You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Our 7 Favorite Jazz Vocalists - #171

Episode Date: August 3, 2018

Today, Peter, Adam, and vocalist Brian Owens sit down to list their 7 favorite jazz vocalists. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam N. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you. Another special day today because we have another special guest who we got. That's right. We have the great Brian Owens. What's going on, Brian?

So what's up, fellas? Brian, for those few of you that may not know is an amazing vocalist, friend of open studio, friend of ours, a friend of many. And yeah, we're really excited to have you here today. We talk about vocals sometimes, but we're going to be speaking with an expert. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we are. In fact, we're already a little bit nervous about this because when it's just pianist, you know,

we can do everything from just the piano standpoint, so we're going to be getting it from the vocalist standpoint. That's right. Very cool. All right, so we have a list of our seven favorite jazz vocalists today. Brian, who you want to start out with? This is a non-exhaustive list. Let's disclaim.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were very difficult to do. Yeah, there might be a few bonuses. Yeah, yeah. Well, we already told Brian, I've just to let the listeners, know that we were very clear that we miss a lot of things. So we always have an asterisk.

And this is a free podcast. So we don't have to give anybody's money back if you screw it up. So feel free to go wherever you want to go. All right. Well, okay, so let's start with the most, for me, which would be the most obvious is Ella Fitzgerald. Can't go wrong. I mean that, yeah.

When it comes to what the epitome, I believe a jazz vocalist is, which I think it has to include the ability to improvise. Yeah. I think, I mean, she's the gold standard. She sounds like a horn when she's improvising. Her phrasing was impeccable. I agree.

You can't get a better combination of just pure natural voice that has no holes or flaws. And then amazing taste, amazing improviser, storyteller, all of that. And she didn't read music. That's right, right. But she could. And what was the thing, the story, I mean, you never know if these stories are true, but they always seem like with her that they would be, that she would learn the song.

Sing her in any key, but she would first, like, was it that she was reading it and see, or something like she would learn everything and see, and then whatever key they were going to do it, she could just go there immediately. I'm not sure, but I don't doubt it. Yeah. You know, I totally don't doubt it. I mean, but she was just one of those rare, you know, immensely talented individuals. Like, a guy giving give, like she could just sing the way she did. And I think, you know, her time with, like, the bands that she was with earlier on, like Chick Webb, I believe it was. and working with band leaders like that.

Eventually she took over the band when he got sick and passed away. I mean, she was running the band. So I think that, you know. I always think about, yeah, vocalists. I mean, she had such power and then control, though, you know, for them. But I always think about when they're early in their career, and I remember seeing Saravan too in front of these big bands, and they'd have a mic, but it wouldn't even be like right by them.

The mic would just be kind of in the front and they're singing. I mean, to be able to project in front of those powerful and nuanced bands with that kind of material. What great training for them. Yeah. So let's move on to number two here. You have number two, Nancy Wilson. Oh.

Yeah, that's good stuff. I love Nancy Wilson. Again, somebody who you're talking about just this naturally God-given voice, that for me, it wasn't just her phrasing from what we've considered to be a traditional jazz sensibility,

but the soulfulness of her voice, hark into like this gospel and traditional rhythm and blues. So she had all those kind of aesthetics in her voice. And I had a huge crush on her growing up because I saw her. The first time I actually saw Nancy Wilson was on the episode of The Cosby Show. Because they had, you know, or previously, you know, Claire's dad was Joe Williams. Right, right, right. So when Denise got married, Martin's mother.

Martin's mother was Nancy Wilson. Right. And Cliff is down in the basement. singing Moody's mood. Right. And then she comes down singing and it's like, oh, she's pretty done. Oh, I remember that now. Oh, man.

She was, is stunning. Yeah. She's just, I mean, her voice, unbelievable, her musicianship, but just what a beautiful woman in person. It's, like when I think of Nancy Wilson, I just think class. Totally. Yeah. I think of those, uh, class is in session. Those classic records with the record with Cannibal.

Yeah. Record with George Shearing is also really, really good. Yeah. That's good stuff. All right. So, uh, number three, we have on Brian Owens as Liz. of favorite jazz vocalists. We have Louis Armstrong. Believe he was a jazz musician, Louis Armstrong.

That's right. I've heard of him. I've heard of him. I think, you know, musicians definitely, I mean, instrumentalists definitely, you know, recognize, I mean, his phrasing and his influence, first of all, on jazz, period. Definitely on, you know, jazz from an instrumental standpoint. But I think sometimes we forget his influence on jazz vocalist.

Yeah. It was seamless between his trumpet playing. Yeah, and it's widely speculated that he was the first one to scatter on record, you know, on accident because he dropped the music, and then he's just starting making up these words because they would do that down to New Orleans. I mean, so from a standpoint of him just being an archetype. And, I mean, Lewis's phrasing was just ridiculous when he sang. It's songs like, I mean, he did plenty of traditional jazz songs, but what a wonderful world is a perfect example. of his just ingenious. And had like a top 10 pop hit with that when he was in his 60s or 70s. But it's interesting you talk about him as an instrumentalist and then as a vocalist.

And I think that it's common for us to think of, I mean, he's a trumpeter. And then he could sing too on the side. But if you listen to like his early vocals and early trumpet souls, what you said as far as like, you know, phrasing and stuff, I'm wondering if it almost didn't come more out the, his trumpet phrase. his instrumental phrasing coming out of his vocals. Yeah, yeah. That's really the way it sounds from the original stuff that he did. Well, in jazz and his music, isn't it always like the chicken and the egg story?

Like, which came first? It's like our instrumentalist trying to be vocalist or vocalist trying to be instrumentalist. And I think when you take Louis and Ella, who did some great records by the... Yeah, of course. When you take them, you see that kind of mutual influence, right? Where, you know, Ella very much tried to sound like horns, But those same horns may have been trying to sound like Ella. Yeah.

And Louis. So it's like, I think that's kind of like that marriage that makes it kind of cool. Yeah, I think with Louis Arsendron, because he had such mastery of both. Yeah. And really his vocals were not secondary to his trumpet player in terms of his skill level. Right. You know.

Right. Although he became known more as trumpet. But then what a wonderful world. There was a whole generation and fans that didn't even know he played trumpet. That's right. Which is rare. Yeah. Like, which is rare when you have someone who.

can do things like that equally as well. You know what's interesting? The only other person I could think of now that you mentioned it like that, George Benson. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Because they, like, actually when I first heard George, because he had a big pop hit in the early 80s when I was like in middle school, high school.

And then I think my dad was kind of like, oh, yeah, that guy, he plays guitar or two. I was like, I don't know about that. This is a different George Benson. He's like, no, no, no. I think it's the same guy. And you go back and listen and you're like, oh, yeah, it's pretty good. Well, this kind of like leads us in number four. And number four on Brian's list is Nina Simone.

And we've talked about Nina Simone as a pianist. Right. She's underrated as a pianist. Amazing jazz pianist. But also, I mean, talk about a distinctive voice in the music. Yeah, and who started out wanting to be a classical pianist. And because of, you know, the racial issues at the time. Yeah.

She wasn't afforded that opportunity. So she kind of ended up playing jazz. But in her jazz, you hear a lot of that. Oh, you're all of her classical training. Yeah. In her arrangements, definitely. Yeah. You hear those kinds of sensibilities.

She does these whole solos that are like. fugues. Oh yeah, yeah. But I don't think she ever stopped wanting to be a classical pianist first and foremost. Yeah. I always felt like her, you know, vocally, she's coming definitely out of church and blues and jazz. Well, that's what's so amazing about it, though, is like, then you hear like, I put a spell on you. And that's a blues vocalist coming out right there. I mean, that is so raw and like powerful and this really sophisticated piano happening. You know, it's pretty cool. But then you hear songs like one of my favorites from her is I think it's going to rain today. Oh, yeah. Remake of the Randy Newman too. Yeah. It's just, it's a

you know, it's holding a level. Oddly enough, her nephew lives in Ferguson. You should have him on the podcast. Oh, wow, I didn't know that. That's cool. That's cool. Well, this takes us to number five. Number five is the Velvet Fog.

I don't know why I'm talking like this, but that's Mel Tourmey. Ooh. Yeah. So what's... We don't talk about Mel Tormeet. No, he's bad, man. No.

He's a vocal. I mean, first of all, he could scat his butt off. He really good, yeah. But just in terms of, like, his phrasing, as a vocalist, the man who wrote the Christmas song. He wrote the Christmas song. Once a year, we talk about it a lot. It's like, chiching.

Yeah. Right. But is that like the greatest, you know, Christmas song? From a jazz musician standpoint, it's the greatest ever. It's a jazz standard. It's a jazz standard. And I think truly, one of the things we kind of weak it away from, too, is it's like we tend to think of vocalists as not musicians.

A lot of time, and it's like, everyone that we name was a musician and was a musician at the highest, of the highest caliber, whether they could play an instrument or not. able to have mastery over your voice in and of itself is makes you I think well this is perfect transition to number six because we're talking number six is a man who really treats his voice as an instrument and that's Bobby McFarren's okay so if you've never seen I think it's spontaneous inventions oh yeah and Bobby McFerrin he's in the lead of his own he's in a class and a genre of his own, but definitely his ability to just improvise, phrase, the stuff he did with Wayne

Shorter and that spontaneous inventions, the stuff that he did with Chick, Korea. I'm just thinking about the, yeah. Go online and look at what he did with Richard Bono at, I think it was like Montrelle Jazz Festival something like that. I mean, he just has a mastery of his instrument as an actual instrument. Yep. And I mean, he's when we talk about musician, vocalist, and like, he's almost, he's so off the charts as a musician and then he saw off the charts in terms of what you're talking about

vocal mastery of his instrument and then obviously he's got a great instrument too i mean it's almost like too much not not too much i mean it's almost like you know to be able to handle all that and to put it together i think that's why he's been in he has to be in such inventive situations i mean not that he couldn't it's too easy yeah i mean people would be like yeah you never hear him sit down and sing misty oh believe me it would be good it would be very good that's a thing. Yeah, that would be fine. But I mean, he's, I mean, he, and then I think about, then, you know, he had this whole other sort of side career as a conductor.

Yeah. Like a really good classical conductor. And, you know, my dad worked with him several times just blocks from here. St. Louis Symphony. And he would do all this cool stuff like he would have, I mean, he would, you know, conduct a couple of movements of a Mozart symphony. And then for like three minutes, he would have everybody sing their part. And like they would practice this and you know he would kind of help teach them to do it and he would conduct it and they'd break into that And my dad was just saying it was like one of the most fun and musically satisfying things ever like the sections got very competitive

Obviously the strings had a lot of people so they had some power you know like the individual woodwinds had to learn their parts and sing it I was gonna say what if you're playing flute man that's got it's tricky That's high. That's high the crazy thing about Bobby and friend I think is so awesome too is it's like when we talk about genres. It's just like when you get a person like that, it's like, it's not even about that. Like, so we, I put him in the category of just being one of the greatest musicians. Yeah. I've ever seen, ever heard in my life, who is very well equipped, very astute, and has a

great facility for the art form of jazz. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree. I mean, he's just like, if you had to put one word on him, it wouldn't be jazz. And it wouldn't be blues or classical. To me, it would just be improvising.

Oh, yes. Yeah. You know, because that's really, although he can just sit down and sing a song, yeah. But, I mean, he's a creative force. He's a creative force. And that, when that's being highlighted and he's in a space. And it doesn't have to be, I mean, well, you talk about his biggest hit ever, which is funny. Don't worry to be happy.

It's like not his most creative thing, but you really hear, like, I mean, that wouldn't have been such a big hit. That's dope, though. If he didn't sound so good. If you heard it lately, it's still dope. Yeah. You know what's dope? It's still dope. Yeah, but it's stylized.

It's totally stylized. His Cosby show. Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember this. His Cosby Show theme. He did one of the Cosby Show theme. You know, every year they give somebody. That's right. Yep, that's right.

I mean, it's just like, you hear that, and I'm going, this dude is ridiculous. Yeah, he's really good. Yeah. And the nicest guy. Number six. So number seven, we're going to round out our list here, and keep in mind we have some bonuses because we couldn't just stop it at seven.

We also can't do nine. Jonas. No, the Jonas Brothers are not on this list. Only because they're not jazz. No, number seven is, in my opinion, this is one of the greatest singers of a song in the history of recorded music. That's Nat King Cole.

I mean, he could sing a song like no one else could really tell the story of the lyrics. Brian, you're leaving the reservation by picking that. No, I'm just kidding. Well, think about it. I mean, one, he influenced. Everybody who came after him, he influenced. Yeah.

Like all the contemporaries. So, like, some of the bonuses that we'll talk about, he definitely had the influence. and a huge influence on me. My introduction to what just really good phrasing and vocals were was Nat King Cole. The other thing that I didn't know growing up is kind of we go back to the whole instrumentalist vocalist thing is Matt King Cole was as good or better a piano player and he was a singer. We talk about all.

Which is crazy. He's made a lot of our list. Yeah, he's made of great jazz pants. We even had to put him on some underrated because a lot of people don't know it. Have you seen the clips of him on his show where he's made? he's playing and singing at the same time. It's incredible. The infamous gentleman's bet that he had with Oscar Peterson.

Right. Yeah, yeah. Because Oscar Peterson did a record and dedication on Nat King Cole. When I first heard it, I'm like, I've never heard this Nat record. And it sounded so much like him, but just like his influence on musicians at that time, on musicians, instrumentalists rather, at that at the time that he was alive, man, I think is so understated because his vocals were just that good. Well, he became a pop star.

I mean, there's a TV show. He was singing these pop hits, but he started out, you know, in Lester Young's trio, you know, a bassless trio. Right. I mean, really swinging, really influential in that style of jazz. Well, in the early knack and cold trio, you know, guitar bass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And piano, I mean, he was very little singing. I mean, it was like piano.

That was what he was known as. Until somebody was like, sing. Yeah. Then he started singing and he never stopped. That's right. All right, that's seven, but we do have a couple of bonuses. And the first bonus. How can they be bonuses when we already know what they are like we're, I mean, it's okay, but

Because we can't just say we have nine. I don't know why we can't. It seems spontaneous. You'd be like, do you happen to have any bonuses? I mean, I just thought of a bonus. No, this is, we couldn't make up my mind. So Brian has, and this I think is really interesting. And I agree with this pick for your first bonus.

And that's Marvin Gaye as jazz vocalist. Okay. So again, so this is great coming after Nat King Cole. So when you listen, when you talk to, not talk to you because they're not alive, When you listen to a lot of the vocalists from that days, whether it's Sam Cook or Marvin Gay or Sam, like, whoever it was, their goal standard for vocals was Nat. Marvin Gay has a Copa Cabana record. He did a Nat King Cole tribute album. The Coppa of Gamma Record is almost just a jazz record.

I mean, yeah. Oh, like, I mean, he could swing. Marvin could swing. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's evident in just his soul stuff. Yeah, but when he's singing quote unquote jazz. style stuff. I mean, he does it as good as anyone. His phrasing is amazing. I mean, what's going on is not that far from a jazz vocal album. No. You know, a political jazz vocal album, basically.

Well, and all the, you know, the Motown instrumentalists were all like Detroit Jazz. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. One of which played with Ella. So yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think it's great. All right. So bonus number two is our very own open studio artists. Someone you might have heard of Peter named Diane Reeves. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so since this is my list and my bonuses, this is important to me because we're talking about really, you know, vocalists that have influenced me. I can't think of anyone besides Marvin, my dad, and Nat that have influenced me vocally more than I am. So as a mentor and just like the freedom that she has with her voice and almost just like, again, for me she's kind of genreless when she sings. There's a lot of soul, a lot of soul. Yeah. And what she does, but her ability, to improvise and you met her didn't you first at a thing at Carnegie Hall where you when you were younger right yeah well the the first time I met her I was singing in her home state of Denver I mean in Colorado yeah and I was singing in

tribute to her which was a whole other thing yeah yeah and then from that she invited me to do the master class that's where I met Peter for the first time oddly enough yeah but yeah I mean it's just her philosophy on performing and vocals, which is definitely informed by Ella and Sarah, you know, those folks that have influenced us all. But I think she's uniquely gone to a different place where Diane is Diane,

and I think when it's all set and done in jazz history, she'll be up there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Good stuff, man. You came strong with the seven and with the bonuses. I mean, that's nice. Yeah, yeah. You know how we do.

We've got to step up our list, man. Come on. I think, you know, with the episode we did yesterday with the West Coast musicians, I think we actually had like 10 or 11. Yeah, so I got cheated. Yeah, you're all right. You got more than seven on a list of seven. You're fine.

Well, thank you, Brian, man. It's good to see you. Thanks for dropping on the podcast. Come and see us again. You live, like, not far from here. Yeah, man. I'll be down. You know where we are.

You know where we are. So you can always go to you'll hear it.com to ask us a question. You know what? I think that, sorry to cut you off. there, my friend. Adam. What you got? I was just going to say Brian, Brian has a number of great records and great projects. We would love to give you an opportunity to plug whatever you have late. Because this

is going to be out in just a couple of days. Oh, yeah. So, folks, after hearing that little Bobby McFerrin thing, if you want to hear Brian doing his own stuff, what's the best place for people to hear you? I mean, you can go to website, Brianhounsoul.com. Okay. We are just now getting ready to release an album that we did called Soul of Cash, which is sole renditions of Johnny Cash music on vinyl.

It's really good. So it's getting ready to come out on vinyl. We have some vinyl, listeners. Yeah, so voice memos. Check that out. And then hopefully getting ready to start a new record that's going to be... Wait, is Soul of Cash only on vinyl? Only on vinyl? Well, yeah. Oh, that's gutsy right there. Only on vinyl.

All right, I got it. It's a good record. But it's going to be streaming. It's worth buying a record. Yeah, you can stream it. It's on Spotify and those kind of thing, but you want to get it on vinyl. Yeah, yeah. You know what's crazy? I've done this recently because my turntable situation, one of my sons is hijacked it into his room. So I have some vinyl that I listen to

streaming while holding the vinyl. Even that is nice. I'm serious. Because I'm like looking at the album. I actually feel you on this. Yeah, but not I'm listening. So you could actually do that. It makes you feel like you listen to it.

It does. I don't know. Very satisfying. The tactile. Yeah, holding that 12 inch by 12 inch cover. Yeah. It's funny because it's not even been opened yet, but I'm listening to it.

I think you should do a video. You don't get any of skipping. I will give you a soul of cash vinyl copy that you can sit and look at while you listen to it on Spotify. That's what I was, that's kind of where I was leading to. Bam, we'll video it.

See how that works? That's great. Works for me. So go to Brianownsoul.com to check that out. Get your copy. Go to you'll hear it.com to check us out. Yeah. We still have our offer for...

I like the way you to check us out. You better check us out. We still have our offer going for You'll Hear It listeners. That's 10% off Open Studios annual all access pass. That's everything you can get Diane Reed's course. You can get Christian McBride's course. You can get Greg Hutchinson, of course. And if you enter the offer code, you'll hear at 10 in the offer code field when you check out,

with your annual all access pass, you could save 10%. Yeah, do it soon, because that's about to go away. We're about to pull that one. We're going to have something else. It's been a little too popular. It's been,

no, no, no, we, yeah, okay, a little bit, yeah. It can't, it's not sustainable. It's not sustainable, but we love all the new folks coming on and, and, yeah, check it out. And keep the questions, the ratings, reviews. Have you left us a rating or review, Brian? Have I?

Yeah. Have you ever heard this podcast before? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what it will be good. So this will be out in just a couple days. I'll listen to this one for sure. Exactly. And then leave a rating review based upon how you felt this all went with you.

Exactly. No, we got to acknowledge our new audio engineer intern, Brianna. Well, this is amazing. We asked when Brianna came in this morning, we asked her if she lists a podcast, she said, just yours. That's right, right. Which is the right answer. So thanks, Brianna for the check. Yeah, good stuff.

Her first day, first day. That's right. So, yeah, that's all I got. What do you got? You'll hear it.