Editing Jazz band (section)

===Vocalists===
{{main|Vocal jazz}}
The definition of a jazz vocalist can be unclear because jazz has shared a great deal with [[blues]] and [[pop music]] since the 1920s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Will |first1=Friedwald |title=Jazz Singing: America's Great Voices from Bessie Smith to Bebop and Beyond |date=1990 |publisher=Perseus Books Group |isbn=0306807122 |pages=x-xi |edition=illustrated, reprint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jV8PJnlxQS8C&pg=PR12|access-date=July 23, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810140320/http://books.google.ca/books?id=jV8PJnlxQS8C&lpg=PR12&dq=part%20of%20the%20problem%20lies%20in%20jazz%27s%20close%20relationship&pg=PR12#v=onepage&q=part%20of%20the%20problem%20lies%20in%20jazz's%20close%20relationship&f=false |archive-date=August 10, 2014 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>  In their book ''Essential Jazz'', Henry Martin and Keith Waters identify five main characteristics that identify jazz singing, three of which are: "Loose [[Musical phrasing|phrasing]] [...], use of [[blue notes]] [...], [and] free melodic embellishment."<ref name="essentials">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmW7t2gBpa4C&pg=PT175 |title=Essential Jazz: The First 100 Years |publisher=Cengage Learning |date=2014 |access-date=July 23, 2014 |author1=Martin, Henry |author2=Waters, Keith |page=149 |edition=3rd |isbn=978-1-133-96440-7 }}</ref> Often the human voice can act in place of a brass section in playing melodies, both written and improvised.<ref name=jazzinamerica1 />

[[Scat singing]] is vocal [[Musical improvisation|improvisation]] with wordless vocables, [[pseudoword|nonsense syllables]] or without words at all. Though scat singing is improvised, the melodic lines are often variations on [[Musical scale|scale]] and [[arpeggio]] fragments, [[lick (music)|stock patterns]] and [[riff]]s, as is the case with instrumental improvisers. The deliberate choice of scat syllables is also a key element in vocal jazz improvisation. Syllable choice influences the pitch [[articulation (music)|articulation]], coloration, and [[Sonorant|resonance]] of the performance.<ref>{{Harvnb|Berliner|1994|p=125}}</ref>