Vocalese is a style of jazz singing in which words are added to an instrumental soloist's improvisation.
The Manhattan Transfer is an American vocal group founded in 1969 in New York City, performing music genres like A cappella, Brazilian jazz, swing, vocalese, rhythm and blues, pop, and standards. They have won eleven Grammy Awards.
Annie Ross was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the influential jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. She pioneered the vocalese style of jazz singing, with a style described by critic Dave Gelly as "a kind of dreamy watchfulness that is a definition of 1950s hip." In 2010, she was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.
John Carl Hendricks, known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists, such as the big-band arrangements of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. He is considered one of the best practitioners of scat singing, which involves vocal jazz soloing. Jazz critic and historian Leonard Feather called him the "Poet Laureate of Jazz", while Time dubbed him the "James Joyce of Jive". Al Jarreau called him "pound-for-pound the best jazz singer on the planet—maybe that's ever been".
Rodney Lynn Temperton was an English songwriter, producer and musician.
Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City on December 15, 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway, just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan, was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979. A revival began in 1986 with the opening of the second nightclub by the same name that is now located in Manhattan's Theater District, not far from the original nightclub's location. The current location is in the same building as the previous headquarters of The New York Observer.
The Manhattan Transfer is the second album by The Manhattan Transfer. However, it is the first of four albums to be released by the lineup of Tim Hauser, Laurel Massé, Alan Paul, and Janis Siegel, and the first to establish the sound and style for which the group would become known. It was released on April 2, 1975, by Atlantic Records and was produced by Ahmet Ertegün and Tim Hauser.
Pastiche is an album by the Manhattan Transfer, released in 1978 by Atlantic Records. This was the last studio album the Manhattan Transfer recorded with Laurel Massé, who because of a car accident in early 1979 decided to end her association with the group. The album was re-issued on CD with Rhino as distributor in 1994.
The Manhattan Transfer Live was recorded by The Manhattan Transfer live at Manchester on April 23, 1978; Bristol on April 28, 1978; and the Hammersmith Odeon Theatre, London, on May 2, 1978. The album was produced by Tim Hauser and Janis Siegel. This was the final album made with Laurel Massé.
Extensions is the fifth studio album by the Manhattan Transfer, released on October 31, 1979, by Atlantic Records.
The Best Of The Manhattan Transfer was released in 1981 on the Atlantic Records label by The Manhattan Transfer for the holiday season. It contained the "best of" their hits from their early Atlantic years (1975–1981). All of the tracks had been previously released on four of their five Atlantic studio albums: The Manhattan Transfer (1975), Pastiche (1978), Extensions (1979), and Mecca for Moderns (1981). No songs from their second studio album, Coming Out (1976), were included on US or international releases, except on early Australian and New Zealand vinyl releases where a slightly different track order omitted "Nightingale" in favour of "Chanson D'Amour" and "Where Did Our Love Go."
Bodies and Souls is the seventh studio album by The Manhattan Transfer, released in September 1983 on the Atlantic Records label.
Vocalese is the ninth studio album by Jazz band The Manhattan Transfer, released on September 3, 1985 on Atlantic Records. Recording sessions took place during 1985. Production came from Tim Hauser and Martin Fischer. This album is considered to be The Manhattan Transfer's most critically acclaimed album. It received 12 Grammy nominations, making it second only to Michael Jackson's Thriller as the most nominated individual album. It also received extremely high ratings from music critics, including a 4.5 out of 5 stars rating from Allmusic. The album peaked at number 2 on the Top Jazz Albums and number 74 on the Billboard 200. The album's title Vocalese refers to a style of music that sets lyrics to previously recorded jazz instrumental pieces. The vocals then reproduce the sound and feel of the original instrumentation. Jon Hendricks, proficient in this art, composed all of the lyrics for this album.
Man-Tora! Live in Tokyo is the third live album released by The Manhattan Transfer. The title is a shortening of Manhattan Toransufā (マンハッタン・トランスファー), the Japanese transliteration of the band's name. The songs were recorded during their 1983 Japan tour to promote their album Bodies and Souls at Tokyo's Nakano Sun Theater. Some of the songs from these concerts also appeared on their 1984 album, Bop Doo-Wopp.
Brasil was The Manhattan Transfer's tenth studio album. It was released in 1987 on Atlantic Records.
The Very Best Of The Manhattan Transfer is a compilation album of The Manhattan Transfer released in 1994 on the Atlantic Records label.
Boy from New York City and Other Hits is a budget compilation album released by The Manhattan Transfer in 1997 on the Flashback Records label. This album was released as part of a series of compilations of original artist recordings at a reduced price.
The Best of Ray Charles is a compilation album released in 1970 on the Atlantic Jazz label, featuring previously released instrumental (non-vocal) tracks recorded by Ray Charles between November 1956 and November 1958.
Janis Siegel is a multiple grammy-winning American jazz singer, best known as a member of the vocal group The Manhattan Transfer.
Live is the eleventh album released by The Manhattan Transfer. It was recorded live at the Nakano Sun Plaza Hall in Japan on 20 & 21 February 1986. It was released in 1987.
