Singing Lesson from “The Manhattan Transfer”

If you can sing jazz - including impeccable pitch, scat (creating on the spot), a style that’s your own, a supported tone, a wide range, seamless movement between registers, and a well-worn working knowledge of modal theory - it’s my belief you can sing anything. (Except perhaps classical opera.)

Take the singers in the jazz vocal group, The Manhattan Transfer. These kids are so experienced, so confident, so pure in their vocal timbre and emotional intention, that when they do a piece like On the Boulevard, you don’t hear separate voices. You hear a story; you hear about love; you hear hearts describing their pain meeting at night, in secret, on the grand boulevards in Rio or Paris. Listen deeply enough, and you may even weep.

How do They Do It?
To get to that point, each singer works out daily on their own material, their individualized warm-ups and practice sessions. They also get together as a group at regular intervals to work on their blend; their sound as “one”; their complex harmonies and counterpoints that must be done smoothly so that the listener only hears the intended emotion. They work on blending the timbe of their voices - not trying to sound alike, but rather blending their differences to create, well, a new “singer” - a new “whole” - not Janis Siegel, Tim Hauser, Cheryl Bentyne, and Alan Paul - but instead, The Manhattan Transfer.

Then there’s the other aspect of ensemble singing. Often one singer will be showcased while the others will act as backup. In groups like Manhattan Transfer, each singer gets showcased at one time or another. But even in these situations, there is no “lead” and “backup,” not in the artistic sense. Yes, Janis sings out front in Boy From New York City and the others do a lot of do-waps. But when you hear them or see them in concert, they’re still one group. One sound.

That’s something else we can learn from Manhattan Transfer - you’ve got to leave your diva, your ego, and all your complexes at home, locked in the closet. Bring with you to rehearsal and to performance, your best voice, your most “tuned-up” vocal instrument, and your ability to blend. Your heart’s desire is to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

Birdland
One of their most stunning pieces is Janis Siegel’s vocal arrangement of Weather Report ’s performance of Joe Zawinul’s Birdland. This is the definition of each member of the team having a different chore, putting those chores together, listening to each other so tiny modifications can be made at any moment, and in this way, creating a masterpiece.

You can almost feel what it was like to be frequenting the hot New York clubs back in the day, how everyone knew each other. You feel like you’re a member of that select group with Bird, Trane, and Miles. Why? Because Manhattan Transfer let’s you experience.

You don’t just listen, you feel. You’re there.

Some Technical Practice Points:
1) Practice unusual interval jumps. For instance, instead of doing an arpeggio on, say, 1, 3, and 5 (perhaps C, E, and G), do it on 1, flat-3, and #5 (C, E-flat, and G-sharp). Go slowly enough that each note is hit with precision. That means no swooping up to the note, and no hitting above and swooping down. You must hit each note right on, with no faltering. Repeat a little faster each time, going up and down your range, until you can go fairly fast very accurately.

2) As a group, practice unusual interval jumps in harmony. With the complexity of some jazz chords, you’ll find that anyone who’s a quarter of a note off in pitch will tumble the whole sound.

3) Work on switching registers evenly and non-detectably. A jazz singer’s range can be 3 octaves. (It doesn’t have to be, but that often seems to be a side effect of vocalizing every day. Try the exercises in my book Vocal Vibrance - they’ll get your range expanded.) That means that you’re going to be switching from chest to head and head to chest all over the place. It’s got to sound effortless.

Hear Here It’s hard to find a YouTube vid that has great sound. That’s why I recommend listening to their CDs. But in the meantime, here is a link to a fairly decent YouTube of The Manhattan Transfer singing Duke of Dubuque.

Their “best of” album has some great stuff on it, including Birdland. Click here for details: The Very Best of the Manhattan Transfer
 
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