Ella Fitzgerald

I've recently made a pact with myself to expand my vocal style and improve my technique, and in the process, I have been studying various vocal artists. One of those artists I am studying, and with whom I have become completely enamored, is Ella Fitzgerald.

Growing up, I had heard various "old" tunes that she was noted for, and of course, Louis Armstrong always came to mind when her name was mentioned, but other than being cognizant that she was the queen of  scat (actually she was the first to scat by imitating instruments to fill space in songs) and jazz, I never paid her much attention.  BIG mistake.  HUGE.  This woman was utterly amazing.  (Like, super-hero amazing.)

Here is an excerpt from her biography on her official website:

Dubbed "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.

Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. (Or rather, some might say all the jazz greats had the pleasure of working with Ella.)

She performed at top venues all over the world, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common - they all loved her.

 Do yourself a favor and read her whole biography. 

You must listen to this very smooth and effortless version of Summertime:

AND this "crazy good" scat:



Oh, YEAH!!  If you are singer, you know how difficult this is.  She hits all the little passing notes of each riff with accuracy and makes it look easy, not to mention her ability to just "let herself go", and "wing it".  Study her kids!  If your not a singer, just enjoy :)

Ella was quoted as saying: "I sing like I feel"  Here's to feeling good Ella!  And, thanks for the very humbling performances.

Til next time...

Joellen

Singers: Tom Jones

Tom Jones is probably my favorite singer/performer of all time. The man could and still can "bring it".

It was my ninth birthday and my father bought "gold" tickets to see Tom Jones at the War Memorial Theater in Rochester, N.Y. We were maybe ten or eleven rows back from the stage and I was sooooo excited to see him. I was too young to understand or care about all the panty throwing and pheromones in the air... man, I just wanted to see and hear him sing.  AND HE DID!  After seeing Tom Jones live, there was no doubt in my young little brain that I wanted to be "just like him" when I grew up, well maybe not just like him...Thanks Tom.

Keep in mind, the clips below are live. No pitch correction, no lip syncing. His presentation is amazing and particularly pay attention to his final notes in both songs. Dead on. I don't know of many singers who can pull it off these days. A grand and what should be mandatory aspiration, I think, for all singers of this day and age!



I DID NOT PUT THE COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO, THE ORIGINATOR OF THE POST DID. HOWEVER TOM'S PERFORMANCE IS STELLAR.





As long as you are out there "Bringing It" Tom...I'll be your biggest fan!

Singers: Dusty Springfield

I was listening to some old Dusty Springfield today, (not that there is any really new Dusty Springfield) I'm talking back in the 60s.  Blue Eyed Soul. This woman's voice was purely soulful in nature.  Husky, breathy in all the right places and smooth as silk.  I tried to compare some female singers today with Dusty and simply came up short.  Although, there are a number of "retro soul" gals around, who are VERY good, to name a few, Duffy, Leona Lewis, Joss Stone, the one ingredient missing was the purity of Dusty Springfield's approach to a song.  She was just "tellin' a story".  Many of today's artists tend to throw in so many vocal acrobatics it takes away from the actual story...the reason for the song.  Perhaps in Dusty's day things were just simpler.  Purer.  A song was a song, no crazy production antics, no pitch correction, just a lot of blood, sweat and grit...oh, and reverb, they did have a lot of reverb.  Rest in peace Dusty.


Sometime circa 1966?





Dusty had a lot of hits, her more famous ones would be "Son of a Preacher Man" "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and the list goes on.


I hope you will check her out, it will be worth your time.