Scat and vocalese are two approaches to jazz vocality. This essay intervenes into dominant narratives of their history, value, and functions and encourages us to conceptualize a broader, contradictory view of what they have been and done. This view both acknowledges the narrative of Louis Armstrong giving birth to scat in 1926 and that scat was widespread far earlier; it points to how scat has occupied both sides of Lindon Barrett’s binary of the singing/signing voice, variously functioning as institutionalized vocality that claims authority by Othering certain music as nonmusical and marginalized vocality denied legibility by hegemonic musical norms. Alongside these reflections on the cultural politics of jazz voice, the reader is guided through explorations of the scat existing before scat; the less-celebrated recordings of the most-celebrated scat singer, Ella Fitzgerald; and the ways scat’s meanings are reshaped by poetry and by lesser-known singers of the past and present.

Al Casey talks about his work independently from Fats Waller, including his love for other guitarists such as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian. He talks about working with pianist Art Tatum, an experience shared with bassist Truck Parham. Casey then goes on to describe his trio which accompanied Billie Holiday and others who worked with her add their experiences, including Doc Cheatham and Mal Waldron. There follows a dicsussion of Teddy Wilson's short-lived big band that worked at the Golden Gate in New York, analysing its press coverage and why it ultimately failed. The chapter finished with Truck Parham's vivid memory of the death of bandleader Jimmie Lunceford (who will be referred to numerous times in later chapters) as the result of a racist incident in a restaurant.

Jackie McLean and Sonny Rollins take the same starting point of the early 1950s Miles Davis band, but then follow their stories through independently. Jackie talks of Richie Powell and the Cilfford Brown / Max Roach Band in which Sonny later played. Sonny reflects on a myriad of different ideas, from Elmo Hope and Ernie Henry to Pete LaRoca and Henry Grimes, looking in detail at his trios. Considering social protest, Sonny leads in to discussions with Abbey Lincoln about the era of We Insist! Freedom Now. Rollins then follows his career path through to the 2000s.

This chapter provides an overview of the role of jazz during the period, noting the genre’s beginnings in African music patterns and its migration to unexpected areas such as Chicago and California. The chapter also briefly profiles major musicians and singers associated with jazz during the mid-twentieth century.

examines the decade following the building of the Berlin Wall, from 1961-1971. After partition, which resulted both in increased jazz activities in the East and the clandestine transfer of jazz materials across the border, party leadership authored a pivotal “jazz resolution” that sought to steer the course of jazz in the socialist state. Examining this landmark policy in detail, this chapter shows how socialist leaders claimed jazz as a genuine folk tradition once more and called for its recognition as an art form that protested racial oppression. The chapter also details the pivotal 1965 tour by Louis Armstrong of the eastern bloc, which the GDR used to demonstrate its solidarity with the civil rights movement in America, and which permanently changed the trajectory of jazz in the GDR. In this light, the East German cultural establishment aimed to recruit one of the world’s most famous jazz musicians not just as a critic of American racial policies but furthermore as an ideal socialist-realist artist. Armstrong’s tour had many impacts, including the founding of the Dixieland Festival in Dresden, which continues to the present day.