Scat singing
Improvisational singing of nonsense syllables occurs in many cultures, such as diddling or lilting in Ireland, German yodeling, Sámi joik, and speaking in tongues in various religious traditions. Jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton credited Joe Sims of Vicksburg, Mississippi, as the creator of scat around the turn of the 20th century. In a conversation between Alan Lomax and Jelly Roll Morton, Morton recounted that Tony Jackson and himself were using scat for novelty back in 1906 and 1907 when Louis Armstrong was still in the orphan's home. Gene Greene recorded scat choruses in his song King of the Bungaloos and several others between 1911 and 1917. Entertainer Al Jolson scatted through a few bars in the middle of his 1911 recording of That Haunting Melody. Gene Greene's 1917 From Here to Shanghai featured faux-Chinese scatting. Gene Rodemich released Scissor Grinder Joe and Some of These Days before 1924. Cliff Ukulele Ike Edwards scatted an interlude on his 1923 Old Fashioned Love in lieu of using an instrumental soloist. One of the early female singers to use scat was Aileen Stanley, who included it at the end of a duet with Billy Murray in their hit 1924 recording of It Had To Be You.
It was Armstrong's February 1926 performance of Heebie Jeebies that is considered the turning point for the medium. From the 1926 recording of Heebie Jeebies arose the techniques that would form the foundation of modern scat. In a possibly apocryphal story, Armstrong claimed that when he was recording Heebie Jeebies with his band The Hot Five, his sheet music fell off the stand and onto the ground. Not knowing the lyrics to the song, he invented a gibberish melody to fill time, expecting the cut to be thrown out in the end. That take of the song became the one released. Armstrong's Heebie Jeebies became a national bestseller and consequently the practice of scatting became closely associated with Armstrong. The song served as a model for Cab Calloway whose 1930s scat solos inspired George Gershwin's use of the medium in his 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. Don Redman and Fletcher Henderson featured scat vocals in their 1925 recording of My Papa Doesn't Two-Time No Time five months prior to Armstrong's 1926 recording.
The deliberate choice of scat syllables is also a key element in vocal jazz improvisation. Syllable choice influences the pitch, articulation, coloration, and resonance of the performance. Betty Carter was inclined to use sounds like louie-ooie-la-la-la which are soft-tongued sounds or liquids. Sarah Vaughan would prefer shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee which uses fricatives, plosives, and open vowels. The comparison of the scatting styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan reveals that Fitzgerald's improvisation mimics the sounds of swing-era big bands with which she performed. Vaughan's style mimics that of her accompanying bop-era small combos. All of Ella Fitzgerald's scat performances of How High the Moon use the same tempo and begin with a chorus of a straight reading of the lyric. They move to a specialty chorus introducing the scat chorus before the scat itself begins. Will Friedwald has compared Ella Fitzgerald to Chuck Jones directing his Roadrunner cartoon because each uses predetermined formulas in innovative ways.
During the bop era of the 1940s more highly developed vocal improvisation surged in popularity. Annie Ross expressed a common sentiment among vocalists at the time saying the music was so exciting everyone wanted to do it. Eddie Jefferson, Betty Carter, Anita O'Day, Joe Carroll, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Jon Hendricks, Babs Gonzales, Mel Torme and Dizzy Gillespie were all singers in the idiom. Free jazz and the influence of world musicians on the medium pushed jazz singing nearer to avant-garde art music. In the 1960s Ward Swingle took the scat singing idea and applied it to the works of Bach creating The Swingle Singers. Scat singing was also used by Louis Prima and others in the song I Wan'na Be Like You in Disney's The Jungle Book released in 1967. The bop revival of the 1970s renewed interest in bop scat singing and young scat singers viewed themselves as a continuation of the classic bop tradition. During the mid-1990s jazz artist John Paul Larkin better known as Scatman John began fusing jazz singing with pop music and eurodance scoring a worldwide hit with the song Scatman Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop in 1994.
Many hip hop artists and rappers use scat singing to come up with the rhythms of their raps. Tajai of the group Souls of Mischief states that sometimes his rhythms come from scatting and he usually makes a scat kind of skeleton before filling in words. The group Lifesavas describe a similar process. Rapper Tech N9ne has been recorded demonstrating exactly how this method works and gangsta rapper Eazy-E used it extensively in his song Eazy Street. Vocal bass is a form of scat singing that is intended to vocally simulate instrumental basslines typically performed by bass players. A technique most commonly used by bass singers in a cappella groups is to simulate an instrumental rhythm section often alongside a vocal percussionist or beatboxer. Some notable vocal bass artists are Tim Foust, Adam Chance, Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, Reggie Watts, Alvin Chea, Joe Santoni, Avi Kaplan, Matt Sallee, Chris Morey, and Geoff Castellucci. Vocal improviser Bobby McFerrin's performances have shown that wordless singing has traveled far from the concepts demonstrated by Louis Armstrong, Gladys Bentley, Cab Calloway, Anita O'Day, and Leo Watson.
Scat singing can allow jazz singers to have the same improvisational opportunities as jazz instrumentalists because it is rhythmically and harmonically improvisational without concern about the lyric. Scatting may be desirable because it does not taint the music with the impurity of denotation. Instead of conveying linguistic content and pointing to something outside itself scat music like instrumental music is self-referential and does what it means. Music critic Will Friedwald has written that Louis Armstrong's scatting has tapped into his own core of emotion releasing emotions so deep so real that they are unspeakable. His words bypass our ears and our brains and go directly for our hearts and souls. Scat singing has never been universally accepted even by jazz enthusiasts. Writer and critic Leonard Feather offers an extreme view saying scat singing with only a couple exceptions should be banned. Many jazz singers including Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, and Dinah Washington have avoided scat entirely.
Common questions
Who created scat singing around the turn of the 20th century?
Jelly Roll Morton credited Joe Sims of Vicksburg, Mississippi as the creator of scat. Gene Greene recorded scat choruses in his song King of the Bungaloos and several others between 1911 and 1917.
When did Louis Armstrong release Heebie Jeebies to establish modern scat techniques?
Louis Armstrong released Heebie Jeebies in February 1926 during a performance with his band The Hot Five. This recording became a national bestseller and established the foundation for modern scat singing.
What specific syllables did Betty Carter use in her vocal improvisations?
Betty Carter was inclined to use sounds like louie-ooie-la-la-la which are soft-tongued sounds or liquids. Sarah Vaughan would prefer shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee which uses fricatives, plosives, and open vowels.
How did Ward Swingle apply scat singing to classical music in the 1960s?
Ward Swingle took the scat singing idea and applied it to the works of Bach creating The Swingle Singers. This approach pushed jazz singing nearer to avant-garde art music.
Why do hip hop artists use scat singing to create rhythms?
Many hip hop artists and rappers use scat singing to come up with the rhythms of their raps before filling in words. Tajai of the group Souls of Mischief states that sometimes his rhythms come from scatting and he usually makes a scat kind of skeleton before filling in words.