VOCAL JAZZ

Improvisation is the essence of Jazz; instrumental improvisation that is. When Jazz is sung, it is bound to a text, which itself is based on a unique composition.
Improvisation gets lost, unless the singer is overconfident and modifies the tonal sequence maintaining the lyrics. Or they add an occasional meaningless squiggle or insert a syllable of embarrassment.

The only exception is scat, the sung improvisation without lyrics. Only very few living singers master this technique. Among the deceased artists are Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.

Why are so many new young singers presented today? Perhaps because the billion-$ rock-based pop scene limits itself exclusively to vocal music. The majority of new vocalists given time on the air, however, are second rate jazzers at best.
If the young ladies and gents, endeavouring to belong to the Jazz set, are no longer willing or able to learn an instrument (perhaps because singing is so "simple"), then it would be better to return to the "band singers" of lore. In the thirties to fifties vocalists had their chorus or two on equal levels with instrumental soloists in the same tune, but not as misplaced Jazz-primadonnas.

To re-establish Jazz in the foreground, vocals of the kind available today should be featured equally frequent in a Jazz programme as, say, a trombone solo.

Our high-school singing instructor used to say: "The most beautiful of all instruments is the human voice!" - Already then, I considered this the apex of boastfulness.

Fortunately, I am not alone with my concern about the developments in Jazz. To close this consideration, here's the interview of Jazz pianist Peter Jacques with the late Oscar Peterson at the 1985 Jazz Festival in Bern:

Peter Jacques:
"Are you sad to see a lot of electronic instruments coming up in Jazz?"