With the best will in the world, you'd find it hard to get almost
any
singer to sing well and properly across nearly three octaves. Even
the best struggle to meet two.
For all that Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerakld could undoubtedly
sing, neither of them really had great vocal ranges. The other problem
is of course that you'd have to have them singing some sort of constant
vowel sound which neither of them were really known for. Of course you
might have Ella scat-singing but that's usually only very brief notes
and have a lot to do with vocal inflection and 'swing' than hitting the
right now. It also might be a little challenging to have a Mellotron
play that fast. Oh, and 'scat signing' isn't just Ella Fitzgerald
shouting out toilet words, for those of you in any doubt. Having said
that, a tune comprising words such as 'faeces', 'shit', 'doo-doo' and
'Blechta' might have some short-lived appeal.
I might also have to admit my 'I just don't get it'-ness about Sandy
Denny. She always sounds completely off-key and shrill to me.
I'm not sure exactly what his real vocal range was, but Freddie Mercury
might be a good enough contender for 'guest dead Mellotron vocals'.
Wikipedia thinks he could stretch to three octaves but I have my
doubts.
John Oswald (of 'Plunderphonics' fame) carried out an interesting
experiment where he took Captain Beefheart's a-capella song 'Well' from
'Trout Mask Replica' and chopped up individual words from it and ran
them into a sampler, then played Chopin (or similar) through it. I
tried that lark once with the voices of (the young) Brian and Carl
Wilson and played 'Scotland the Brave'. I think I actually mentioned
this in my now-notorious telephone conversation with Brian Wilson a few
years ago. God Only Knows knows what the effect on his psyche must have
been.
Mike
Mark Pring wrote:
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I recently bought a couple of Ella Fitzgerald CDs from
the Warehouse ( where everyone gets a bargain, a sort of downmarket
Walmart or Woolworths ( do they still have Woolworths in the UK? ( Oh
my goodness recursive brackets!))) mainly 1950s recordings, fantastic
voice, one of my favourites, pity Harry couldn't have enticed her up to
his bedroom instead of the three old biddys with the violins.
An Ella tape set would be really something, which voices would the
group like to have on a tape set?
Mark
PS
A) Billy Holiday
B) Sandy Denny ( or maybe Etta James )
C) Ella Fitzgerald
Could you manage that Martin?
