Jazz singer-guitarists

[Peter McFerrin]

There have been tons and tons of jazz singers who accompany themselves on piano. However, I can't think of any singer/guitarists who are involved in jazz, other than George Benson (whose vocal career has largely been R&B-oriented anyway). Are there any jazz singers who play guitar and do so in a solo or small-group context? I can't think of any off the top of my head. I guess maybe Brian Setzer might fit into this category, but he's a stretch.

 

[narud]

john pizzarelli

 

[Peter McFerrin]

Originally posted by narud
john pizzarelli

Ah, there's one. Did his father Bucky sing, too?

 

[narud]

good question. i cant answer it. im not all that familiar with either. most of the time i try and walk in the other direction when i see a jazz singer

 

[Aaron]

Can you think of any drummers that also sang? Double Bassists? I can think of a few electric bassists (clarke, jaco, bona, bakithi kumalo...) I can think of quite a few trumpet players. But for the most part, it seems that instrumentalists generally didn't sing on recordings and singers didn't play instruments on recordings in the jazz genre.

 

[Peter McFerrin]

Originally posted by narud
good question. i cant answer it. im not all that familiar with either. most of the time i try and walk in the other direction when i see a jazz singer

Yeah, I've heard some pretty awful excuses for jazz vocalists in my brief tenure on this planet.

I've just been thinking of things I could do musically that wouldn't require a band context (which bass playing generally does, unfortunately ) and since playing complex guitar chords and singing hasn't proven to be that much of a problem for me, the possibility of being a solo jazz singer/guitarist is kinda attractive to me.

 

[Peter McFerrin]

Originally posted by PortraitofTracy
singers didn't play instruments on recordings in the jazz genre.

The obvious exceptions are people like Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Diana Krall, Mose Allison, and Harry Connick Jr., but they're all pianists. Certainly, it's easier to write jazz material (if you want to write at all, which I do) on piano than on guitar, and even Pat Metheny has said that he can comp better on piano than guitar. Both of these factors conspire against jazz guitarists being singers as well.

Now that I think about it, Slim Gaillard was a bebop singer-guitarist. He was pretty famous in his day, too. I don't think he had many emulators, though.

EDIT: João Gilberto has had himself a nice career singing jazz and playing guitar, albeit at rather low volumes.

 

[narud]

Originally posted by Peter McFerrin
Yeah, I've heard some pretty awful excuses for jazz vocalists in my brief tenure on this planet.

I've just been thinking of things I could do musically that wouldn't require a band context (which bass playing generally does, unfortunately ) and since playing complex guitar chords and singing hasn't proven to be that much of a problem for me, the possibility of being a solo jazz singer/guitarist is kinda attractive to me.

that sounds cool. there should be some time later for bass if you want. personally playing guitar helped my writing tremendously. if i wouldnt have taken up guitar i might not have the material and group i have now.

do you plan on working out straight ahead stuff? original or standards?

 

[Peter McFerrin]

I'd like to have a 50/50 mixture of standards and originals.

I really need to work on my guitar chops, though. I figure I'll spend 30-45 minutes/day practicing guitar and 30-45 minutes a day on keeping my bass chops in shape.

 

[Pacman]

Well, I can't think of any off hand, but anytime jazz singing and guitar are brought up, one should mention Tuck and Patti.

As far as double bassist/singers go, you've got to hear Kristen Korb - walks like Ray, scats like Ella!

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally posted by Peter McFerrin


EDIT: João Gilberto has had himself a nice career singing jazz and playing guitar, albeit at rather low volumes.

Well - there are large numbers of Brazilian singer/guitarists, who are very much influenced by Jazz - but their recordings just don't get exported.

Caetano Veloso is probably the most famous along with Gilberto Gil - Veloso is a pretty good Jazz guitarist and a great composer - his music is very diverse, but has a definite Jazz influence.

I share some of others' misgivings about Jazz singers and have heard a lot of cringe-inducing moments - but Brazilians seem to have this tradition of music which is less inhibited and very "cool" - I have lots of CDs of Jazzy Brazilian vocal/guitar music and everybody seems to like it - but play CDs of any US/UK Jazz singers and people are grimacing straight away!

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally posted by Peter McFerrin
and since playing complex guitar chords and singing hasn't proven to be that much of a problem for me, the possibility of being a solo jazz singer/guitarist is kinda attractive to me.

Yeah - go the Brazilian route - I know several guitarists who nake money playing in various venues - playing sets of bossa novas, etc.

Get a Jobim songbook and go through them - there are many books which describe the guitar style and there are some really nice tunes which suit jazzy guitar accompaniment!

Start here :

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/enter.html?s=googleeh&t=jobim&e=c&k=jobim+guitar-c14g562B

 

[Peter McFerrin]

Awesome, Bruce. I'm gonna have to teach myself how to fingerpick (I can only play guitar with a flatpick or playing all downstrokes with my thumb), but that seems like it'd be a fun thing to work on.