The Human Orchestra

In 1985, a Swedish LP compiled by American researcher Doug Seroff, The Human Orchestra, gave many of us our first opportunity to hear pre-World War II American vocal groups other than the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots. (This LP was expanded to two CDs—from 16 songs to 50—and reissued by Jasmine in 2010. It is an essential item for vocal group fans.) The title refers to a style popularized by the Mills Brothers, but common to many other vocal groups, in which group members imitated the sounds of musical instruments, such as the trumpet and the bass. The Mills Brothers' imitations were so uncanny that their record labels read “Four Boys and a Guitar,” so the audience would know they were listening to the human voice rather than musical instruments. (Of course, the use of the word “boys” to refer to adult men was an objectionable racial slur.) Here they are doing “Tiger Rag” from 1931.

As Friedman and Gribin point out, imitation was one of two ways in which vocal groups incorporated the sound of a band into their songs. The other more common approach was instrument replacement, in which group members provided background support for the lead vocalist, but without trying to sound like specific instruments. These backgrounds often took the form of nonsense syllables, and one interpretation of the term “doo-wop” is that it refers to these background sounds. (There is another, less polite interpretation of “doo-wop” that I won't go into now.)

To illustrate, here's one of my favorite rhythm and blues vocal group sides from 1956, “Up on the Mountain” by the Magnificents. While it is often said to be a combination of various street sounds that were popular in Chicago at the time, it sounds very much like a vocal group version of a big band arrangement. It begins with two different riffs prior to the start of the main melody. The melody is in the traditional AABA song format, but it has an unusual structure. The A section is 32 bars (8 lines) long rather than the typical 16 bars. The B section, or bridge, is only 12 bars (3 lines) long. Based on its lyrics, it could be a blues—the second line repeats the first—but it lacks a blues chord structure. Finally, the song ends with the group imitating a big band instrumental fadeout.

You probably noticed that “Tiger Rag” also included some scat singing. Scat singing, popular during the bebop era, is essentially improvising using the human voice. In effect, the singer is taking a solo, just like the other members of the band. The greatest of all scat singers was Ella Fitzgerald; here she is doing “How High the Moon?”

A related jazz vocal style, sometimes confused with scat singing, is vocalese, in which the composer writes words to a famous solo previously recorded by a jazz musician. To the best of my knowledge, this genre was originated by the Delta Rhythm Boys with their version of Duke Ellington's “Take the A Train.” (Check it out.) Vocalese was popularized by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross in the early '60s. Manhattan Tranfer is a contemporary vocalese group. Here are Lambert, Hendricks and Ross doing “Cloudburst,” in which Jon Hendricks sings words to a tenor sax solo previously recorded by Sam “The Man” Taylor.

You may also be interested in reading:

Book Review:  The Encyclopedia of Early American Vocal Groups

The Soundies #7