Includes bibliographical references and index.

Since the 1930s and 40's, jazz has stood tall in American popular music, drawing into itss embrace not only great horn players, percussionists, guitarists, bassists, and pianists but also some of the greatest singers in America's musical history. Jazz has laid the groundwork for important innovations in modern singing, opening up entirely new ways of delivering songs through what would eventually become jazz standards - songs that formed the basis of the American songbook. In So You Want to Sing Jazz, singer and professor of voice Jan Shapiro gives a guided tour through the art and science of the jazz vocial style. Throughout, Shapiro homes in on what makes jazz singing distinctive, suggesting along the way how other types of singers can make use of jazz. She looks at such key matters in jazz singing as the role of improvisation, the place of specific singers who influenced and even defined vocal jazz as we know it today, and the unique way in which jazz incorporates vibrato, conversational delivery, rhythmic phrasing, and melodic embellishment and improvisation. This book includes guest-authored chapters by singing voice researchers Dr. Scott McCoy and Dr. Wendy LeBorgne, as well as audio and visual examples from the website of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. In So You Want to Sing Jazz, singers and voice teachers finally have the go-to resource they need for singing vocal jazz. -- from back cover.