What is out there?
Big band music in jazz has come a long way since its “golden era” in the 30s and 40s. Back then, the status quo were instrumental big bands or - when a vocalist was featured - the vocalist in the forefront of the band, and the whole band was viewed as the accompaniment to the singers.
Nowadays, voices are still not very common to appear in a big band or large ensemble score. And when they do, they are often still used as the focus in the band for their features. There have been some composers that started using voices as instrumentalists in their bands, often just one voice added to the ensemble though, for an added color.
In the following pages, I will go through an overview of what has been written so far in the world of big bands and large ensembles where the voice has also been used as an instrumental texture. The reader will soon see, that a lot of those examples are quite similar in how the voice was arranged for.
Analysis of others' work
In general, I have found that most large ensembles or big bands that write in more modern styles still often use the voice as a presenter for lyrics, or as an extra color doubling the lead voice. For example, the albums that John Hollenbeck made with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band featured two vocalists, but all pieces were featuring lyrics.
So, I started my search for composers that also used the voice as an instrumental piece of a band.
In the following sections, I will present some of my findings of what’s out there in how vocalists have been used in large ensembles and big bands.
I will try to present the composers that I personally find used the voice in a new way or when multiple voices are used in a bit more detailed.