Kenny Wheeler was one of the first composers to write for voice in large ensemble.
One of the first and most well-known example of a singer singing mostly instrumentally can be found in Kenny Wheeler’s „Sweet Time Suite“, where Norma Winstone is featured often singing without lyrics. In almost the whole suite, Winstone doubles mostly the lead alto or the flugelhorn with the lead voices and is used as an extra color added to the horns, be it in the themes, or as backings for soloists.
Including a voice without lyrics in your band, even though the role of this voice was kept quite “simple” was quite a breakthrough and something that a big name in jazz like Wheeler had not done before.
The following two pictures show parts of Kenny Wheeler’s “Sweet Time Suite”. The first picture is the beginning of “Part 1: Opening”, where Winstone sings the main theme in unison with Wheeler on flugelhorn. This is what happens the most throughout the suite. Picture 2 shows a part of the backings in the Tenor-Saxophone solo in “Part 2 – For H.” where Winstone again sings Wheeler’s line as a doubling, but is used as an instrumental voice in the backings for the solo. In these passages, Winstone's blend is so close to the horns that one would not recognize that there is a vocalist singing in the section if not listening extremely closely.
