Sunday, 2nd October 2016
As an instrument the human voice produces a wide variety of pitches, offers complex tonality and has great percussive capacity. The melodic lines are often variations on scale, arpeggio fragments, stock patterns and riffs as in the case with instrument improvisation. The choice of scat syllables influences pitches articulation, colouration and resonance of the vocal performance.
Prabhakar Mundkur in his very engaging presentation used performances of well-known jazz singers to demonstrate how they use their voices much like the instruments that are used to play jazz.
