…and other such singers? (Sammy Davis Jr., Mel Tormé, Nat King Cole, Harry Connick Jr.).
I always thought they would be considered Jazz singers, yet I don’t think they fit the purists’ definition of Jazz (they generally don’t improvise, scat sing, and so on), maybe “pop” - but that can include just about anything…or “standards” - but that is more a reference to certain songs.
(I do know Nat King Cole was a respected Jazz pianist, but is mainly known now for his ‘pop’ vocals)
My mom suggested “lounge music”, but I associate that name more with bad teal blue suits and clattering hotel bars. I suppose that would fall under that category though.
Does anyone have a better name than “Jazzy Pop Standard Singing”?
Except for some scat, which is jazz, (Torme) those mentioned, particularly Sinatra & Bennett ,are the epitome of pop. Having produced a few songs & been a college DJ, I have a good handle on music, & if these two NYC area paisons aren’t pop, then Elvis was a rapper.
Sinatra was a “crooner” in his first incarnation. “Crooning” was originally made popular by Bing Crosby and was a musical style wherein the lyrics were sung in a more conversational phrasing. It went out of style and Sinatra changed his style as well. Tony Bennett has always created Louis Armstrong as being his major vocal influence, and he’s never been seen as a “crooner.”
They were “pop” singers, in that the songs in their repertoire were generally popular standards, even though Bennett had taken to singing a wider range of songs. His recent work with KD Lang is pretty good stuff. A few years ago he played at Harbor Center in Portsmouth and I had the good fortune to see him. Great voice and stage prescence. He’s still got it. I also spoke to the City Manger after the show and he told me that the day of the perfromance, Bennett had come down to the hotel dining room for lunch and learned that a woman sitting at a nearby table was celebrating a birthday. When her dessert was delivered he went over and sang “Happy Birthday” to her. She, and her lady guests, melted (as you might expect). What a generous thing to do.
Wow. It’s interesting to see how out of the mainstream this stuff has become, if no one knows what it’s called.
It’s Jazz vocals, pure and simple.
NEVER call it lounge–never never never. Lounge singing is what Bill Murray parodied on the old SNL–and ONLY that. Lounge singing is BY DEFINITION bottom of the barrel, jazz WANNABEs, stuck in suburban Hotel LOUNGES singing “jazzy” versions of “Feelings.”
Sinatra and Bennett–and Fitzgerald and Carter and Armstrong and Dearie–and today’s youngsters, e.g. Diana Krall and Holly Cole and Patricia Barber–are all Jazz singers, and they would roll over in their graves (or put you in yours) if they ever heard you call them anything else.
You’re answering the wrong question, Breezy. The question to which your answer is the correct one is: “How do most record store misfile Sinatra and Bennett?”
Well, I dunno…Torme is definitely jazz. Sinatra is a toss-up. The early recordings with Tommy Dorsey’s band were obviously jazz. The famous 1950’s Columbia recordings, though…I dunno. I hesitate to call Nelson Riddle’s or Billy May’s arrangements jazz. Then again, on the live early '60s recordings from Australia and Paris he’s backed by Red Norvo and a hot jazz combo. And there are those famous albums with Count Basie, and with Duke Ellington…
I solved this problem around my house by creating a separate filing system for vocals, right after jazz. So Torme and Sinatra live there, along with stone jazzers Sarah Vaughan and Joe Williams, plus folks like Rudy Vallee, Dinah Washington, Ute Lemper, Slim Gaillard, Jerry Butler, Abbey Lincoln, Edith Piaf, the Mills Brothers, Paul Robeson, the Ink Spots, Alberta Hunter, Ernie Kovacs, Helen Merrill, the Comedian Harmonists, and John McCormack.
Sure it’s a weird group, but wouldn’t you like to have 'em all over to your house for a party?
Frank Sinatra was the second or third best jazz singer of all time. Can ever squeak he ever uttered by classified as pure jazz? Maybe not. That’s hardly a reason to quibble over whether Frank Sinatra was a jazz singer. There’s simply no room for quibbling: the question has a definitive answer.
Just because, for example, Kenny G is a bad jazz saxophonist doesn’t mean he’s not a jazz saxophonists; just because you can insert qualifiers in a description of some of Sinatra’s less “pure” stuff doesn’t change the fact of who and what he was.
Frank did do one incest number. A love tune w/ daughter Nancy , “Somethin’ Stupid,” in 1967. The incest angle must have turned him off, tho’ . It’s the only single that made it to #one, w/o a follow up. (Assuming nobody died). Father & daughter never did another record.
I usually go to ALL MUSIC GUIDE for my musical questions like this. According to them the GENRE is VOCAL but the STYLE is listed as VOCAL JAZZ and TRADITIONAL POP.
You can check all of them
out at:
