jazz vocals
Crooning over swing
Jazz vocals refers to singing in the jazz idiom, characterized by improvisation, rhythmic flexibility, and techniques like scatting—wordless syllables used melodically.
Jazz singers often treat the voice as an instrument, bending notes, varying phrasing, and reinterpreting standards with personal style: She studied jazz vocals at Berklee.
The term covers both the art form and academic study of it.
- spiritualsEnslaved people's sacred songs
- scat singingNonsense-syllable jazz vocals
- syncopationStressed unexpected beats
- phrasingManner of expressing something
- microphone techniqueSkill in sound capture positioning
Ella Fitzgerald · Nina Simone · blue notes · Chet Baker · vocal runs · breath control · speakeasies · smoke-filled room · Louis Armstrong · Harlem Renaissance · bebop · Nat King Cole · big band era · vibrato · torch song · torch singer · Billie Holiday · call-and-response
- American Singingspirituals, blues, country, gospel, barbershop
- music genresblues, pop, rock, classical, rock music
- vocal musicsong, soprano, tenor, alto, baritone
- vocal songslieder, folk ballads, love songs, ballads, chansons
- jazz singingscat singing, scat, vocalese, crooning, torch song
- female vocalssoprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, alto, chanteuse
jazz vocalsopera
Theatrical art combining song
Gregorian chant · art song · lieder · barbershop quartet · choral music
jazz vocalsbel canto
Elegant Italian vocal style
coloratura · sight-singing · karaoke · hymn singing · backing vocals