Jazzmen - As - Vocalists
Jazzmen - As - Vocalists
This small grouping came together one dark rainy fall Friday night after a long tiring week of work. It was also a night to celebrate my husband’s birthday and listen to the birthday album I’d found for him - Chet Baker Sings album ‘It Could Happen to you’.
But that wasn’t the album that started the night.
The evening began with Miles Davis ‘Kind of Blue’ album playing gently in the background…accompanied by a homemade pasta dinner and a glass of yummy red wine. There are no vocals on this album, an album that many consider to be one of the top 10 Best Ever Jazz Albums (and I would put it in my top 10 :)). After dinner, we transitioned to jazz musicians who also sing, not knowing what an incredible treat we had in store!
We began with Chet Baker Sings album ‘It Could Happen to You’. I don’t really know anything about jazz…but wow…what an incredible treat! As the back of the album points out, Chet Baker isn’t ‘known’ for his singing but there ‘is a sort of consistency you’d expect in the stylistic similarity between Chet’s singing, playing and wordless vocalizing’. While his singing sounds controlled and almost unemotional, to me it feels completely the opposite. It feels raw, emotional and real. I’ve never been a ‘cool’ person…but I sure felt ‘cool’ listening to this album.
Now that we were listening to jazzmen - as - vocalists, the next natural step was the everlasting distinctive vocals of jazzman Louis Armstrong and his album ‘Hello Dolly’. Even I can recognize Louis Armstrong deep gravely voice. We were now fully settled into our evening, snuggled up in front of a roaring fire with our red wine slowly evaporating, listening to Louis Armstrong having fun with the songs on this album. We couldn’t stop ourselves from singing along.
It was getting late for us but we didn’t want the evening to end. We figured we had time for at least one more album before it would be getting to be past our bedtime…and the wine running out. That’s when we landed on a bit of Blues…Howlin’ Wolf’s album Change My Way. Like Jazz, I’m new to the Blues. And I can’t describe Howlin’ Wolf’s singing any better than he is described right on the back of the album…’intense and smoldering’. As for me, I’d have three words to describe his vocals: fully satisfying, powerful and compelling.
Sadly the evening ended…and the wine did run out. But I can hardly wait until another magical evening of discovering a music world I hadn’t known existed. What an adventure!
