For someone who isn’t as familiar with jazz singing, what role does improve play?
T.B.: Well, it’s called scatting. Scatting is just vocal improvisation. Because improvisation is so ingrained in the jazz tradition, for all the students here – both in the ensemble and the vocal jazz majors – improvisation is a huge element of their studies. So in the ensemble, you’re going to hear a lot of vocal improvisation. We try to incorporate it, if not in every song, probably in 80-90 percent of the repertoire. A&S: It seems like that would be harder to do singing as opposed to playing an instrument. T.B.: It’s a lot harder with the voice, because as singers, we don’t have the use of keys like you do on a saxophone or piano – buttons you can push and you know what notes you can play. You can use theory to guide you through the harmony, whereas a singer must hear everything they’re going to sing. So to be able to hear all the chord progressions as they go by and to be able to choose the right melodic phrases to fit over the harmony is terribly difficult for a singer. We have on
