Beyond Scat: Jazz as Improvised Vocalization

Cover of the album being discussed (image by Julian Charrière, courtesy of Braithwaite & Katz Communications)

One week from today Pyroclastic Records will release Accelerate Every Voice, which provides a striking new perspective on vocal jazz. The compositions are by Cory Smythe, who is the only instrumentalist on the album. Alternating between piano and electronics, he leads a rhythm section in which the bass and percussion lines are performed by vocalists, Steven Hrycelak and Kari Francis, respectively. The “front line” then consists of vocalists Kyoko Kitamura, Raquel Acevedo Klein, and Michael Mayo, the last also working with looping technology. Amazon.com seems to be back in its regular practice of physical delivery; and, as a result, it has a Web page for submitting pre-orders for this new recording.

The vocal work is strictly phonemic. Any words that emerge through the process are purely coincidental. The result is not easy to classify. Those of my generation might think of something like, “The Swingle Singers go third stream.” Others more oriented to adventurous music in the concert hall may also recall The Swingle Singers, but in the context of Luciano Berio’s “Sinfonia.” Were Berio still alive (he died on May 27, 2003), I might even have suggested that, on this album, Smythe was showing Berio how to do it right.

Nevertheless, this album is unique enough that the best approach is to take it on its own terms. Each of the eight tracks is brief enough to allow the listener to “get” how it is being performed without overstaying its welcome. That said, eight short tracks make for a relatively skimpy recording. As a result the album concludes with a track of about twenty minutes’ duration entitled “Piano and Ocean Waves For Deep Relaxation.” Smythe is the only performer, working with both his piano and electronic gear.

The title makes it clear that this music is neither for performance nor for “concert listening.” It is best approached as a latter-day take on the albums that Brian Eno released in the last quarter of the twentieth century under the Ambient rubric. From that point of view, Smythe definitely has brought his own characteristic voice (so to speak) to “Piano and Ocean Waves For Deep Relaxation” and can never be accused of trying to retrace Eno’s footsteps.