Can you tell the difference?
When a student selected “Feeling Good” as a solo project this winter, I told him, “It’s fine, but it’s one of those songs that feels like jazz but really isn’t.”
It’s how I feel about “Steam Heat” from Pajama Game, and anything from La La Land. “My Way” sung by Sinatra or anyone else. “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” And probably several dozen other tunes. They’re “jazzy” but they’re not jazz.
It’s taken a long time to put a finger on exactly what makes a song “jazzy” but not jazz. I’ve focused on a few aspects.
- They’re fixed in form. Jazz often has space in the form for improvisation, or at least a looseness that you don’t get in jazzy songs.
- They’re almost universally more showy/extroverted than what I think of as jazz singing. (As I say, jazz is introverted music theatre.)
- They often focus on a technical showiness that is antithesis to great jazz singing. (Yes, Ella’s scat singing is technical and a tour de force. But when she delivers lyrics, it’s never showy, even when it’s truly awe-inspiring. Same for all the greats. Sarah. Billie. Nancy. Joe. Frank. Mel.
- They seem to invite not-quite-idiomatic special effects.
There is plenty of room for “jazzy” repertoire in singers’ books, and plenty of places where it will be received well. But I encourage my students to listen to enough jazz singing to be able to differentiate between the two genres.