Scat Singing. The hippest, most happenin' music on earth, or songs that would make Satan hurl?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

[Lance_Boyle]

1. I believe it's 'skat' with a "k" in the musical sense

although the two words aren't homophones for no reason...

[gmoney]

3. No, it's scat singing...

maybe you're thinking of ska (reggae-influenced rock)

and yes, we all know the other meaning of "scat"

Cab Calloway was a talented "scat" singer, too.

[Lance_Boyle]

5. no, I know my ska, and it's not shit. ;-)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. Forgot about Cab Calloway...you're right.

The stuff that gets under my skin is primarily from modern-day chanteuses that I might enjoy in every other regard (the first two that come immediately to mind are Tierney Sutton, who did an excellent all-Sinatra album "Dancing In The Dark," and Ann Hampton Callaway (her "Slow" album might be her best, certainly it's her most popular).

I see scat singing as a genre of performance that is much tougher than it looks. I would probably never sit down and listen to an entire album of nothing but scat performances, no matter who they were performed by...but I get the feeling that modern singers think "Hey! That sounds like FUN! I think I'LL try" and it soon becomes one of those "reach exceeds their grasp" deals.

:toast:

[Deep13]

2. I hear it and think "Whoa! What just happened?...

...Is she singing in 'tongues'?"

[MrSlayer]

4. I think it's just lazy.

Write some fucking lyrics or shut the fuck up.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

8. Now David Crosby...THAT was LAZY.

His first solo album, "If I Could Only Remember My Name," had a couple of what I'd call "Marin County Scat" songs...

...if ANY album in the HISTORY of rock & roll could be christened "The Marijuana Album," THIS one would be it. Well...marijuana and whatever other refreshments most of the Dead, Airplane, Joni, Graham And Neil brought along, anyway...

And there are two songs, "Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves") and "Tamalpais High (At About 2)" that are basically nothing more than Crosby crooning "dee, doo, dee, dum de dum, dee, doo" with the aforementioned S.F. Summer 'o' Love rockers backing him.

Lazy? In HIS case, yeah...absolutely. Lazy after smoking a couple of ounces of weed and having one too many double cheeseburgers.

:rofl:

[tishaLA]

7. Ella, Betty Carter, Carmen McRae

Louis, and Mel.

Almost nobody else.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. How the hell could I forget the Velvet Frog...er, I mean, "Fog"

You're right, I think you've pretty much compiled the complete list (with the addition of Cab Calloway, meantioned upthread).



:toast:

[Schema Thing]

10. It has it's place

5 seconds worth, in one out of every five hundred songs, would be just fine.

[Ptah]

11. I think Al Jarreau does some good scat in the version of 'Take Five'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh5-kYP45pg

[dysfunctional press]

12. scat singing sounds like shit.

:evilgrin: