Lyrics Added To Jazz Tunes

[paul secor]

It's been years since I've seen it, but to the best of my memory, there was a scene in the film Bird where Chan and Charlie Parker are listening to the radio and King Pleasure's version of "Parker's Mood" comes on. Chan's character hates the fact that words have been added to Bird's music. Bird's character says he doesn't mind the words. I have a musician friend who can't stand the lyrics that Jon Hendricks added to "In Walked Bud" on the Underground Monk record, though he likes the rest of the record.

I'm sort of in between. I don't mind the lyrics when I hear them, but I get annoyed when I hear an instrumental version of a tune and also hear the lyrics in my head. I can't listen to an instrumental version of the above tunes, "Sister Sadie", or "Song for My Father", to name a few offhand, without hearing the lyrics.

Anyone else here have any feelings or thoughts about this?

[Rooster_Ties]

I'm a bad person to ask this question of, because I pretty much have zero interest in vocal jazz.

So from my perspective, almost by definition, adding lyrics to a jazz tune is always a very bad idea!!

[mikeweil]

Interesting observation; there actually seems to be a "lyrical" type of listener. I can always discriminate in my mind between the instrumental and/or vocal version(s) of a tune I hear. And I think the lyrics, especially when written by some jazz expert like Jon Hendricks, Eddie Jefferson or King Pleasure, add another dimension to the piece, as the jazz world is their subject.

BTW, it was really Charlie Parker who didn't like the lyrics to Parker's Mood, he didn't want to hear about his own funeral .....

[P.D.]

Some I like, asome I don't.. depends on the content of the lyric.. but I have to admit, like Paul, sometimes it's hard to listen to the original due to te vocalese version.

Twisted immediately comes to mind. I like the hip funny Annie Ross lyric but it runs through my head everytime I play the Wardell

Same with the Basies from L.H.R...just about all of them

Dig Count Basie Blow joe's blues away.......

Hmmn even responding to the thread has got me doing it.

[Jim R]

This is one of those topics (as with the topic of whether or not one likes Chet Baker's singing) where I can easily sympathize with the "complaint", even if I don't completely feel the same way. I do enjoy jazz vocals to a degree- including Chet, and I enjoy vocalese to a degree, but I can understand why some wouldn't. I don't listen to a lot of vocalese, so the problem of "lyric intrusion" when I'm listening to a classic instrumental recording doesn't crop up very often for me. A lot of vocalese lyrics leave me unimpressed (and as much as I enjoy Eddie Jefferson's singing, I'd say in general that his lyrics are among those). I am of the opinion that Jon Hendricks is a genius of a writer, and listening to his better efforts is always very rewarding to me. I also enjoy most of his vocals, despite the rather unusual quality of his voice. Just one of those personal taste things...

BTW, my all-time favorite vocalese album is LH&R's "The Swingers" (World Pac), which unfortunately has been OOP for years.

[Dan Gould]

Good topic!

I think over-all, you can count me on the lyric side of this one.

I have always loved "Corner Pocket" but I also reallly love Joe Williams' recording of the lyrics, "Until I Met You" (and a parenthetical note here, I asked once about other lyrical performances and also who might have written those words. I believe someone suggested Jon Hendricks but I recently picked up the Four Tops first album when they were still singing jazz and the credits there say "Green-Wolfe" so since Freddie Green wrote the tune, this Wolfe individual must have written the lyrics).

Anywhoo ...

I have really come to dig Giacomo Gates' vocals and he has written some excellent lyrics, including words to "Take Five" (which you can only hear him sing in person because the Desmond estate refused to allow a recording of it, simply because the Manhattan Transfer already recorded a vocal version; its really terrible as the lyrics are really excellent, but it does give him an entertaining story to tell before he does the tune) and also Lee Morgan's "Speedball". On the latter, I've actually heard Morgan's version and started to hear Gates' lyrics but it really doesn't bother me in the least. I take it as a signal that he wrote "good" words to the tune!

[Jazzmoose]

Twisted immediately comes to mind. I like the hip funny Annie Ross lyric but it runs through my head everytime I play the Wardell

If this was the only song where vocalese had worked, it would be reason enough to keep trying!

In the abstract, vocalese just sounds like a bad idea to me, but I keep hearing examples that I like. Admittedly, most involve Jon Hendricks.

And bad vocalese doesn't bother me nearly as much as bad scat...

[Harold_Z]

LHR's "Home Cookin'" always comes to mind for me - "Twisted" also. I dig it - and in the case of "Home Cookin'" actually heard the LHR version before I heard heard Horace's. It didn't deter from my enjoyment at all and I really think LHR was VERY creative in there lyric writing and delivery (King Pleasure and Eddie Jeferson too.)

Chaka Khan did a nice "Twisted" also.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

The legal status is such that the publisher must approve any lyrics added to the original composition. I've been told there can only be ONE approved set of lyrics for a tune. However, the official set can CHANGE - this happened with Body and Soul, for example. So the reason why the new lyrics to "Take Five" cannot be approved is that the estate doesn't want to make them the new approved version. Same situation with many of the wonderful lyrics by Jon Hendricks. There were big problems after he wrote lyrics to "Li'l Darlin'" - I think it was Neal Hefti himself who had written a set and he wasn't about to change. This is also why tunes with lyrics added sometimes get different titles - "Sing Joy Spring" instead of "Joy Spring," for example.

There are quite a few sets of alternate lyrics out there. About four or five for "Round Midnight." Also, I have heard about some great new lyrics that Red Mitchell wrote - can't recall the standard right now.

And strictly speaking, vocalese is the setting of lyrics to the *solos* not the melodies. What Hendricks does is nothing short of amazing - telling coherent, interesting stories and fitting it to complicated (originally) improvised lines. Check out how he wrote lyrics to *his own* scat solo on "Airegin" (from the aforementioned The Swingers album) on the Manhattan Transfer album Vocalese.

Mike

[Jim R]

And strictly speaking, vocalese is the setting of lyrics to the *solos* not the melodies.

Another way of putting it (perhaps less confusing to those who haven't checked out much vocalese) would be to say that the act of setting lyrics to solos is what differentiates vocalese from simpler types of lyric writing. In other words, vocalese lyric writers do set lyrics to the melodies as well as the solos, but it's the more elaborate and difficult craft of setting lyrics to the solos that really makes the art form special.

[Jazzmoose]

...but it's the more elaborate and difficult craft of setting lyrics to the solos that really makes the art form special.

Not to mention the breakneck speed at which some of the resulting lyrics must be sung...

[Michael Fitzgerald]

That's a reasonable distinction, but there are probably cases where only the solos are given lyrics - meaning the "normal" lyrics are used for the melody.

Is this the case with the MT version of "Night in Tunisia" with Hendricks and McFerrin? I can't really recall. But in most cases, vocalese performances take a *specific* recording as a model, so even when Hendricks does Miles & Coltrane doing "Round Midnight" he doesn't use his own lyrics for the regular Monk tune, he alters them to fit exactly how Miles paraphrases it.

As for the tempos, I enjoy playing some great vocalese when students say that bebop solos aren't "lyrical."

Mike

[A Lark Ascending]

I love jazz vocals so really enjoy it when lyrics are put to instrumentals. The only problem is that the words are rarely much cop (in the poetic sense), especially those that go for the 'hipster' argot.

However, after a few listens my brain usually tunes the meaning out (a bit like when listening to Jon Anderson's lyrics for Yes...though thinking about it they have no meaning whatsoever!!!) and I can just enjoy the delicious sound of a great vocalist weaving through a great tune.

I especially liked Tierney Sutton's version of 'Speak No Evil' - I'm not sure who did the lyrics but it makes a great vocal number.

One of the most consistent composers of lyrics for jazz tunes is Norma Winstone. Although her words tend to verge on the twee at times she turns jazz tunes into marvellous vocal vehicles. Even better, she goes for less obvious tunes - Steve Swallow, Ralph Towner, Egberto Gismonti...and, of course, John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler.

I'd love to hear her do John Surman's 'Tess.'

[Noj]

I have Eddie Jefferson's VOCAL EASE on 32 and I really dig it, especially his versions of "So What" and "Night In Tunisia." I file him next to Gil-Scott Heron and Oscar Brown, Jr.. B)

[Alexander]

I like vocalese, and when it's done well, it can be wonderful. I'm surprised that no one has singled out King Pleasure's recording of "Moody's Mood for Love" with Blossom Dearie, probably one of the best vocalese records ever. And it doesn't bother me to listen to James Moody doing "I'm in the Mood For Love" and hearing the words in my head. It usually makes me want to sing along (same thing with Bob Dorough's version of "Yardbird Suite"). "There I go, there I go, there I go, there...I...go..."

You want to talk about breakneck speed, listen to LHR doing "Cloudburst"!

[Jim R]

That's a reasonable distinction, but there are probably cases where only the solos are given lyrics - meaning the "normal" lyrics are used for the melody.

I'm sure that's true, but now I'm wondering if my general impression of the art form is accurate. As I said above, I don't own or listen to a great deal of vocalese, so I don't consider myself a real expert here. The thing is, your comments have got me thinking about what types of songs (in general) were used as vehicles. I think I tended to associate vocalese more with tunes that were originally written as instrumentals, thus my decision to point out that vocalese lyricists do write lyrics for the melodies quite frequently, if not in the majority of cases (my current impression).

You mention "A Night In Tunisia" and "Round Midnight". I'll admit I'm a little foggy concerning the origins of the "normal" (as you referred to them) lyrics- and earliest recordings of them- for these and other tunes that were originally written as instrumentals. Some classic tunes like these had lyrics written for the melodies before the advent of full blown vocalese, correct? In some cases, there were more than one set of lyrics that were "accepted" and used over the years, but I suppose the most popular of those would be considered the "normal" lyrics. At any rate, I'm not clear as to how common (relatively speaking) it is for a vocalese piece to use "normal" lyrics for the melody and original lyrics for the solos. BTW, on the MT's version of "Another Night In Tunisia" with McFerrin, Hendricks gets full credit for the entire lyrics.

Anybody know anything about Frank Mignone? The liners to Eddie Jefferson's "Letter From Home" mentions that he wrote "special" lyrics for A Night In Tunisia, which Jefferson uses for the head.

[king ubu]

Anyone in for Lambert Hendricks & Bavan at Newport '63?

Of course also "Sing a Song of Basie" - a classic.

Re. writing lyrics for songs (not vocalese): anyone heard Susanne Abbuehl? For her ECM debut "April" she wrote lyrics to some Carla Bley compositions (and music to some e.e.cummings poems). A very beautiful, very slow and moody album. I also saw her life once. She started out solo, in a quite big hall. She's got a presence that really grabs you. Somehow she succeeds in keeping up suspense without doing anything fast. And her band (clarinet/bass clarinet, piano/harmonium, drums/percussion) does the soloing in pretty the same fashion - not minimalistic at all, but much textures and colours. Beautiful stuff, highly recommended!

ubu

Edited August 18, 2003 by king ubu

[king ubu]

uhm, that's her, by the way...

not really a new babe thread...

so, here's her album:

ECM, April

ubu

[Michael Fitzgerald]

In terms of the different vocal vehicles, when considering the output of LHR(B), it's worth pointing out that they were really quite a versatile group and that they did much more than vocalese. Sometimes it was just lyrics to instrumentals ("Cookin' at the Continental" or the original "Airegin") with or without improvised scat solos. Sometimes it was "normal" (meaning official) lyrics (isn't "Summertime" just the regular Gershwin/Heyward words but done in the style of the Miles & Gil version?). Sometimes it was full vocalese with arrangements and LH & R playing the roles of specific instrumentalists (the Basie stuff). Sometimes it was harmonized ballads ("With Malice Toward None"). Sometimes it was original music & lyrics ("Everybody's Boppin'"). Sometimes it was novelties/oddities like "Halloween Spooks," "Poppity-Pop," or "The New ABC."

This site (though incomplete) has some good information including distinction between vocalese and "straight lyrics."

http://www.ralf.org/~colomon/vocalese/lhr.html

Quite a few jazz pieces that are known as instrumentals have lyrics. The more financially astute composers realized that this would give them a chance to earn royalties from vocal performances. Many times this was just wishful thinking, but worth a shot to: Gigi Gryce, Randy Weston, Duke Pearson, and Benny Golson, to name four, but I'm sure many more did this. Sometimes the composers themselves wrote the lyrics, sometimes it was handed over to a lyricist, frequently Hendricks.

It seems the "normal" lyrics to "A Night in Tunisia" are by Hendricks, now that I check things out. I think he wrote that much earlier (c. 1961) than when he did the vocalese lyrics for the Bird solo. There were earlier lyrics (c. 1945) to the Tunisa melody under the title "Interlude." Not sure who did those - possibly Frank Paparelli, though the story was that he got his name on the tune because he did some copy work. Later I guess Mignone wrote what Eddie Jefferson uses, and there are much later lyrics, I think credited to Arif Mardin & Chaka Khan under the title "The Melody Still Lingers On."

The "Round Midnight" situation is very interesting. The "normal" lyrics that most singers use (It begins to tell...) are by Bernie Hanighen. They are the official ones according to the publisher. There are alternate sets by Babs Gonzalez (recorded by him and by Betty Carter, at least) and two sets by Hendricks (one recorded by Carmen McRae and by Robert Wyatt, and the other a variant of the first - the Miles & Coltrane set - never recorded as far as I know). If you want to see 3 of the 4 sets, do a search on groups.google.com for [Midnight lyrics Hendricks].

In terms of getting to be the "normal" version, it seems it is getting tougher. In 1961 Monk gave the OK to Abbey Lincoln to do what is now known as "Monkery's the Blues" but was originally just called "Blue Monk." I don't know at what point anything changed to demand the new title. But if you are the "official" lyricist it could be you get money even when the recording has no vocals. And the "music" composers don't want that to happen. I remember some Concord CDs had a note that "instrumental versions included on this album do not include performances of contributions by the following lyricists" or something like that.

Mike

[Dave James]

I view the addition of lyrics to jazz instrumentals a lot like I view most scat singing, i.e. an unnecessary evil. While there are exceptions to every rule (Ross' "Twisted" and Dorough's "Yardbird Suite" are good examples) vocalese generally isn't anything I have any interest in at all. It always sounds to me like someone trying to fit about about six syllables worth of material into a two syllable space. I wouldn't say it's unlistenable, I've found it to be as close to that as just about anything in jazz.

Up over and out.

[A Lark Ascending]

Its ironic that composers like Jerome Kern loathed what jazz musicians did to their songs but jazz fans insist the jazz musicians were right; but when singers then turn the tables and vocalise the jazz versions or improvisations it becomes improper!!!!

Kern just wasn't hearing what the jazzers were doing; I'd say the jazz fan unsympatheic to vocalisations of jazz is in the same bateau!

Edited August 18, 2003 by Bev Stapleton

[Jim R]

This site (though incomplete) has some good information including distinction between vocalese and "straight lyrics."

http://www.ralf.org/~colomon/vocalese/lhr.html

Mike, I'm not seeing that (can you point me to it?). The closest thing I could find was this:

""Vocalese" is the art setting established instrumental jazz solos to lyrics and singing them."

To me, as I've already stated, this seems like an incomplete definition. Surely the opening lyrics from "Four" (which fit the main head of the tune)- that are included right beneath the heading of his Vocalese page- are part of the art form. I think they are a major part, as I think the majority of vocalese recordings feature new/original lyrics for the melody itself. These are also important relative to the lyrics for the solos, as they establish the lyrical theme for the piece.

It seems the "normal" lyrics to "A Night in Tunisia" are by Hendricks, now that I check things out. I think he wrote that much earlier (c. 1961) than when he did the vocalese lyrics for the Bird solo.

Hmm... for the 1962 LH&R recordings (two takes) of the tune, released as bonus material in the "High Flying..." sessions, Paparelli is credited.

Interesting (and complicated) topic!

[JSngry]

A tangent, if you will...

Hendricks wrote the original English lyrics to a bunch of Jobim tunes, but somebody (Jobim himself?) didn't dig them and got Gene Lees to write what are now the "official" lyrics to a lot of those tunes.

So my question is - if Henrdicks wanted to do an album of all Jobim tunes with HIS lyrics (and I know he did something simular on Reprise back yonder ways, that might have been what got Jobim/whoever on the case to get some different lyrics, maybe?), would he have to call the tunes something diiferent (I know "Desafinado" came out with the subtitle "Slightly Out Of Tune" on a JH&B album), or would he perhaps not be granted permission to do this at all?

That would be kinda weird, to have a whole body of lyrics you couldn't record. Has such a situation occurred before in the anals of history?

[Michael Fitzgerald]

What I meant is that in the listings of tunes, that site differentiates between listing things as "vocalese" and as "straight lyrics." For example, see the notes on "The Swingers" and the LHR Ellington album.

I'm not denigrating the role of the original melody (the head) in a vocalese performance. Absolutely it can play a part in setting things up. When Hendricks writes something like "Sing Joy Spring" and moves from the Fountain of Youth to Shakespeare and elsewhere, it's a beautiful thing. But to me, there's a big difference between the original LHR recording of "Airegin" which is just the head, talking about Nigeria before instrumental and scat solos, and the later MT recording which takes those solos and does the vocalese thing to them, weaving a story of African history from the days of the dinosaurs to the present.

The LHR "Airegin" is not vocalese - it's just writing lyrics to a melody. People have been doing that for centuries - I can't call the vocal version of "Satin Doll" vocalese. The MT "Airegin" is vocalese - one of the finest examples of it. I'm not saying that the LHR "Airegin" is worse, it's just different. If a set of lyrics *just* covers the head, it's not vocalese by any definition I have learned (I agree with what is on that site). If a set of lyrics covers the head and an improvised solo, then it is (the part of the lyrics which correspond with the solo). The two could well be very well-integrated, but it's like the difference between the head and the solos of an instrumental performance. BTW, when discussing this stuff, Hendricks himself makes the distinction - he calls writing lyrics to the head of a jazz tune "lyricizing" it and reserves the "vocalese" term for the writing and performing of lyrics to improvised jazz solos. Head-solos-head goes to Lyricized head-vocalese solos-lyricized head.

As for Night in Tunisia - I am away from my collection - can someone tell who is credited on the 1961 Ella Fitzgerald recording? The info I could get my hands on said Hendricks.

I should have asked Hendricks about this when I spoke to him a few weeks ago. But he was off on a thousand tangential topics. I have a few older interviews of him at home. I'll try to confirm later.

Mike

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I don't even play a lawyer on TV, but.....

I've been told by a friend in music publishing that (say) Hendricks couldn't publish or record tunes with his own lyrics unless he got the permission of the (instrumental) tune's publisher.

I don't think he can just rename the tune and become a co-writer. I think the original publisher has to approve that too. As I said, I believe that's done to try to make a distinction for royalty purposes.

It's my understanding that Hendricks has a TON of lyrics that can't be used. Most of them are probably great.

Mike