See, I don't really get that concept really well. I always hear about how Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella & Chaka sing like an instrument.

But I don't really know how tell a "vocalist who sings like an instrument". I guess the only thing I noticed in common with those ladies is they NEVER sing straight.

Can you break down the whole "vocalist sings like an instrument" thing for me?

And while you're at it,,,give me EXAMPLES.

That Inuit throat singer on Medulla sounds like a broken saxophone, or a duck call or something.

Not sure. I mean, I've certainly heard Bobby Mcferrin and Al Jarreau sound like different instruments: Trumpet, Sax Flute, Guitar ...but in that case, they're purposely trying to sound like those instruments...but no, I've never heard Chaka sing ,and thought of a particular instrument...


They might mean the way these artists solo: riffs, scatting, improvisational vocal runs, that kind of thing, almost as if the singer is playing their voice like it's an instrument...


Ironically, I Have heard some Instrumentalists play, and thought it almost sounded like a voice...


...
[Edited 10/22/04 13:43pm]

That sounds backwards to me.
I've always heard musicians say that they try to solo like a vocalist.

How have you been Miss Lady?

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

paligap said:

That I know. Guitarists like Tony Maiden and sax players like Duke Ellington's band-mate Mr.Johny Hodges solos sounds like a man at some point. Ben Webster too.

Sidney Bechet's sound is a like a cry for help,,,it sounds like somebody calling out from a distant.

So yeah, I'm fimiliar with the "other way around" lol

theAudience said:

Chewing on coco puff while drinking kool-aid on 'em as we speak how about you, baby?

theAudience said:

'Xactly

Harlepolis said:

You know, just chillin', tryin' to get some skillin'.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

Denice Williams.

paligap said:

I think that's it. http://www.campusprogram....nging.html

Scat singing is vocalizing either wordlessly or with nonsense words and syllables as employed by jazz singers who create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using only the voice. Thus it is a type of mouth music.
While the use of nonsense syllables in singing long predates scat, scat singing is distinguished by the fact that rather than using the sounds to exactly reproduce the melodic line, improvisations are made with the melody and rhythm, much as in other jazz improvisation.

Before the national spread of jazz, a type of scat singing was already in use by ragtime vocalists. Ragtime pioneer Ben Harney and New Orleans pianist Tony Jackson were said to be scat singing in the early years of the 20th century. One early master of ragtime scat singing was Gene Greene who recorded scat choruses in his song "King of the Bungaloos" several times from 1909 on. Popular entertainer Al Jolson even scatted through a few bars in the middle of his 1911 recording of "That Haunting Melody".

A frequently repeated legend alleges that Louis Armstrong invented scat singing on the spot when he dropped the lyric sheet while singing on his recording of "Heebie Jeebies" in 1926; the story is false and Armstrong himself made no such claim. Jazz musicians Don Redman and Red Nichols both recorded examples of scat earlier than Armstrong. However the record "Heebie Jeebies" and subsequent Armstrong recordings introduced scat singing to a wider audience and did much to popularize the style. Armstrong was an experimental and innovative singer who fooled around with all sorts of sounds, and improvised with his voice as he did on his instrument. In one famous example, Armstrong scatted on "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas" where he shouts out "I done forgot the words" in the middle of recording before taking off in scat.

According to Dick Higgins, "In Black American music there is a sound poetry tradition, possibly based originally on work calls, which we find [transformed] into the scat singing of the popular music of the 1930s, in the long nonsense-like passages in Cab Calloway's singing of 'Minnie the Moocher', for example."

bobby mcferrin

I never understood this concept either until I recently heard Chaka sing live. Now I know exactly what Miles meant when he said her voice sounds like a trumpet. I was looking at the band trying to figure out where the horn player was until I discovered it was her!

okaypimpn said:

That's funny as hell!

is that an actual trumpet at the beginning of 'sometimes it snows in april' or is it prince singing like a trumpet? cuz it's just that one little toot and that's all the trumpet-sounding noise ya hear.

in which case, i'd say prince sings like an instrument sometimes.

Cleo Laine sounds a whole lot like a clarinet.

And when Rosie Gaines gets going, she sounds like a muted trombone.

And then there's Christina Aguillera.

Bjork
Prince
Christina Aguilera
Mike Patton


They all strike me as vocalists more than just 'singers'.

mrdespues said:

Patton absolutely!

Mr. Bungle, Fantomas and his solo work are all proof of that. The man not only is a great singer but his voice is a percussive instrument all its own.

Expecially on the first Fantomas album where there are no lyrics to be heard of. It twists into bursts of chaos followed by Mike twisting and turning his voice into sounds that can't even begin to be described.

Granted it verges into what some would call death metal territory, but it's all orchestrated in a way where you can sometimes feel exhausted after listening to an album-yet you're hooked.

Mr. Bungle is another that is more lyric based (the most being California), but there's that same use of going between styles with a bizarre fluidity that's chaotic, but not in the same sense.

I've loved his work since Faith No More, but I reccommend Mr. Bungle and Fantomas to anyone with an open mind (as they verge into heavier and more chaotic noise territory at times) and wants to be challenged and at many times awed by something they've never quite heard before.

For me, it definitely adds a new approach to what the rules of a song should or can be and what the limits are.

I always thought Prince sounds a bit "clarinet"-ish.

Bobby McFerrin
Al Jarreau
Phil Perry
Tonex

Lalah Hathaway
Rachelle Ferrell

Patti Labelle sounded like a saxophone on The Best Is Yet To Come.

Then of course there are the human beat-boxes. Watching the Making of Medulla dvd and seeing those guys make those beats was amazing. They really sound like snares and bass drums!

subhuman09 said:

Yeah, Bungle is awesome (have all their albums - California is the best, with Disco Volante a close second). Also have all of faith no more's work (with patton, that is). I like that first fantomas record too, but never got around to buying their next two.

Diamanda Galas's voice is sometimes used as weapon, sometimes as an instrument, depending on her mood.

Lisa Gerrard is a vocalist that to me evokes a huge string section of an ochestra.

E(Liz)abeth Fraser (from the Cocteau Twins) uses her voice in a ton of different ways that are instrumentalish.

VinaBlue said:

Not false and Louis DID claim that. In the Ken Burns's movie "Jazz" they showed an old interview footage of Satchmo talking about the "Heebie Jeebies" recording and how he improvised with meaningless words(I.E. scatting) becoz at that period, time was so precious in the studio you have no time to record more than one take.

Whoever wrote that article don't know what he's talking about.

Artist like Patti, Anita Baker should be added to the list.

George Benson always sings exactly the notes he plays on his guitar. Personally I can not stand Al Jarreau!

Harlepolis said:

You already gave them. It is how they stretch notes while singing. Prince does it on many a record.

But my favest notestretcher is Mahalia Jackson. She never 'just' delivered a line, but used the outer limits of her vocal chords to get a certain feeling across.

Lately it is people like Kate Bush and Bjork that really carry on that tradition in popular music, as they explored their vocal chord too in manners never heard quite like that before.

Just calling out names of people who use their voice to imitate instruments is too easy. I think it has to do with the emotion evoked in every way your voice allows you to. You know I am not talking the Whitney's, Mariah's or Beyonce's here. Where Mahalia''s voice invokes Heaven, those girls voices just invoke carnival.

abierman said:

Prince does that too. Is why I love to be near the stage whenever he solo's; you can sometimes HEAR him scream his guitar notes....

GooeyTheHamster said:

true

mrdespues said:

Have all the Bungle as well, Fantomas too-you might actually like Director's Cut quite a bit.

It's them doing interpretations of classic film themes, leaning on the more obscure-with one of my favorites on it being "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" with Mike adding in lyrics in some cases. For "Henry" he repeats "It's either you or them."

I love Director's Cut, but their most recent, Delirium Cordia is harder to get into I think for most people, myself included. It's a 74 minute concept album that's only one track, it runs in a cycle from lulling you into sleep to waking you up with chaos-basically it seems to be about a dentist appointment gone horribly wrong.

It's unnerving, but you have to make time for it-an album at least for me is a good 2 in the morning listen with a pitch black room and your eyes closed to fully get into it.

Of the two, I'd get Director's Cut right now (it's great), but either buy Delirium at a discount, or see if a friend has a copy to get an idea.

When something is 74 minutes, one track as an album it's not exactly going to be easy to get into-which I love about Fantomas, but it's pretty out there to me even as a huge fan.