With the best will in the world, you'd find it hard to get almost anysinger to sing well and properly across nearly three octaves. Eventhe best struggle to meet two.
For all that Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerakld could undoubtedlysing, neither of them really had great vocal ranges. The other problemis of course that you'd have to have them singing some sort of constantvowel sound which neither of them were really known for. Of course youmight have Ella scat-singing but that's usually only very brief notesand have a lot to do with vocal inflection and 'swing' than hitting theright now. It also might be a little challenging to have a Mellotronplay that fast. Oh, and 'scat signing' isn't just Ella Fitzgeraldshouting out toilet words, for those of you in any doubt. Having saidthat, a tune comprising words such as 'faeces', 'shit', 'doo-doo' and'Blechta' might have some short-lived appeal.
I might also have to admit my 'I just don't get it'-ness about SandyDenny. She always sounds completely off-key and shrill to me.
I'm not sure exactly what his real vocal range was, but Freddie Mercurymight be a good enough contender for 'guest dead Mellotron vocals'.Wikipedia thinks he could stretch to three octaves but I have mydoubts.
John Oswald (of 'Plunderphonics' fame) carried out an interestingexperiment where he took Captain Beefheart's a-capella song 'Well' from'Trout Mask Replica' and chopped up individual words from it and ranthem into a sampler, then played Chopin (or similar) through it. Itried that lark once with the voices of (the young) Brian and CarlWilson and played 'Scotland the Brave'. I think I actually mentionedthis in my now-notorious telephone conversation with Brian Wilson a fewyears ago. God Only Knows knows what the effect on his psyche must havebeen.
Mike
Mark Pring wrote:
I recently bought a couple of Ella Fitzgerald CDs fromthe Warehouse ( where everyone gets a bargain, a sort of downmarketWalmart or Woolworths ( do they still have Woolworths in the UK? ( Ohmy goodness recursive brackets!))) mainly 1950s recordings, fantasticvoice, one of my favourites, pity Harry couldn't have enticed her up tohis bedroom instead of the three old biddys with the violins.
An Ella tape set would be really something, which voices would thegroup like to have on a tape set?
Mark
PS
A) Billy Holiday
B) Sandy Denny ( or maybe Etta James )
C) Ella Fitzgerald
Could you manage that Martin?
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