The Story of Vocal Jazz

Boxset CD The Story of Vocal Jazz

Each of the 25 discs will offer in more or less equal measure the purest Afro-American singing by the greatest blues and gospel singers, often accompanied in an economically exemplary manner (but without any loss of intense musicality and poetic sensitivity), plus examples of a popular art uneasily situated between light music composed and written by talented professionals and jazz-type music trying to be jazzy around swing and more and more sophisticated harmonies.
The culture and the musical and social context of all the people involved over the years have left their trace on each performance. Whatever the venue – a protestant church, a saloon, a whorehouse, a casino, a fairground or music-hall stage, a ballroom or concert hall, a speakeasy or honky-tonk, the Chicago or West Coast jazz clubs (the latter with its film industry on the doorstep), all this music attests to the American identity and conquering spirit of the time.
Since our main subject here is jazz, don't be surprised to find there are more black vocalists than white, especially male and female blues singers and quite often gospel singers. On the other hand, white vocalists actually revealed their identity and originality very early on, and that, too, went on to gain acceptance everywhere. Whites had a huge hold on almost the entire entertainment world, with its light operas and music hall at the top of the bill; the stars of these genres were in fact the first to be recorded correctly.
However that may be, from the verve of Ma Rainey, the majesty of Bessie Smith or the inspired sophistication of Sarah Vaughan, to the popular tone of Louis Prima, from the folk element of certain bluesmen to the seductive voice of Frank Sinatra, we've opened our CD player up to a maximum of good vocal vibrations.