When I heard from my fellow jazz vocalist from Missouri, Val Ticachek, that Sheila Jordan would be joining three brothers of jazz--Jon Hendricks,Mark Murphy and Kurt Elling--for a free concert at Millenium Park in Chicago, I recognized the historic significance of this event and made plans to go.

Photo by Rhonda Laurie

Thanks to the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs et al, which created the Chicago Jazz Partnership in support of local jazz artists, four of the greatest practitioners of vocalese performed at the Millenium Park concert pavilion on July 21, 2005. Most significantly, one of the originators of the art of vocalese, Jon Hendricks (who will be turning 84 in September), was part of this historic vocal jazz concert. Also performing were the great Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan, and Chicago native, Kurt Elling. Kurt Elling is of the most recent generation of vocalese artists /poets.

Photo by Rhonda Laurie

The term vocalese, as coined by jazz critic Leonard Feather, is the setting of lyrics to established jazz orchestral instruments. It is not scat singing. Vocalese is putting words to a pre-arranged instrumental tune. So, when it was time for Jon Hendricks to perform a John Coltrane instrumental tune (“Mr. P.C.”), he aptly introduced his song by saying, “I am going to sing a song for you like most of the songs I sing…songs that are not meant to be sung!” Most of the repertoire that evening was exactly that---vocal reenactments of great instrumental jazz tunes.

Photo by Rhonda Laurie

The concert was originally titled “The Four Brothers” and was previously performed with four male vocalists. The title “Four Brothers” was inspired by the Jimmy Giuffre instrumental tune of that name. Although the previous concerts of that namesake have included “four brothers,” for this concert they substituted a “mother” for a brother, and so was born a new title: “Three Brothers and a Mother.” Actually, it was Jon Hendicks who put lyrics to note-for-note duplications of the original solos by Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, and Woody Herman.

Some of the great standards of the evening included: “Moody’s Mood For Love,” “Where U At?,” “Going to Chicago Blues,” “Mr. P.C. ,” “All Blues,” and “Four Brothers.” Each of the four artists also performed a ballad.

Photo by Rhonda Laurie

One of the highlights of the evening was when Mr. Elling invited “senior partner” Jon Hendricks to do Hendricks’ original song, “Going to Chicago” with Kurt Elling, with Mr. Hendricks singing the melody line and Mr. Elling singing the “response” line of the song. It was a fabulous interplay where Mr. Hendricks played the straight man to Mr. Elling’s somewhat comical treament of his lyrically responsive part. The most poignant moment of the evening was Mark Murphy, accompanied by Laurence Hobgood on piano, singing the beautiful and haunting ballad, “I Know You From Somewhere.”

Rhonda Laurie is a vocal musician living in the Twin Cities, President of the Twin Cities' chapter of the Jazz Vocal Coalition (JZVOC), adjunct Instructor for the Minnesota School of Business (Music Business department), artist-in-residence, arts education consultant, and member of the International Association of Jazz Education (IAJE).

Sheila Jordan and Rhonda Laurie