by Madhav Chari

Jazz singers, at least for me are a special class of musicians. That is if they are good.

The problem even in a city like New York is that there are singers who are not good, in fact quite insipid, and it probably gets progressively worse on average as you move away from the Mecca of Jazz. Within India, while we occasionally have a one off performance by a Jazz singer, they should be by and large avoided since almost all of them do not even have the tools necessary for basic musicianship, much less actually singing Jazz.

The very first step in the making of a Jazz singer is the tradition of Jazz that has to be internalized. Before one learns the tradition, one needs to know basic musicianship in order to learn the Jazz tradition.

One first needs to learn how to sing in tune, to know an instrument that can play chords such as the guitar, or preferably the piano for its greater range and connect to both Jazz and the Classical music tradition. One then has to transfer the rudimentary techniques on the piano and voice to being able to sing and play chord progressions on the piano at the same time.

Then one has to listen to Jazz a lot. This includes musicians playing many different instruments, but first one has to listen to the great Jazz singers as the first reference point for the music. A partial list of great Jazz singers includes Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, Carmen McRae, Nat King Cole, Joe Williams, Johnny Hartman, Betty Carter, Cassandra Wilson. Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett are singers who are at the boundary lines of Jazz and pop and can also serve as a good first reference points towards Jazz. Now augment this listening list to include the great Jazz instrumentalists.

On this foundation one then learns the tradition. It is mandatory to learn many songs by composers such as George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and many others who wrote the essential Jazz repertoire. In addition one learns how to use both the melody and words of the song to tell a convincing story, and what other singers of the past did at the level of execution, sound and emotional energy. Then comes the tricky part of learning how to perform with a band, and in the case of Jazz music the band cannot simply be a backing track to the vocals, but there has to be a deep communication and interplay between the band and the singer.

After learning the tradition, the most important key to a great Jazz singer is that the singer should have an instantly identifiable voice, a unique and instantly identifiable personal sound. This is not some identity born out of fashioning some novelty items hastily thrown together, but an identity that is crafted and created out of the tradition itself. It is a truism in Jazz as well as other fields such as science that deep knowledge is a necessary prerequisite to creativity.

One of my favorite singers is the under recorded Johnny Hartman. The recording “John Coltrane with Johnny Hartman” gives not only an insight into the world of the Jazz singer but also the world of one of the greatest Jazz musicians who ever lived, John Coltrane. In addition you also hear the workings of a stellar rhythm section with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums.

Let this recording be your very first step into the enchanting world of the Jazz singer.

(The writer is an international Jazz pianist and composer)