buffalmacco76, March 14, 2010
live in berlin '69
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series on Jazz scatting and the inclusion of the Jazz scatting phrase "scooby doo" in some versions the "Miss Sue From Alabama" children's rhyme.
This post presents definitions for and article extracts about Jazz scatting.
The Addendum to this post also presents information about Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan who often included scatting in her performances. A partial transcription of Sarah Vaughan's song "Sassy's Blues".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/11/information-about-miss-sue-from-alabama.html for Part II of this pancocojams post. Part II presents some information about the children's rhyme "Miss Sue From Alabama" (or similar names). Part II also presents some examples of that rhyme which include the scat phrase "scooby-do-wah" or which include the phrase or cartoon dog's name "Scooby Doo".
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Sarah Vaughan and all Jazz singers whose repertoire included/includes Jazz scatting. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.
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ARTICLE EXCERPTS ABOUT SCATTING
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Excerpt #1:
https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630 "Scat singing (jazz)"
J. Bradford Robinson
Extract
“[Scat singing is] A technique of jazz Singing in which
onomatopoeic or nonsense syllables are sung to improvised melodies. Some
writers have traced scat singing back to the practice, common in West African
musics, of translating percussion patterns into vocal lines by assigning
syllables to characteristic rhythms. However, since this allows little scope
for melodic improvisation and the earliest recorded examples of jazz scat
singing involved the free invention of rhythm, melody, and syllables, it is
more likely that the technique began in the USA as singers imitated the sounds
of jazz instrumentalists.
Scat singing was used in early New Orleans jazz, as
demonstrated by Jelly Roll Morton in his Scat Song (1938, Library of Congress).
Morton gave the credit for originating the practice to Joe Simms of Vicksburg.
The most celebrated early instances are by Louis Armstrong, whose highly
successful recording Heebie Jeebies (1926, OK 8300) established his reputation
as a jazz singer; his early scat solos rival his trumpet improvisations in
virtuosity, range of feeling, and variety of attacks and timbres.”…
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Excerpt #2
https://www.britannica.com/art/scat-music
"Scat, also called Scat Singing, in music, jazz vocal style
using emotive, onomatopoeic, and nonsense syllables instead of words in solo
improvisations on a melody. Scat has dim antecedents in the West African
practice of assigning fixed syllables to percussion patterns, but the style was
made popular by trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong from 1927 on. The popular
theory that scat singing began when a vocalist forgot the lyrics may be true,
but this origin does not explain the persistence of the style. Earlier, as an
accompanist to singers, notably the blues singer Bessie Smith, Armstrong played
riffs that took on vocalization qualities. His scat reversed the process. Later
scat singers fitted their styles, all individualized, to the music of their
times. Ella Fitzgerald phrased her scat with the fluidity of a saxophone.
Earlier, Cab Calloway became known as the “Hi-De-Ho” man for his wordless
choruses. Sarah Vaughan’s improvisations included bebop harmonic advances of
the 1940s. By the mid-1960s Betty Carter was exploiting extremes of range and
flexibility of time similar to those of saxophonist John Coltrane. The vocal
trio Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross also phonetically imitated horn solos. In the
1960s the Swingle Singers recorded classical numbers using scat syllables but
generally without improvisation."
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Excerpt #3
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scat_singing
"In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with
wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all.[2][3] In scat
singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms using the voice as an
instrument rather than a speaking medium.
Characteristics
Structure and syllable choice
Though scat singing is improvised, the melodic lines are
often variations on scale and arpeggio fragments, stock patterns and riffs, as
is the case with instrumental improvisers. As well, scatting usually
incorporates musical structure. All of Ella Fitzgerald's scat performances of
"How High the Moon," for instance, use the same tempo, begin with a
chorus of a straight reading of the lyric, move to a "specialty
chorus" introducing the scat chorus, and then the scat itself.[4] Will
Friedwald has compared Ella Fitzgerald to Chuck Jones directing his Roadrunner
cartoon—each uses predetermined formulas in innovative ways.[4]
The deliberate choice of scat syllables is also a key
element in vocal jazz improvisation. Syllable choice influences the pitch
articulation, coloration, and resonance of the performance.[5] Syllable choice
also differentiated jazz singers' personal styles: Betty Carter was inclined
to use sounds like "louie-ooie-la-la-la" (soft-tongued sounds or
liquids) while Sarah Vaughan would prefer "shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee"
(fricatives, plosives, and open vowels).[6] The choice of scat syllables
can also be used to reflect the sounds of different instruments. The comparison
of the scatting styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan reveals that
Fitzgerald's improvisation mimics[a] the sounds of swing-era big bands with
which she performed, while Vaughan's mimics[b] that of her accompanying bop-era
small combos.[10]”…
-snip-
I added italics to highlight this sentence.
***
Excerpt #4
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AScat_singing
[...]
"Informative?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't an article on scat
singing include a cliche example? "Schoobee shoobaba doo baba fluble wop
do do ee o?" or the like? The article seems to beat around the bush."...
-snip-
This quote doesn't include any identification of the writer or publishing date. That portion continues with an identified commenter agreeing with that statement.
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Excerpt #5
From https://www.newsounds.org/story/13706-where-scooby-doo-really-came/ "Where Scooby Doo Really Came From" by John Schaefer, 2/18/2010
"Among my favorite pieces of bathroom graffiti is this terse
philosophical summary:
To do is to be. -- Jean Paul Sartre
Doo-be-doo-be-doo -- Frank Sinatra
Now, Frank Sinatra may have been many things, but a
scattin’, be-boppin’ hep cat was not one of them. Still, when he
doo-be-doo-be-doo’ed his way through the end of the hit 1966 song “Strangers In
The Night,” it showed just how mainstream scat singing had become. And any
lingering doubts were dispelled when the hit cartoon series Scooby Doo Where
Are You began running in the early 70s. Even a kid like me knew what the
name Scooby Doo referred to.
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong often incorporated scat
in their singing, but for me, the real revelation of how musical scatting could
be came when I discovered the music of Betty Roché. A former Ellington singer
who had the misfortune to be working with Duke during the recording ban of
World War II, Roché released a single album in the 50s, called Take The A
Train. It featured a bunch of Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn compositions, an
absolute killer version of “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man of Mine,” and songs
where Roché sings one verse and then spends practically the whole rest of the
song scatting. And some of the scatting wasn’t the usual
“shooby-dooby-doolya-da” stuff – she breaks into phrases like “Frankie and
Johnny were lovers” (while scatting over the changes from “Route 66”), and “I
cover the waterfront” – brief allusions to older songs that have become jazz
standards. For me this was a learning experience, because while she was
obviously singing these phrases for a reason, and I didn’t know what that
reason was. Eventually I’d track down some of the old songs that people like
Betty Roché and Ella Fitzgerald would quote from in their scatting – almost a
be-bop predecessor to hip-hop’s sampling techniques.”…
-snip-
I added italics to highlight this phrase.
ADDENDUM
INFORMATION ABOUT SARAH VAUGHAN
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Vaughan
"Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990)
was an American jazz singer.
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A PARTIAL TRANSCRIPTION OF ONE OF SARAH VAUGHAN'S SCATTING SONGS-
I haven't found any online transcription of Sarah Vaughan singing "Scat Blues". However, click https://genius.com/Sarah-vaughan-sassys-blues-lyrics for a transcription of Sarah Vaughan's song "Sassy's Blues" that almost totally consist of scatting. Here's a portion of a transcription of that song from https://genius.com/Sarah-vaughan-sassys-blues-lyrics [from Récital à Paris, 1985 (2015)
"Shedood n' doo shadepe da doop do aah shobe ah wow-boo dee you dee
Shadood n' doo shadepe da doop do aah shobe ah daboo dee you dee
Shadood n' doo shadepe da doop do aah shobe ah daboo dee you dee
Sha-ba-ba-da dolya-dol-u-u-u-u bundo bum dwey
Sha-ba-ba-da dotee dolya dolya dopa dolya doopen doopen doopen de yaw/
Sha ba bom'do bom'do bom'de yaww
Shadapa dalia now dalia daw dalia daw bezertly ah lovey dar lee can dowee"...
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