Vocalese

Lore & Background

Vocalese emerged as a distinct style in the late 1940s, with King Pleasure recording several pioneering examples beginning in 1952. The style's best-known practitioners and popularisers are Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, consisting of Jon Hendricks, Dave Lambert and Annie Ross. Most vocalese lyrics are entirely syllabic, as opposed to melismatic, which may lead to many words sung quickly in a given phrase, especially in bebop.

In the 'first wave' of vocalese creation, it sometimes took the form of a tribute to the original instrumentalist. Notable later works include The Manhattan Transfer's Grammy-winning version of Weather Report's 'Birdland' featuring lyrics by Jon Hendricks, and Hendricks' 1990 release 'Freddie Freeloader', a vocalese rendition of the Miles Davis song featuring Al Jarreau, George Benson, and Bobby McFerrin. Joni Mitchell recorded lyrics to Charles Mingus's tunes on her 1979 album 'Mingus'.

Reader's Guide

Vocalese represents a significant development in jazz vocal performance, bridging instrumental improvisation and lyrical storytelling. By setting words to existing instrumental solos, it creates a unique form of tribute and interpretation, allowing singers to engage directly with the instrumental tradition. The style's emphasis on syllabic singing and rapid delivery, particularly in bebop contexts, demands considerable technical skill. Its practitioners have included a wide range of performers from King Pleasure to Kurt Elling, and it has spread internationally with groups like Les Double Six in France and Emilie-Claire Barlow in Canada. Vocalese remains distinct from scat singing, though some performers combine both approaches. The term itself, coined by Leonard Feather, reflects the style's nature as a language-like extension of vocalise.

Did You Know?

• The term 'vocalese' was coined by jazz critic Leonard Feather to describe the style of King Pleasure.
• Most vocalese lyrics are entirely syllabic, as opposed to melismatic.
• King Pleasure recorded several pioneering examples of vocalese beginning in 1952.
• Some performers combine vocalese improvisations with scat singing.

Definition, Etymology, and Distinction from Scat

Vocalese is a jazz vocal technique in which a singer takes an existing instrumental solo and fits recognizable, meaningful lyrics onto its melodic contour. This sets it apart sharply from scat singing, where performers improvise with nonsensical syllables such as "bap ba dee dot bwee dee." The very name is a playful linguistic construction: it borrows the musical term "vocalise"—a wordless vocal exercise—and appends the suffix "-ese," evoking a particular language or dialect. The term was coined by jazz critic Leonard Feather, who credited Jon Hendricks with the coinage. Feather applied it to describe the landmark album Sing a Song of Basie by the trio Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross. In the earliest phase of the form, the act of mapping words onto a solo sometimes served as a direct tribute to the instrumentalist whose performance was being reimagined, lending the practice an additional layer of musical homage.

Pioneers and the Central Figures

King Pleasure stands among the earliest artists to explore this territory, recording several pioneering vocalese tracks beginning in 1949. Nevertheless, the form's most celebrated champions remain the trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross—comprising Jon Hendricks, Dave Lambert, and Annie Ross—whose work brought the style to broad popular attention. Hendricks went on to become a central architect of the genre's ongoing evolution. In 1990 he released "Freddie Freeloader," a vocalese interpretation of the Miles Davis composition, featuring collaborations with Al Jarreau, George Benson, and Bobby McFerrin. The Manhattan Transfer also achieved major recognition with their Grammy-winning arrangement of Weather Report's "Birdland," which notably featured lyrics written by Hendricks himself. Collectively, these practitioners transformed vocalese from a niche studio technique into a widely recognized and celebrated facet of jazz vocal performance.

A Global and Cross-Genre Roster

Beyond the most famous names, vocalese has attracted a remarkably diverse roster of performers spanning decades and continents. Bob Dorough, Eddie Jefferson, Giacomo Gates, Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau, Mark Murphy, and Roger Miller are all recognized for their contributions to the style. Joni Mitchell, in a striking cross-genre move, set lyrics to Charles Mingus compositions, including "The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines" and "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," on her 1979 album Mingus. The form has also found fertile ground internationally: Les Double Six gained popularity in the 1960s, and in Canada, Emilie-Claire Barlow has carried the tradition forward. New York Voices and The Royal Bopsters represent yet another generation engaging with the form. This breadth of practitioners, spanning pop, jazz, and world-music contexts, underscores vocalese's adaptability and enduring appeal across cultural boundaries.

Syllabic Craft and Hybrid Performance

A defining technical feature of most vocalese is its reliance on syllabic delivery—each note receives its own distinct syllable—rather than the melismatic approach in which a single syllable stretches across multiple pitches. This constraint can produce the effect of rapid-fire word sequences, a challenge that becomes especially pronounced when the underlying solo is in the bebop idiom, where melodic lines are dense and rhythmically complex. The form also frequently intersects with scat singing. Several performers, including Slim Gaillard, Harry Gibson, Cab Calloway, and Leo Watson, are known for blending vocalese improvisations with traditional scat within the same performance. This hybrid approach allows singers to shift fluidly between meaningful lyrics and free-form vocal percussion, creating a dynamic dialogue between language and pure sound that enriches the overall texture of the musical experience.