think this is in part because of the undeniable importance of particular singers like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, who differ so much in style and technique, yet our definition would need to somehow fit both of them because to do otherwise would be seemingly unspeakable. Possibly going along with this, we may feel that particular singers should not be included, so we try to word our definition in a way to exclude them.
The issue of singers and improvisation, discussed in the reading, had me thinking about our first class, particularly the differences of improvisation within jazz. Early solos in particular were more worked out, as we saw with the audio examples of Johnny Dodds from that class. Like the wide range of options of improvisation, from worked out or precomposed to spontaneous creation, we can see that same range of variety among vocalists. Whether the singer is using ornamentation of the melody or scatting over a chorus, there is some form of improvisation that is there. Yet many singers outside of the jazz world use vocal techniques that adhere closely to the melody in a similar way as some “jazz singers” do, which doesn’t help the question here about distinguishing them. Because we may want to include specific key singers like Ella or Billie within our definition of a jazz singer, we will want to keep our definition as vague as possible because of issues with inclusion and exclusion, which is why I still like Dr. Porter’s definition from class as a singer who works with jazz musicians.
Gretchen’s presentation on Harry Connick Jr. was very interesting and well done. It brings up an issue I have been thinking about with the debate over pop versus jazz that many singers face. When someone like Connick does well on the pop charts or reaches pop music fame, it casts doubt or debate over whether they are to be considered a jazz musician. Yet when jazz instrumentalists do any kind of collaboration with popular artists their musical label does not seem to come into question at all.
Coincidentally, I was able to catch this by chance late last night. In addition to the pop versus jazz debate, it also brings up the idea brought up in class of the “new standards,” of jazz musicians performing popular music of today, since Herbie Hancock performed John Lennon’s “Imagine” on Jimmy Fallon's talk show while promoting his newest album (in addition to playing alongside hip-hop band The Roots throughout the show). Here is a link for it, although it’s the whole episode, if you click the last marker that is where it starts (at 36 minutes in). http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/tuesday-june-22-2010/1235508/