One of the many wonderful aspects of jazz is the sheer number of its subgenres: swing, bop, fusion, and big band, just to name a few. One area that too infrequently draws attention is vocalese, a particular jazz form that is difficult to master, but absolutely astounding when done well.
Often confused with scat, vocalese involves taking an instrumental solo off a well-known jazz recording (usually a trumpet or saxophone), then writing lyrics that mimic the sound of that solo. While the lyrics can be at times charmingly absurd, their main purpose is to provide the singer with the opportunity to duplicate that solo through his or her voice. When hearing vocalese without comparing it to the original recording, the vocal style can seem odd—the voice may crack, squeal, or quickly change tempo. These techniques exactly replicate the original solo through words, rhythm, and tone. Scat usually involves only nonsense syllables that are meant to compliment the existing instrumentation, although occasionally some singers may use syllables to imitate an instrument's sound. Unlike scat, vocalese does not involve improvisation but carefully rehearsed performances.
According to the Jon Hendricks' page, vocalese lyrics frequently fall into two general categories: storytelling and tribute. The storytelling may describe a love affair from a specific perspective, while the tribute involves lyrics paying homage to the writer and/or performer of the original tune. While the genre's history remains murky, the vocalese movement's earliest pioneer is Eddie Jefferson; All Music Guide's Scott Yanow stated that Jefferson "did not have a great voice," but his ability to write clever lyrics that exactly duplicated famous jazz solos cannot be overlooked. After hearing James Moody's saxophone solo from "In the Mood for Love," Jefferson wrote lyrics imitating Moody's work, retitling it "Moody's Mood for Love." His new version became a hit in 1952. However, another vocalese pioneer, King Pleasure, recorded his interpretation of Jefferson's tune and released it earlier that same year. Heavily influenced by Jefferson, King Pleasure gained a reputation for his replicas of saxophone solos as well as his incorporation of scat along with lyrics. In addition to the aforementioned "Moody's Mood for Love," he scored an additional hit with a Jefferson cover, "Parker's Mood," an ode to legendary sax player Charlie Parker.
But vocalese's best-known artists may be Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross, a trio that greatly expanded the genre. While Jefferson and Pleasure sang alone, this group became a virtual band, singing various instrument parts for a fuller, more complex sound. As All About Jazz states, they are still regarded as "the vocalese supergroup of all time." Their classic renditions of "Moanin'" and "Twisted," along with Hendricks's abstractly poetic lyrics, are still regarded as the best of vocalese as well as stellar examples of vocal jazz. After a string of hits in the '50s and early '60s, Hendricks embarked on a solo career in 1964, eventually collaborating on another landmark jazz recording: The Manhattan Transfer's aptly-titled album, Vocalese.
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