Posted by Jon Hendricks (172.129.38.66) on February 03, 2003 at 14:15:10:
In Reply to: Re: Sing A Song of Basie posted by Sol on August 27, 2002 at 13:51:18:
: : I don't know if anyone's posted this idea or mentioned previously. I thought it would be fantastic if Jon could produce an album of the "Sing A Song of Basie" from 1957 in the form of a collection of singers about sixteen or so they would emulate all the various sections of the Basie band brass, reeds, rhythm. I know that Jon, Annie and Dave did it with multi tracking but this would give a new slant on the original.
: I don't know if there are any plans to record the entire album again, but the Jon's University of Toledo Vocalstra has been performing a number of these songs in their recent concerts.
Dear Anthony,
How prescient of you! Here at the University of Toledo where I am teaching Jazz in American Society as well as Vocalese Studies, I have organized what I call a Vocalstra to do what Dave and I intended to do on "Sing A Song of Basie," but the sixteen singers that Dave Lambert had couldn't cut it, so he, Annie and I multi-tracked it and the rest of course is history. However, I never forgot my orignal idea of having 16 voices sing Basie just as you have suggested, and for which I organized my Vocalstra here at the University of Toledo, so we come full circle. Congratulations!
Jon Hendricks