- The Swingle Singers are a mostly a cappella vocal group formed in 1962 in Paris, France with Ward Swingle, Anne Germain, Jeanette Baucomont and Jean Cussac. Christiane Legrand, the sister of composer Michel Legrand, was the lead soprano in the original French group. There are a total of eight members in the group: two sopranos, two altos, two tenors and two basses. In 1973, the original French group disbanded and Ward Swingle moved to London and re-formed the group with new members as Swingle II. They would later perform and record under the name The Swingles and then, The New Swingle Singers and eventually, simply, The Swingle Singers. Since the London group's incarnation, the group has never disbanded. Members have come and gone and the other members have re-auditioned for the voice part that has left.
The group, directed originally by Ward Swingle (who once belonged to the Mimi Perrin's French vocal group Les Double Six), began as session singers mainly doing background vocals for singers like Charles Aznavour and Edith Piaf. They also did some jazz vocals for Michel Legrand. The eight session singers sang through Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier, as a sight reading exercise and found the music to have a natural swing. They recorded their first album Jazz Sébastien Bach as a present for friends and relatives. Many radio stations picked it up which led to the group recording more albums and winning a total of five Grammy Awards.
An early hit for the group was Bach's "Air on the G String", recorded with the Modern Jazz Quartet. This is also the theme tune to a popular Italian TV Show Superquark. Luciano Berio wrote his postmodern symphony Sinfonia for eight voices and orchestra in 1968 with the Swingle Singers in mind (appearing on the original premier recording with the New York Philharmonic). They also recorded Ben Johnston's "Sonnets of Desolation" in 1984. In 2005, their recording of Bach's Prelude in F Minor was incorporated into the hit single "They", by Jem Griffiths; the same piece was also used in the 2006 film The Gigolos. The music of the group has a trademark sound and is used frequently on TV (The West Wing, Sex in the City, Miami Vice, Glee), in movies (Bach's Fugue in G Minor (BWV 578) in Thank You for Smoking, Mozart's "Horn Concerto No. 4" in Wedding Crashers, Bach's "Prelude No.7 in E flat [The Well Tempered Clavier - Book 2 BWV 876]" in Milk). The London group sang with French pop star Etienne Daho on his songs "Timide intimité" and "Soudain" from his 1996 album Eden, and with the Style Council on their song "The Story of Someone's Shoe" from the 1988 album Confessions of a Pop Group. (Style Council leader Paul Weller claims the song was inspired by the Swingle Singers' 1966 album with the Modern Jazz Quartet, Place Vendôme).
The current group is based in London, England and is an a cappella group. They produce covers ranging from modern classics (Björk, Annie Lennox, and The Beatles) to classical music (Bach, Mozart) to Contemporary Music (Luciano Berio, Pascal Zavaro and Azio Corghi). Their arrangements are often informed by jazz harmonies and stylings.
The Swingle Singers are curators of the London A Cappella Festival, based at Kings Place, near Kings Cross. - Discography
The Paris-based Swingle Singers recorded regularly for Philips in the 1960s and early 1970s and the successor London-based group continued to record, for Columbia / CBS, Virgin Classics and other record labels from 1974 to the present.- The Swingle Singers (Paris, 1962 – 1973)
- Bach's Greatest Hits (1963) Philips – aka Jazz Sébastien Bach (Vol. 1)
- Going Baroque (1964) Philips – aka Going Baroque / de Bach aux Baroques
- Anyone for Mozart? (1965) Philips – aka Swinging Mozart
- Getting Romantic (1965) Philips – aka Les Romantiques
- Rococo À Go Go (1966) Philips – aka Swingling Telemann
- Encounter with the Modern Jazz Quartet (1966) Philips – aka Place Vendôme
- Spanish Masters (1967) Philips – aka Sounds of Spain: Concerto d'Aranjuez
- Operazione San Pietro (movie soundtrack) (1968) C.A.M.
- Christmastime (1968) Philips – aka Noëls Sans Passeport
- Back to Bach (1968) Philips – aka Jazz Sébastien Bach 2
- American Look (1969) Philips
- Sinfonia: Luciano Berio conducting the New York Philharmonic and Swingle Singers (1969) Columbia / CBS
- The Joy of Singing (1972) Philips – aka Les Quatre Saisons (The Four Seasons)
- Bitter Ending (1972) Epic
- Swingle II / The Swingles / The (New) Swingle Singers (London, 1974 – present)
- Love Songs for Madrigals and Madriguys (1974) Columbia / CBS
- Words and Music (1974) CBS
- Rags and All that Jazz (1976) CBS
- Lovin' You: Words and Music Vol. 2 (1976) CBS
- Baroque (1976) CBS
- Luciano Berio and Swingle II - A-Ronne / Cries Of London (1976) Decca
- English and French Songs (1977) RCA
- Pieces of Eight (1977) CBS
- Swingle Bells (1978) Moss Music Group / EMI
- No Time to Talk (1979) CBS
- Swingle Skyliner (1979) Moss Music Group / EMI
- Folio (1980) EMI
- The Swingle Singers "Live" in New York '82
- Reflections (1985)
- Instrumentals, Polydor
- Live at Ronnie Scott's (1987)
- Notability
- 1812 (1989) Virgin Classics – a mix of 8 studio and 7 live tracks
- A Cappella Amadeus, A Mozart Celebration (1991) Virgin Classics
- Around the World, Folk Songs (1991) Virgin Classics – aka (Around the World) Folk Music
- Luciano Berio: Sinfonia, Eindrücke (1992) Erato – performance with the Orchestre National de France
- Pretty Ring Time (1994)
- Bach Hits Back (1994?) Virgin Classics
- New World (1995)
- The Swingle Singers Sing Irving Berlin (1996) Sanctuary Records - aka Nothing But Blue Skies, The Irving Berlin Songbook
- Screen Tested (1998)
- The Story of Christmas (1998)
- Ticket to Ride - A Beatles Tribute (1999)
- Keyboard Classics (2000) Primarily A Cappella – aka Dabadaba Classics, King
- Live in Japan (2001)
- Mood Swings (2002) – aka Dabadaba Swing, King
- Retrospective: The 40th Anniversary Show (2003) – live
- Unwrapped (2004) Signum – aka Just Voices: A Cappella Christmas (Evosound)
- Dido's Lament (2005) – EP
- The Swingle Singers, Live
- Beauty and the Beatbox (2007) Signum – with beatbox artist, Shlomo
- Ferris Wheels (2009)
- The Swingle Singers (Paris, 1962 – 1973)
- Berio's Sinfonia
- It was released in 1970 on the Columbia LP MS7268, and performed by The Swingle Singers and the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Berio. The work consisted of four movements at the time of this recording, a fifth being added later. This recording has never been re-released on CD, perhaps because it lacks the last movement of Sinfonia in its final form. That is a great pity, because it is a magnificent recording and performance, and represents the composer's own vision for his work.
- live at Contertgebouw Amsterdam
come from...
- Ward Swingle (born 21 September 1927) is an American vocalist and jazz musician.
Swingle was born in Mobile, Alabama. He studied music, particularly jazz, from a very young age. He was playing in Mobile-area Big Bands before finishing high school. After high school, Swingle graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He then moved to France, where he studied piano with the celebrated Walter Gieseking. In the 1960s he was a founding member of Les Double Six of Paris, then took the scat singing idea and applied it to the works of Bach. This concept would be the foundation for The Swingle Singers, a group Swingle founded and whose early recordings won five Grammy Awards.
When the French group of Swingle Singers disbanded in 1973, Swingle moved to London and formed an English group, expanding the repertoire to include classical and avant-garde works along with the scat and jazz vocal arrangements.
In 1984 Swingle returned to live in America. Though he remained musical advisor for his London-based group, he devoted most of his time to workshops, guest conducting and the dissemination of his printed arrangements through his publishing company, Swingle Music.
His pioneering ideas in new choral techniques have produced invitations to conduct The Stockholm and Netherlands Chamber Choirs, The Dale Warland Singers, The Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir, the BBC Northern Singers and the MENC National Honors Choir at Kennedy Center. Over the last ten years he has given a long series of workshops and seminars at universities in both Europe and North America.
In March 1994 Swingle and his wife moved back to France, where he continues his work in arranging, composing and guest conducting. He has recently written an autobiography and treatise entitled Swingle Singing, in which he defines 'Swingle Singing' techniques with illustrations from his arrangements and compositions.
On February 20th, 2004, Swingle was named "Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" (Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French Minister of Culture and Information.
come from...
- Les Double Six (also known as the Double Six of Paris) was a French vocal jazz group established in 1959 by Mimi Perrin (February 2, 1926 – November 16, 2010). The group established an international reputation in the early 1960s. The name of the group was an allusion to the fact that the sextet used overdubbing techniques to achieve twelve-part singing. The membership of the group varied from recording to recording.
They sang in French jazz standards, particularly themes by Quincy Jones and Dizzy Gillespie, thanks to the poetic or humorous texts written by the imaginative Perrin.
Inspired several American groups, the singers vocalized in the manner of instruments, reconstructing brilliant improvisations of saxophone, trumpets or trombones.
The group was not long-lasting. Due to Perrin's health problems (she had contracted tuberculosis in 1949), Les Double Six dissolved in 1966. They recorded four albums between 1959 and 1964. Many members of the group went on to join the Swingle Singers, which notably reproduced the works of Bach in the jazz vocal style.
The Double Six were nominated for Best Vocal Group Performance at the 1965 Grammy Awards for their LP The Double Six of Paris Sing Ray Charles, and were beaten by The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night. - Members (changing according to session, but generally in sextets)
- Mimi Perrin (founder)
- Monique Guérin
- Louis Aldebert
- Ward Swingle (future arranger of the Swingle Singers)
- Jean-Louis Conrozier
- Roger Guérin
- Christiane Legrand
- Claude Germain
- Jacques Denjean
- Jean-Claude Briodin
- Eddy Louiss
- Claudine Barge
- Robert Smart
- Bernard Lubat
- Discography
- The Double Six of Paris, Capitol Records 1961 (recorded 1959-1960)
- The Double Six of Paris: Swingin' Singin', Philips Records 1962 (recorded 1960-1961)
- Dizzy Gillespie and the Double Six of Paris, Philips 1963
- The Double Six Of Paris sing Ray Charles, Philips 1964
- Other
