[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Singer or singing jazz

[Stephen G Barbone]

>  "Martin D. McKay" <macjazz at comcast.net> wrote
>
>
> (Serious) question for the group
>
> Is there a difference between singing jazz and being a jazz singer?
>
> As a school person I've heard lots of kids play "jazz" solos that  
> sounded
> pretty jazzy but were things they had learned by rote etc. The kid(s)
> couldn't play jazz or even in a jazzy manner on a regular basis.
>
>
> I do think there have been singers who could do jazz.  Betty Carter  
> sang
> jazz at a level even a lot of jazzers couldn't comprehend, etc.
>
>
> Did (Does) Pat Boone sing jazz where he had learned to sing a piece  
> in a
> given fashion or is/was Pat Boone a jazz singer or is there a  
> difference?
>

Good question Mart.

My addition would be was Al Jolson a jazz singer? He was described in  
the late 1920s after the movie, as being America's favorite jazz  
singer. See below quote:

Audiences were wildly enthusiastic when America's favorite jazz singer  
and superstar Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson in 1886, not the first  
choice for the role, and played onstage by George Jessel) broke into  
song, ad-libbed extemporaneously with his mother at the piano, and  
proclaimed the famous line to introduce a musical number:  (You ain't  
heard nothin' yet)

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband