Re Sandy Denny, I think she did have a lot of off days and sadly her heavy smoking pretty much wrecked her voice in later years, ( not that there were many of them, she died 30 years ago this year ) but on a good day she did have a very expressive voice, I think "The banks of the Nile" from the Fotheringay album would be a good example.
Mark
PS How about Janet Baker, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Kathleen Ferrier and Christa Ludwig?
--- On Sat, 8/9/08, Mike Dickson <mike.dickson@gmail.com> wrote:From: Mike Dickson <mike.dickson@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Ellatron
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, August 9, 2008, 10:02 PMWith the best will in the world, you'd find it hard to get almost any singer to sing well and properly across nearly three octaves. Even the best struggle to meet two.
For all that Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerakld could undoubtedly sing, neither of them really had great vocal ranges. The other problem is of course that you'd have to have them singing some sort of constant vowel sound which neither of them were really known for. Of course you might have Ella scat-singing but that's usually only very brief notes and have a lot to do with vocal inflection and 'swing' than hitting the right now. It also might be a little challenging to have a Mellotron play that fast. Oh, and 'scat signing' isn't just Ella Fitzgerald shouting out toilet words, for those of you in any doubt. Having said that, 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 Sandy Denny. She always sounds completely off-key and shrill to me.
I'm not sure exactly what his real vocal range was, but Freddie Mercury might be a good enough contender for 'guest dead Mellotron vocals'. Wikipedia thinks he could stretch to three octaves but I have my doubts.
John Oswald (of 'Plunderphonics' fame) carried out an interesting experiment where he took Captain Beefheart's a-capella song 'Well' from 'Trout Mask Replica' and chopped up individual words from it and ran them into a sampler, then played Chopin (or similar) through it. I tried that lark once with the voices of (the young) Brian and Carl Wilson and played 'Scotland the Brave'. I think I actually mentioned this in my now-notorious telephone conversation with Brian Wilson a few years ago. God Only Knows knows what the effect on his psyche must have been.
Mike
Mark Pring wrote:I recently bought a couple of Ella Fitzgerald CDs from the Warehouse ( where everyone gets a bargain, a sort of downmarket Walmart or Woolworths ( do they still have Woolworths in the UK? ( Oh my goodness recursive brackets!))) mainly 1950s recordings, fantastic voice, one of my favourites, pity Harry couldn't have enticed her up to his bedroom instead of the three old biddys with the violins.
An Ella tape set would be really something, which voices would the group 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?