Artist: Ella FitzgeraldTitle: “Smooth Sailing”Recorded: New York, June 26, 1951Performed by: Ella Fitzgerald (vocals), Hank Jones (piano), Everett Barksdale (guitar), Arnold Fishkin (bass), Bill Doggett (organ), Johnny Blowers (drums), and the Ray Charles Singers. Composed by Arnett Cobb.
Ella Fitzgerald, the celebrated jazz singer, is known for many things. One of the most important vocalists to emerge from the big band era, her command over her voice and sunny, lighthearted style characterize many of her pieces. From soulful ballads to the fast-paced bebop, Fitzgerald’s voice is renowned as one of the most virtuoso instruments of jazz. Her rise to fame came at the beginning of the bebop era, and as she toured with Dizzy Gillespie’s band she quickly acclimated to the bebop style to become one of its premiere artists (Bailey).
Fitzgerald was never a student of music, but a keen observer of other musicians and talents. Columnist Murray Kempton once said, “She remembers everything, absorbs everything, and uses everything” (Fidelman 103). This was particularly true of her mastery of scat. Scat is an inherently imitative musical expression characteristic of the jazz genre, wherein a vocalist uses nonsensical sounds and syllables to imitate musical instruments. By eliminating meaningful lyrics from the vocal line, “scat singers venture into the realm of so-called ‘absolute’ music where musical sounds are apparently free of the extra-musical associations that words create, a realm typically identified with instrumental music” (Bauer 303). Often singers like Fitzgerald exploring scat adopt the role of a horn player in the ensemble. One of the earliest examples of scat singing is in the ragtime pieces by Gene Greene, such as “King of the Bungaloos” and “From Here to Shanghai” (Bennett). However, many jazz enthusiasts credit Louis Armstrong with popularizing the technique through an incident that seemingly occurred by accident. The legend is that while recording, Armstrong dropped his sheet music and began scatting so as not to waste time on his record as he recovered the music.
A musician famed for elevating so many elements of jazz, Fitzgerald is particularly known as the First Lady of Scat, and her rise to fame during the big band era was one of the major influencers of her style. In contrast with many of the early musicians who made scat famous, Fitzgerald’s particular style is characterized by her quick, varied sounds that seemingly tell a story. One of Fitzgerald’s more prominent scat performances is in her recording of Arnett Cobb’s “Smooth Sailing." Cobb, a well-known saxophonist, originally wrote the song for a tenor sax, but Fitzgerald, whose work and interpolations suggest a strong affinity for and relationship with the tenor saxophone, scats the sax line in the 1951 recording, which was performed without any rehearsal (Nicholson). (Cobb later recorded the song with just the saxophone for his 1960 record by the same name.) The Fitzgerald recording has a swinging gospel feel characteristic of much of her work, and features call-and-response patterns between her voice and the musical instruments, which include the organ, piano, drums and guitar, as well as the “easy listening” choral sounds of the Ray Charles Singers.
Fitzgerald’s scat is particularly effective because of her unique timbre, or the combination of qualities of a sound that distinguishes it from other sounds of the same pitch and volume, as defined by Merriam-Webster. According to Bauer, timbre is a very important element in defining an artist’s scat style. The timbre “serves not only to embellish melodic gestures with subtle coloristic nuances-- as it often does for jazz instrumentalists-- but also to organize the flow of singers' musical ideas into cohesive, dramatically effective statements” (305). The timbre used on this song focuses particularly on the “uu” and “ooh” sounds, making more rounded and deep notes than a more high-pitched saxophone. A slow and rather lilting scat in the beginning, the song transforms at about the 1:00 minute mark, where the pace picks up and Fitzgerald’s quick, sharp scats are interpolated with long groans and slides down the scale before imitating an instrumental improvisation around minute 1:45. The song was a number three hit on Billboard's R&B charts, and reached number five on pop charts as well, while Cobb's version failed to reach the charts. The numerous recordings of the song include her live renditions, and she interpolated “Smooth Sailing” in scat improvisations on other songs, such as her solo on Duke Ellington's “It Don't Mean a Thing” during a Swedish concert, and on a blues jam with Joe Williams and the 1956 Metronome All-Stars “Party Blues.”
The First Lady of Scat has made countless contributions to music, but her superb scatting is noted among her greatest accomplishments. Ella Fitzgerald may not have had musical training, but she had an ear for advanced musical techniques, and was able to improvise and perform free association scat under any circumstances. Perhaps one of her most defining features is the joy with which she performed each song, as many scholars and music-lovers note that her happiness, bright voice and excited tone bring her scats and her music alive.
Bibliography
Bailey, Phil. “Ella Fitzgerald Biography.” Verve Music Group. Universal Music Group, n.d. Web. 20 June 2015.
Bauer, William R. “Scat Singing: A Timbral and Phonemic Analysis.” Current Musicology 71-73 (2002): 303. Web. 20 June 2015.
Bennett, Jessica. “The History of Scatting.” Soul Train. Soul Train, 11 April 2012. Web. 20 June 2015.
Fidelman, Geoffrey M. First Lady of Song: Ella Fitzgerald for the Record. New York: Citadel Press, 1994. Print.
Nicholson, Stuart. “The Dozens: Twelve Essential Ella Fitzgerald Performances.” Jazz.com. Jazz.com, n.d. Web. 20 June 2015.
