Editing Scat singing

{{short description|Vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all}}
{{CSS image crop | Image = Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, and Timmie Rosenkrantz, Downbeat, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1947 (William P. Gottlieb).jpg | bSize = 550 | cWidth = 200 | cHeight = 250 | oTop = 150 | oLeft = 200 | Location = right | Description = [[Ella Fitzgerald]] is considered to be one of the greatest scat singers in jazz history<ref name=f282/>}}

Originating in [[vocal jazz]], '''scat singing''' or '''scatting''' is vocal [[Musical improvisation|improvisation]] with [[Non-lexical vocables in music|wordless vocables]], [[Pseudoword#Nonsense syllables|nonsense syllables]] or without words at all.<ref name="Hill 2014"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Edwards|2002|p=622}}</ref> In scat singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms using the voice solely as an [[Musical instrument|instrument]] rather than a [[Speech|speaking]] medium. This is different from [[vocalese]], which uses recognizable lyrics that are sung to pre-existing instrumental solos.

== Characteristics ==
=== Structure and syllable choice ===
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. As well, scatting usually incorporates musical [[Musical form|structure]]. All of [[Ella Fitzgerald]]'s scat performances of "[[How High the Moon]]", for instance, use the same [[tempo]], begin with a chorus of a straight reading of the lyric, move to a "specialty chorus" introducing the scat chorus, and then the scat itself.<ref name=f145>{{Harvnb|Friedwald|1990|p=145}}</ref> [[Will Friedwald]] has compared Ella Fitzgerald to [[Chuck Jones]] directing his [[Roadrunner cartoon]]—each uses predetermined formulas in innovative ways.<ref name=f145/>

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> Syllable choice also differentiated jazz singers' personal styles: [[Betty Carter]] was inclined to use sounds like "louie-ooie-la-la-la" (soft-tongued sounds or liquids) while [[Sarah Vaughan]] would prefer "shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee" ([[fricatives]], [[plosives]], and [[open vowels]]).<ref>{{Harvnb|Berliner|1994|pp=125–126}}</ref> The choice of scat syllables can also be used to reflect the sounds of different instruments. The comparison of the scatting styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan reveals that Fitzgerald's improvisation mimics{{efn|name=Fitzgerald|In her 1949 performance of "Flyin' Home," Fitzgerald alternates the bilabial "b" and "p" plosives with the alveolar plosive "d".<ref name=s65>{{Harvnb|Stewart|1987|p=65}}</ref> The "b" and "p" sounds are formed similarly to the sounds of jazz wind instruments, which sound by the release of built-up mouth air pressure onto the reed, while the "d" sound is similar to the tonguing on jazz brass instruments.<ref name=s65/> William Stewart, a Seattle researcher, has proposed that this alternation simulates the exchange of riffs between the wind and brass sections that is common in big bands.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stewart|1987|p=66}}</ref>}} the sounds of [[swing-era]] [[big band]]s with which she performed, while Vaughan's mimics{{efn|name=Vaughan|Sarah Vaughan tends to use the fricative consonant "sh" along with the low, back of the mouth "ah" vowel. The "sh" closely resembles the sound of brushes, common in the bop era, on drum heads; the "ah" vowel resonates similarly to the bass drum.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stewart|1987|p=69}}</ref>}} that of her accompanying [[Bebop|bop]]-era small combos.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stewart|1987|p=74}}.</ref>

=== Humor and quotation ===
Humor is another important element of scat singing. Bandleader [[Cab Calloway]] exemplified the use of humorous scatting.<ref>{{harvnb|Crowther|Pinfold|1997|p=129}}</ref> Other examples of humorous scatting include [[Slim Gaillard]], [[Leo Watson]], and Bam Brown's 1945 song "Avocado Seed Soup Symphony," in which the singers scat variations on the word "avocado" for much of the recording.<ref>{{Harvnb|Edwards|2002|p=627}}</ref>

In addition to such nonsensical uses of language, humor is communicated in scat singing through the use of [[musical quotation]]. Leo Watson, who performed before the canon of American popular music, frequently drew on nursery rhymes in his scatting. This is called using a compression.<ref>{{Harvnb|Friedwald|1990|p=140}}</ref> Similarly, Ella Fitzgerald's scatting, for example, drew extensively on popular music. In her 1960 recording of "[[How High the Moon]]" live in Berlin, she quotes over a dozen songs, including "[[The Peanut Vendor]]," "[[Heat Wave (Irving Berlin song)|Heat Wave]]," "[[A-Tisket, A-Tasket]]," and "[[Smoke Gets in Your Eyes]]."<ref>{{Harvnb|Edwards|2002|p=623}}</ref>

== History ==
=== Origins ===
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Jolsonscat.ogg|title="That Haunting Melody" (1911) excerpt|description=[[Al Jolson]]'s scatting during his 1911 recording of "That Haunting Melody" has been cited as one of the earliest examples of scat singing|pos=right|format=[[Ogg]]}}

Improvisational singing of nonsense syllables occurs in many cultures, such as [[Lilting|diddling or lilting]] in Ireland, German [[yodeling]], Sámi [[joik]], and [[speaking in tongues]] in various religious traditions. 

Although [[Louis Armstrong]]'s 1926 recording of "[[Heebie Jeebies (composition)|Heebie Jeebies]]" is often cited as the first modern song to employ scatting,<ref name="Crowther Pinfold 1997"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Edwards|2002|p=618}}</ref> there are many earlier examples.<ref name="Edwards 2002 618-619"/> One early master of ragtime scat singing was [[Gene Greene]] who recorded scat choruses in his song "King of the Bungaloos" and several others between 1911 and 1917.<ref name="Edwards 2002 619">{{Harvnb|Edwards|2002|p=619}}</ref> Entertainer [[Al Jolson]] scatted through a few bars in the middle of his 1911 recording of "That Haunting Melody."<ref name="Gioia">{{Harvnb|Gioia|2011|p=59}}</ref> Gene Greene's 1917 "From Here to Shanghai," which featured faux-Chinese scatting,<ref name="Edwards 2002 619"/> and [[Gene Rodemich]]'s 1924 "Scissor Grinder Joe" and "Some of These Days" also pre-date Armstrong.<ref>{{Harvnb|Edwards|2002|p=619}}</ref> [[Cliff Edwards|Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards]] scatted an interlude on his 1923 "Old Fashioned Love" in lieu of using an instrumental soloist.<ref>{{Harvnb|Edwards|2002|p=620}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Friedwald|1990|p=16}}</ref> One of the early female singers to use scat was [[Aileen Stanley]], who included it at the end of a duet with [[Billy Murray (singer)|Billy Murray]] in their hit 1924 recording of "[[It Had To Be You (song)|It Had To Be You]]" (Victor 19373).

Jazz pianist [[Jelly Roll Morton]] credited Joe Sims of [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]], as the creator of scat around the turn of the 20th century.<ref>{{Harvnb|Nicholson|1993|p=89}}</ref> In a conversation between [[Alan Lomax]] and Jelly Roll Morton, Morton recounted the history of scat:<ref name="Hill 2014">{{Harvnb|Hill|2014}}</ref>
<blockquote>
'''Lomax''': "Well, what about some more scat songs, that you used to sing way back then?"
<br />
'''Morton''': "Oh, I'll sing you some scat songs. That was way before Louis Armstrong's time. By the way, scat is something that a lot of people don't understand, and they begin to believe that the first scat numbers was ever done, was done by one of my hometown boys, Louis Armstrong. But I must take the credit away, since I know better. The first man that ever did a scat number in history of this country was a man from Vicksburg, Mississippi, by the name of Joe Sims, an old comedian. And from that, [[Tony Jackson (jazz musician)|Tony Jackson]] and myself, and several more grabbed it in [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]]. And found it was pretty good for an introduction of a song."
<br />
'''Lomax''': "What does scat mean?"
<br />
'''Morton''': "Scat doesn't mean anything but just something to give a song a flavor."<ref name="Hill 2014"/>
</blockquote>

Morton also once boasted, "Tony Jackson and myself were using scat for novelty back in 1906 and 1907 when Louis Armstrong was still in the orphan's home."<ref>{{Harvnb|Edwards|2002|p=620}}</ref> [[Don Redman]] and [[Fletcher Henderson]] also featured scat vocals in their 1925 recording of "My Papa Doesn't Two-Time No Time" five months prior to Armstrong's 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies."<ref>{{Harvnb|Edwards|2002|p=619}}</ref>

=== Heebie Jeebies ===
{{further|Heebie Jeebies (composition)}}
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Armstrongscat.ogg|title="Heebie Jeebies" (1926) excerpt|description=[[Louis Armstrong]]'s 1926 recording of "[[Heebie Jeebies (composition)|Heebie Jeebies]]" was the most influential early example of scat singing.|pos=right|format=[[Ogg]]}}
It was Armstrong's February 1926 performance of "Heebie Jeebies," however, that is considered the turning point for the medium.<ref name="Crowther Pinfold 1997">{{Harvnb|Crowther|Pinfold|1997|p=32}}</ref>  From the 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies" arose the techniques that would form the foundation of modern scat.<ref name="Crowther Pinfold 1997"/> In a possibly [[apocryphal]] story,<ref>{{Harvnb|Giddins|2000|p=161}}</ref> Armstrong claimed that, when he was recording "Heebie Jeebies" with his band [[Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five|The Hot Five]], his sheet music fell off the stand and onto the ground.<ref name="Edwards 2002 618-619"/> Not knowing the lyrics to the song, he invented a gibberish melody to fill time, expecting the cut to be thrown out in the end, but that take of the song was the one released:<ref name="Edwards 2002 618-619"/> 

{{Quote|"I dropped the paper with the lyrics—right in the middle of the tune. . . And I did not want to stop and spoil the record which was moving along so wonderfully . . . So when I dropped the paper, I immediately turned back into the horn and started to scatting . . . Just as nothing had happened . . . When I finished the record I just knew the recording people would throw it out . . . And to my surprise they all came running out of the controlling booth and said—'Leave That In.'"<ref name="Edwards 2002 618-619">{{Harvnb|Edwards|2002|pp=618–619}}</ref>}}

Armstrong's "Heebie Jeebies" became a national bestseller and, consequently, the practice of scatting "became closely associated with Armstrong."<ref name="Gioia"/> The song would serve as a model for [[Cab Calloway]], whose 1930s scat solos inspired [[George Gershwin]]'s use of the medium in his 1935 [[opera]] ''[[Porgy and Bess]]''.<ref name="grove"/>

=== Widespread adoption ===
{{Listen|type=music|filename=The_Rhythm_Boys_scat.ogg|title="Mississippi Mud" (1927) excerpt|description=[[The Rhythm Boys]] scat on their 1927 recording of "[[Mississippi Mud]] / I Left My Sugar Standing in the Rain." [[Harry Barris]] mimics the sound of a [[cymbal]].|pos=right|format=[[Ogg]]}}{{listen | type = music | pos = right | filename = Duke Ellington Baby Cox The Mooche 1928 Sample.ogg | title = "The Mooche" (1928) excerpt | description = Sample of "[[The Mooche]]" with scat singing by Gertrude "Baby" Cox. | format = [[Ogg]]}}
Following the success of Armstrong's "Heebie Jeebies," a number of popular songs featured scat singing. In June 1927, [[Harry Barris]] and [[Bing Crosby]] of bandleader [[Paul Whiteman]]'s "[[The Rhythm Boys]]" scatted on several songs including "[[Mississippi Mud]]," which Barris had composed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hendricks|2003|p=66}}</ref>

On October 26, 1927, [[Duke Ellington]]'s Orchestra recorded "[[Creole Love Call]]" featuring [[Adelaide Hall]] singing wordlessly.<ref name="Williams 2003">{{Harvnb|Williams|2003|p=113}}</ref> Hall's wordless vocals and "evocative growls" were hailed as serving as "another instrument."<ref>{{Harvnb|Hentoff|2001}}</ref> Although creativity must be shared between Ellington and Hall as he knew the style of performance he wanted, Hall was the one who was able to produce the sound.<ref name="Williams 2003"/> A year later, in October 1928, Ellington repeated the experiment in one of his versions of "[[The Mooche]]," with Getrude "Baby" Cox singing scat after a muted similar trombone solo by [[Tricky Sam Nanton|Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lawrence|2001|p=136}}</ref>
{{listen | type = music | pos = right | filename = The Boswell Sisters - It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) 1932 Sample.ogg | title = "It Don't Mean a Thing" (1932) excerpt | description = Sample of "[[It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)]]" with scat singing by [[The Boswell Sisters]]. | format = [[Ogg]]}}
During the [[Great Depression]], acts such as [[The Boswell Sisters]] regularly employed scatting on their records, including the high complexity of scatting at the same time, in harmony.<ref name="Wilson 1981">{{Harvnb|Wilson|1981|p=4}}</ref> An example is their version of "[[It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)]]."<ref name="Wilson 1981"/> The Boswell Sisters' "inventive use of scat singing was a source for [[Ella Fitzgerald]]."<ref name="Wilson 1981"/> As a young girl, Fitzgerald often practiced imitating Connee Boswell's scatting for hours.{{sfn|Nicholson|1993|pp=10–12}} 

Fitzgerald herself would become a talented scat singer and later claimed to be the "best vocal improviser jazz has ever had," and critics since then have been in almost universal agreement with her.<ref name=f282>{{Harvnb|Friedwald|1990|p=282}}</ref> During this 1930s era, other famous scat singers included [[Scatman Crothers]]<ref name="Scatman Crothers">{{Harvnb|New York Times|1986}}</ref>—who would go on to movie and television fame<ref name="Scatman Crothers"/>—and [[British dance band]] trumpeter and vocalist [[Nat Gonella]]<ref name="Scott 2017"/> whose scat-singing recordings were banned{{efn|name=Gonella|{{Harvnb|Scott|2017|p=302}}: In 1930s "[[Nazi Germany]], the records of British trumpeter and bandleader [[Nat Gonella]] were banned there and scat singing was a criminal offence."<ref name="Scott 2017"/>}} in [[Nazi Germany]].<ref name="Scott 2017">{{Harvnb|Scott|2017|p=302}}</ref>

=== Later development ===
Over the years, as jazz music developed and grew in complexity, scat singing did as well. During the [[bop era]] of the 1940s, more highly developed vocal improvisation surged in popularity.<ref name="grove"/> [[Annie Ross]], a bop singer, expressed a common sentiment among vocalists at the time: "The [scat] music was so exciting, everyone wanted to do it."<ref name="cp130"/> And many did: [[Eddie Jefferson]], [[Betty Carter]], [[Anita O'Day]], [[Joe Carroll (singer)|Joe Carroll]], [[Sarah Vaughan]], [[Carmen McRae]], [[Jon Hendricks]], [[Babs Gonzales]], [[Mel Torme]] and [[Dizzy Gillespie]] were all singers in the idiom.<ref name="grove"/> 

Free jazz and the influence of world musicians on the medium pushed jazz singing nearer to avant-garde art music.<ref name="grove"/> In the 1960s [[Ward Swingle]] was the product of an unusually liberal musical education. He took the scat singing idea and applied it to the works of Bach, creating [[The Swingle Singers]]. Scat singing was also used by [[Louis Prima]] and others in the song "[[I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)|I Wan'na Be Like You]]" in Disney's ''[[The Jungle Book (1967 film)|The Jungle Book]]'' (1967).

The bop revival of the 1970s renewed interest in bop scat singing, and young scat singers viewed themselves as a continuation of the classic bop tradition. The medium continues to evolve, and vocal improvisation now often develops independently of changes in instrumental jazz.<ref name="grove"/>

During the mid-1990s, jazz artist John Paul Larkin (better known as [[Scatman John]]) renewed interest in the genre briefly when he began fusing jazz singing with [[pop music]] and [[eurodance]], scoring a world-wide hit with the song "[[Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)]]" in 1994. Vocal improviser [[Bobby McFerrin]]'s performances have shown that "wordless singing has traveled far from the concepts demonstrated by Louis Armstrong, Gladys Bentley, Cab Calloway, Anita O'Day, and Leo Watson."<ref>{{Harvnb|Crowther|Pinfold|1997|p=135}}</ref>

=== Vocal bass ===
Vocal bass is a form of scat singing that is intended to vocally simulate instrumental [[basslines]] that are typically performed by bass players. A technique most commonly used by bass singers in a cappella groups is to simulate an instrumental rhythm section, often alongside a [[Mouth drumming|vocal percussionist]] or [[beatboxer]]. Some notable vocal bass artists are [[Home Free (group)|Tim Foust]], [[Home Free (group)|Adam Chance]], [[Bobby McFerrin]], [[Al Jarreau]], [[Reggie Watts]], [[take 6|Alvin Chea]], [[DCappella|Joe Santoni]], [[Avi Kaplan]],  [[Matt Sallee]], [[Vocalogy (group)|Chris Morey]], [[Geoff Castellucci]].

=== Use in hip hop  ===
Many [[hip hop music|hip hop]] artists and [[rapper]]s use scat singing to come up with the rhythms of their raps.<ref name="Edwards, Paul 2009, p MC">{{Harvnb|Edwards|2009|p=114}}</ref> [[Tajai]] of the group [[Souls of Mischief]] states the following in the book ''[[How to Rap]]'': "Sometimes my rhythms come from scatting. I usually make a scat kind of skeleton and then fill in the words. I make a skeleton of the flow first, and then I put words into it."<ref name="Edwards, Paul 2009, p MC"/> The group [[Lifesavas]] describe a similar process.<ref name="Edwards, Paul 2009, p MC"/> Rapper [[Tech N9ne]] has been recorded demonstrating exactly how this method works,<ref>{{Harvnb|Godfrey|2010}}</ref> and gangsta rapper [[Eazy-E]] used it extensively in his song "[[Eternal E|Eazy Street]]."

== Historical theories  ==
[[Image:Louis Armstrong restored.jpg|thumb|[[Paul Berliner (ethnomusicologist)|Paul Berliner]] has suggested that scat singing arose from instrumental soloists like [[Louis Armstrong]] (''pictured'') formulating jazz riffs vocally<ref name=b181/>]]

Some writers have proposed that scat has its roots in [[African music|African musical traditions]].<ref name="grove"/> In much African music, "human voice and instruments assume a kind of musical parity" and are "at times so close in timbre and so inextricably interwoven within the music's fabric as to be nearly indistinguishable."<ref name=b68>{{Harvnb|Berliner|1994|p=68}}</ref> [[Dick Higgins]] likewise attributes scat singing to traditions of [[sound poetry]] in African-American music.<ref>{{Harvnb|Higgins|1985}}</ref> In [[West African music]], it is typical to convert drum rhythms into vocal melodies; common rhythmic patterns are assigned specific syllabic translations.<ref name="grove">{{Harvnb|Robinson|2007}}</ref> However, this theory fails to account for the existence—even in the earliest recorded examples of scatting—of free improvisation by the vocalist.<ref name="grove"/> It is therefore more likely that scat singing evolved independently in the United States.<ref name="grove"/>

Others have proposed that scat singing arose from jazz musicians' practice of formulating riffs vocally before performing them instrumentally.<ref name=b181/> (The adage "If you can't sing it, you can't play it" was common in the early New Orleans jazz scene.<ref name=b181>{{Harvnb|Berliner|1994|p=181}}</ref>) In this manner, soloists like Louis Armstrong became able to double as vocalists, switching effortlessly between instrumental solos and scatting.<ref name=b181/>

Scat singing also resembles the Irish/Scottish practice of [[lilting]] or diddling, a type of vocal music that involves using nonsensical syllables to sing non-vocal dance tunes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ó Nualláin|2002|pp=306–307}}</ref>

== Critical assessment ==
Scat singing can allow jazz singers to have the same improvisational opportunities as jazz instrumentalists: scatting can be rhythmically and harmonically improvisational without concern about the lyric.<ref name=cp132>{{Harvnb|Crowther|Pinfold|1997|p=132}}</ref> Especially when [[bebop]] was developing, singers found scat to be the best way to adequately engage in the performance of jazz.<ref name="cp130">{{Harvnb|Crowther|Pinfold|1997|p=130}}</ref>

Scatting may be desirable because it does not "taint the music with the impurity of denotation."<ref name=grant>{{Harvnb|Grant|1995|p=289}}</ref> Instead of conveying linguistic content and pointing to something outside itself, scat music—like instrumental music—is self-referential and "d[oes] what it mean[s]."<ref>{{Harvnb|Leonard|1986|p=158}}</ref> Through this wordlessness, commentators have written, scat singing can describe matters beyond words.<ref name=grant/><ref name=f37>{{Harvnb|Friedwald|1990|p=37}}</ref> Music critic [[Will Friedwald]] has written that Louis Armstrong's scatting, for example, "has tapped into his own core of emotion," releasing emotions "so deep, so real" that they are unspeakable; his words "bypass our ears and our brains and go directly for our hearts and souls."<ref name=f37/>

Scat singing has never been universally accepted, even by jazz enthusiasts. Writer and critic [[Leonard Feather]] offers an extreme view; he once said that "scat singing—with only a couple exceptions—should be banned."<ref name="cp130"/> He also wrote the lyrics to the jazz song "[[Whisper Not (song)|Whisper Not]]," which Ella Fitzgerald then recorded on her 1966 Verve release of the same name. Many jazz singers, including [[Bessie Smith]], [[Billie Holiday]], [[Jimmy Rushing]], and [[Dinah Washington]], have avoided scat entirely.<ref name=g162>{{Harvnb|Giddins|2000|p=162}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Jazz}}
* {{annotated link|Asemic writing}}
* {{annotated link|Chopper (rap)}}
* {{annotated link|Gibberish}}
* {{annotated link|Glossolalia}}
* [[Idioglossia]]
* [[List of scat singers]]
* {{annotated link|Literary nonsense}}
* {{annotated link|Mumble rap}}
* [[Lilting]]

== References ==
=== Notes ===
{{notelist}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Berliner
 | first = Paul
 | author-link = Paul Berliner (ethnomusicologist)
 | year = 1994
 | title = Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation
 | url = https://archive.org/details/thinkinginjazzin0000berl
 | url-access = registration
 | place = Chicago
 | publisher = [[University of Chicago Press]]
 | isbn = 978-0-226-04381-4
}}
* {{cite book
 | last1 = Crowther
 | first1 = Bruce
 | last2 = Pinfold
 | first2 = Mike
 | year = 1997
 | title = Singing Jazz
 | place = London
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sCH8GbRK214C
 | publisher = [[Miller Freeman, Inc. | Miller Freeman]] Books
 | isbn = 0-87930-519-3
}}
* {{cite journal
 | last = Edwards
 | first = Brent Hayes
 | year = 2002
 | title = Louis Armstrong and the Syntax of Scat
 | periodical = [[Critical Inquiry]]
 | volume = 28
 | issue = 3
 | pages = 618–649
 | issn = 0093-1896
 | doi = 10.1086/343233
 | s2cid = 224798051
 }}. Brief [https://web.archive.org/web/20071223035158/http://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/issues/v28/v28n3.edwards.html excerpt] available online.
* {{cite book
 | last = Edwards
 | first = Paul
 | title = How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=E4I5lCP-bHAC
 | year = 2009
 | publisher = [[Chicago Review Press]]
 | page = 114
 | isbn = 978-1-4481-3213-3
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Friedwald
 | first = Will
 | author-link = Will Friedwald
 | title = Jazz Singing: America's Great Voices from Bessie Smith to Bebop and Beyond
 | year = 1990
 | publisher = [[Charles Scribner's Sons]]
 | place = New York
 | isbn = 0-684-18522-9
 | url-access = registration
 | url = https://archive.org/details/jazzsinging00will
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Giddins
 | first = Gary
 | author-link = Gary Giddins
 | title = Rhythm-A-Ning: Jazz Tradition and Innovation
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YRUbtAEACAAJ
 | year = 2000
 | publisher = [[Da Capo Press]]
 | place = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
 | isbn = 0-306-80987-7
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Gioia
 | first = Ted
 | author-link = Ted Gioia
 | chapter = The Jazz Age
 | title = The History of Jazz
 | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofjazz00gioia
 | url-access = registration
 | page = [https://archive.org/details/historyofjazz00gioia/page/59 59]
 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
 | date = May 9, 2011
| isbn = 978-0-19-539970-7
 }}
* {{cite news
 | last = Godfrey
 | first = Sarah
 | title="How to Rap" and Grading Hip-hop's Professors
 | date = April 15, 2010
 | url = http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/04/how_to_rap_and_grading_hip-hop.html
 | newspaper = [[The Washington Post]]
 | access-date = March 10, 2020
 | url-status = dead
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120908041437/http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/04/how_to_rap_and_grading_hip-hop.html
 | archive-date = September 8, 2012
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Grant
 | first = Barry Keith
 | contribution = Purple Passages or Fiestas in Blue? Notes Toward an Aesthetic of Vocalese
 | title = Representing Jazz
 | url = https://archive.org/details/representingjazz00krin
 | url-access = registration
 | editor-last = Gabbard
 | editor-first = Krin
 | year = 1995
 | publisher = [[Duke University Press]]
 | place = Durham, North Carolina
 | isbn = 978-0-8223-1594-0
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Hendricks
 | first  = Jon
 | author-link = Jon Hendricks
 | chapter = The Vocal Jazz Group: A History
 | title = Such Sweet Thunder: Views on Black American Music
 | editor1-last = Baszak
 | editor1-first = Mark
 | editor2-last = Cohen
 | editor2-first = Edward
 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tTX8c1cRheQC&pg=PA66
 | publisher = [[University of Massachusetts Press]]
 | page = 66
 | year = 2003
 | isbn = 0972678506
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Hentoff
 | first = Nat
 | author-link = Nat Hentoff
 | date = April 1, 2001
 | access-date = March 10, 2020
 | title = For the Love of Ivie 
 | url = https://jazztimes.com/columns/final-chorus/for-the-love-of-ivie/
 | url-status = dead
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190119121525/https://jazztimes.com/columns/final-chorus/for-the-love-of-ivie/
 | archive-date = January 19, 2019
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Higgins
 | first = Dick
 | author-link = Dick Higgins
 | contribution = A Taxonomy of Sound Poetry
 | title = Precisely Complete
 | editor-last = Kostelanetz
 | editor-first = Richard
 | editor-link = Richard Kostelanetz
 | editor2-last = Scobie
 | editor2-first = Stephen
 | editor2-link = Stephen Scobie
 | url = http://www.ubu.com/papers/higgins_sound.html
 | year = 1985
 | publisher = Archae Editions
 | isbn = 0-932360-63-7
}}
* {{cite web
 | last = Hill
 | first = Michael
 | title = Library of Congress Narrative. Jelly Roll Morton and Alan Lomax
 | url = http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/locspeech2.html
 | website = Monrovia Sound Studio
 | year = 2014
}}
* {{cite journal
 | last = Leonard
 | first = Neil
 | date = Spring–Summer 1986
 | title = The Jazzman's Verbal Usage
 | periodical = [[Black American Literature Forum]]
 | volume = 20
 | issue = 1/2
 | pages = 151–159
 | publisher = St. Louis University
 | issn = 0148-6179
 | doi = 10.2307/2904558
 | jstor = 2904558
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Lawrence
 | first =  A. H.
 | title = Duke Ellington and His World
 | publisher = [[Routledge]]
 | location = New York
 | year = 2001
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=v6-SAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA136
 | isbn = 0-415-93012-X
 | page = 136
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Nicholson
 | first = Stuart
 | title = Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz
 | year = 1993
 | publisher = [[Da Capo Press]]
 | place = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
 | isbn = 0-306-80642-8
 | url = https://archive.org/details/ellafitzgeraldbi00nich
 | url-access = registration
}}
* {{cite book 
 | last = Ó Nualláin 
 | first = Sean 
 | chapter = On Tonality in Irish Music 
 | editor1-last = McKevitt 
 | editor1-first = Paul 
 | editor2-last = Ó Nualláin 
 | editor2-first = Sean 
 | editor3-last = Mulvihill 
 | editor3-first = Conn 
 | title = Language, Vision and Music 
 | pages = 306–307 
 | publisher = John Benjamins Publishing 
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XikUH566rh4C 
 | year = 2002 
 | isbn = 9027297096 
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Pressing
 | first = Jeff
 | contribution = Improvisation: Methods and Models
 | title = Generative Processes in Music
 | editor-last = Sloboda
 | editor-first = John
 | editor-link = John Sloboda
 | year = 1988
 | publisher = [[Clarendon Press]]
 | place = Oxford
 | isbn = 978-0-19-850846-5
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Robinson
 | first = J. Bradford
 | contribution = Scat Singing
 | title = [[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|New Grove Dictionary of Music Online]]
 | editor-last = Macy
 | editor-first = L.
 | contribution-url = http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?from=az&section=music.24717
 | year = 2007
 | access-date = October 30, 2007
}}
* {{cite news
 | author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->
 | title = Scatman Crothers Dies at 76
 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/23/obituaries/scatman-crothers-dies-at-76-actor-got-start-in-speakeasies.html
 | date = November 23, 1986
 | work = [[The New York Times]]
 | location= [[New York City]]
 | access-date = March 17, 2020
 | ref = {{harvid|New York Times|1986}}
 | quote = An early master of the technique of improvising nonsense syllables to a jazz melody, Mr. Crothers said: 'I told him to call me Scatman because I do a lot of scat singing.'
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Scott
 | first = Derek B.
 | title = Musical Style and Social Meaning
 | publisher = [[Routledge]]
 | page = 302
 | year = 2017
 | isbn = 978-1-351-55686-6
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OCYxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT302
}}
* {{cite journal
 | last = Stewart
 | first = Milton L.
 | year = 1987
 | title = Stylistic Environment and the Scat Singing Styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan
 | periodical = Jazzforschung/Jazz Research
 | volume = 19
 | pages = 61–76
 | issn = 0075-3572
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Williams
 | first = Iain Cameron
 | title = Underneath A Harlem Moon: The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall
 | publisher = Continuum
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rkgIAQAAMAAJ
 | year = 2003
 | isbn = 0-8264-5893-9
}}
* {{cite news
 | last = Wilson
 | first = John S. 
 | title = Musical: 'Heebie Jeebies,' A Boswells Life In Song
 | work = [[The New York Times]]
 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/19/theater/musical-heebie-jeebies-a-boswells-life-in-song.html
 | date = June 19, 1981
 | page = 4
}}

{{refend}}

== External links ==
Video examples:
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQLmQpgv1w4 Ella Fitzgerald & Sammy Davis, Jr., "S'Wonderful"]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3O1RT392fY Billy Stewart Sitting In The Park]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZbI2VZF9K8 Sarah Vaughan & Wynton Marsalis, "Autumn Leaves"]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHb2Ew4jAJ8 The Rhythm Boys (Harry Barris scatting, Bing Crosby et al), "The Mississippi Mud" written by Barris]

{{jazzfooter}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scat Singing}}
[[Category:Jazz techniques]]
[[Category:Singing techniques]]
[[Category:Vocal jazz]]