How well does the uke go with Jazz vocals

A

AndieZ

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 25, 2016
Messages
306
Reaction score
5
I love to sing Jazz standards and i love the jazz vocals so i think that's going to my general direction, along with soul stuff, R and B, pop stuff and so on.

But how well will jazz vocals go with a uke for accompaniment. I mean i'm sure the uke can go with anything but do we collectively know any videos or people who've made a good go of it. I'm not really into scat, just saying.

And do you want to recommend some jazz numbers that would be nice for female vocals with a uke.

If you don't want to talk about that, how about just posting three links/vidoes to your favourite/loved vocal jazz numbers.

And if you don't want to do that, just post some of your favourite/loved instrumental jazz numbers :)
 
Do you think this would work on uke lol

Yes i like that one but won't be singing it. but could be fun to scat or somethign i suppose.
 
I thought this thread would be busier. I like some jazz vocal - mostly classic female artists. Jazz tends to have all those nasty Jazz chords (strangely enough :)) so I have mostly avoided trying to make any inroads with it at my current level of ability. Having said that I have managed to get through a passable version of Cry Me A River (passable in the sense that it's fine when kept within confines of my spare bedroom - I wouldn't necessarily choose to inflict in on anyone else).
 
Look for some videos of Benny Chong. Definitely yes, ukulele and jazz go together. Oh! And check out Sarah Maisel, too.
 
Yes Jolly it seems not many here are into Jazz or if they are, they are not venturing into the room for idle chit chat. Nevermind, maybe it just needs another day to get going.

Cry me a River. I want to learn it. I've done a little bit of work on singing it but haven't started to try to play it. Do you want to hear me sing it? I I think it suits my voice but as i don't know it thoroughly, i go wonky in a couple of bits. And there's something not quite right with the volume on the karaoke recording so you'd have to adjust it as the song progresses.

I'd love it if you could share the chords with me and any other tips about how to play it. I've found some videos or something but i haven't looked at them for a while so I'm not sure.

My favourite version is the one by Barbara Streisand.

Maybe you could post yourself doing it - audio or video is fine. Soundcloud is easy.

This is interesting and new to me. Torch Songs. CMAR is one of these. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torch_song
 
Last edited:
AndieZ said:
Cry me a River. I want to learn it. I've done a little bit of work on singing it but haven't started to try to play it. Do you want to hear me sing it? I I think it suits my voice but as i don't know it thoroughly, i go wonky in a couple of bits. And there's something not quite right with the volume on the karaoke recording so you'd have to adjust it as the song progresses.
Click to expand...

Do you mean you already have a clip of you performing the song? Certainly - I'd be happy to give it a listen :)

AndieZ said:
I'd love it if you could share the chords with me and any other tips about how to play it.
Click to expand...

Okay. I will post a chord sheet in the Tabs and Chords subforum. I'll need to type it out - it's a combination of a for-uke version I found online (which to my ear only sounded about 80% correct) and the sheet music (which is 100% correct but needed a little pruning :)). It sounds pretty good to me - see what you think. If it's helpful then cool. I'll let you know when it's up.

AndieZ said:
My favourite version is the one by Barbara Streisand.
Click to expand...

I'm weirdly conservative when it comes to some genres of music and with jazz vocal I tend to stick with the 'usual suspects' - so my choice would be Julie London. But I will give the Streisand version a listen.

AndieZ said:
Maybe you could post yourself doing it - audio or video is fine. Soundcloud is easy.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure the world isn't quite ready for that.
 
sukie said:
Look for some videos of Benny Chong. Definitely yes, ukulele and jazz go together. Oh! And check out Sarah Maisel, too.
Click to expand...
:agree: I wish there was more recorded material from Chong. I've only heard a couple things but they were great.


+1 on Sarah too:
 
Sarah's video is the best. So, go buy a jazz standards fakebook, a uke chord book, pick out a song you like and start singing and playing. That's all it requires.

Petey
 
I find her better to listen to than to watch.
 
BEfore you do all that work, since it sounds like it might be a lot of work, shouldn't we make sure its going to work for me. Please make me a sound cloud if that's easier and pm it to me first. I'll pm you my song cause i am not sure its a good idea to post it here. Whenever i've posted sound clips before no one has commented so i guess they either didn't listen or didn't like it. :)
 
jollyboy said:
Jazz tends to have all those nasty Jazz chords (strangely enough :)) so I have mostly avoided trying to make any inroads with it at my current level of ability.
Click to expand...

Jazz chords are no more difficult to form than more basic ones. But once you learn them, you want to use them as transitional chords, and that increases the frequency of chord changes, which is what makes jazz playing more difficult.

On uke, I mainly play songs from the 20s to 40s, the eras in which most jazz standards were written. Being able to play these songs was the main reason I took up ukulele.
 
ubulele said:
Jazz chords are no more difficult to form than more basic ones. But once you learn them, you want to use them as transitional chords, and that increases the frequency of chord changes, which is what makes jazz playing more difficult.

On uke, I mainly play songs from the 20s to 40s, the eras in which most jazz standards were written. Being able to play these songs was the main reason I took up ukulele.
Click to expand...

Hi, ubu

You sound a little peeved. If you are taking umbrage at my use of the term 'nasty jazz chords' I can assure you it was meant light-heartedly. I bear them no real malice.

My own experience has been that chords that require me to fret more than three strings at a time are harder for me to play. That may change as I become more proficient as a player. Right now they remain a challenge.

To say that "jazz chords are no more difficult to form than more basic ones" is a something of a generalization. Your use of the term 'more basic ones' makes the statement read rather oddly as well. 'More basic' in what sense, other than their being easier to form?

Compare "Big dogs are no larger than small dogs."
 
jollyboy said:
Hi, ubu

You sound a little peeved. If you are taking umbrage at my use of the term 'nasty jazz chords' I can assure you it was meant light-heartedly. I bear them no real malice.

My own experience has been that chords that require me to fret more than three strings at a time are harder for me to play. That may change as I become more proficient as a player. Right now they remain a challenge.

To say that "jazz chords are no more difficult to form than more basic ones" is a something of a generalization. Your use of the term 'more basic ones' makes the statement read rather oddly as well. 'More basic' in what sense, other than their being easier to form?

Compare "Big dogs are no larger than small dogs."
Click to expand...

I didnt read it that way. Tone is difficult to tell.

A lot of barring chords is more of a challenge. But much easier with a fretboard that has a radius.
 
AndieZ said:
I'll pm you my song cause i am not sure its a good idea to post it here. Whenever i've posted sound clips before no one has commented so i guess they either didn't listen or didn't like it. :)
Click to expand...

Or we didn't see the sound clips posted. Try again, and maybe some of us who haven't seen the clips before will see them this time.

I'm not sure if I'd have any great input, if it's jazz, but I can at least give an uneducated opinion. LOL.
 
"More basic" as in more basic in construction (major, minor, dom7, minor 7) and more universal in usage.

I'm not peeved, but I want to dispel the impression that, because chords have more qualifications in their names, they're "hard". Yes, it's harder to tell by listening what they are (without ear training) and harder to know when to use them, but they're not harder to play. Refer, for instance, to the recent thread on cool one-finger chords. A color chord is still likely to include at least one open-string pitch, and so can map to a three-finger chord (or less). By the same token, there are a number of basic chords which require all four fingers or a barre. 0232 plays G and 0212 plays G7, but 0213 plays G7sus4, 0312 plays G7#5, 0112 plays G7b5 and 0111 plays Gø (Gm7b5). These are not hard chords to play.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

mikelz777
Where does your uke group meet?
2
Replies
24
Views
1K
RafterGirl
R
M
Does anyone recognize this no-name uke?
Replies
4
Views
436
mschenk5
M
M
Does anyone recognize this no-name uke?
Replies
0
Views
222
mschenk5
M
cyber3d
Does anyone here play both a regular bass (guitar) and a uke bass?
2
Replies
20
Views
1K
Futurethink
Futurethink
scatblanc
Does anyone know the width of abalone purfling on a martin s5 uke ?
Replies
0
Views
254
scatblanc
scatblanc
Top Bottom