In doing some research, I became fascinated (and then more than fascinated - hence the Blog title), with the vocal style known as Vocalese.
Now... this incorporates a number of things, some of which I'm still not entirely a fan of. But frankly, when I heard things like Annie Ross doing her version of "Farmer's Market" - I was blown away. Maybe I should explain.
Trumpeter Art Farmer wrote a tune called "Farmer's Market". Then Annie Ross got her hands on it and wrote lyrics to it. Not lyrics that were complimentary of the melody, but words that take the place of the trumpet - note for note. Her lyrics and delivery follow every nuance of his performance - solo and all!
Perhaps none of this would be surprising to anyone who knows that she won a songwriting contest when she was 14, the result of which was her tune "Let's Fly" being recorded by Johnny Mercer. Or that she wrote her first vocalese before there was even a term for it (her version of Wardell Gray's "Twisted") over the course of 24 hours when she was 22 years old.
Check it out:
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