I have mentioned John Hollenbeck briefly in my introduction. He's an extremely accomplished drummer, composer and arranger, writing and arranging for big bands and large ensembles quite often. And most of the time, he uses the voice as a presenter for lyrics, like in the albums he made with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band.
With that band, he has released 3 albums featuring Kate McGarry and Theo Bleckmann. On these albums, they are solely featured as “front-singers”, mostly singing with lyrics.
But with his own large ensemble (John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble), Hollenbeck often makes use of Theo Bleckmann’s voice instrumentally as well (as well as with lyrics). The following examples are all taken out of the piece “Eternal Interlude” by John Hollenbeck.
What is also very interesting about Theo Bleckmann’s role in this band, is that he often works with pedals and effects for his voice, which also contribute to the voice being used more as an instrumental part of the band. It also makes the voice sound non-natural, which again takes away from the fast recognizable timbre of the human voice.
This second example of the voice together with the reeds brings a quite refreshing and surprising change in arranging, as Bleckmann’s voice is used as it’s own line, with no one doubling him. It of course still shares some notes with the clarinet (3rd stave), but the subtlety in the rhythms and ending notes being different makes this passage very intersting.
In general, when looking at this score (and others off of the same album), the thing that stands out the most about Hollenbeck’s writing for voice is that it looks like just another horn added to the band (similarly as Ed Partyka adding a french horn in his big band added for color, next to vocals as well). Hollenbeck seamlessly incorporates the voice in the tuttis as seen in Example 3 here:
