२ सप्टेंबर, २०२२

Male singers, their microphones, and their gender.

The New Yorker is featuring an old article from 1997: "Sinatra’s Song/What is it about Frank Sinatra that no one else can touch? He could swing, break hearts, and behave badly, and he made his voice an instrument that kept reinventing American music" (by John Lahr). I found this quite interesting:
Sinatra’s phenomenal impact... had to do not just with musical timing but with the timing of the technology that saturated the nation with his sound. As Henry Pleasants notes in “The Great American Popular Singers,” in 1930, only a decade before Sinatra made his name, the reigning crooner, Rudy Vallee, threw away the megaphone that had broadcast his sound and, by linking a borrowed NBC carbon microphone to amplifiers and several radios onstage, created a crude kind of concert amplification. (“I sing with dick in my voice” is how the notoriously foulmouthed Vallee explained his appeal.)...

Sinatra himself began by singing with a megaphone, but the microphone soon became his totem.... Sinatra said, “Many singers never learned to use one. They never understood, and still don’t, that a microphone is their instrument.” Gripping the stationary mike with both hands and only occasionally moving it back and forth, he used it as a prop in a kind of foreplay. “You don’t crowd it, you must never jar an audience with it. . . . You must know when to move away from the mike and when to move back into it,” he wrote in Life. He added, “It’s like a geisha girl uses her fan.”

२३ टिप्पण्या:

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

It helped that Frank could really sing autotuneless...

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

This is my rifle, this is my gun...

rhhardin म्हणाले...

I remember Ernie Kovacs acting the part of a male opera singer next to a female opera singer, and when the female opened up with her reply to him he winced at the loud volume, the wince being the comedic joke.

Wouldn't be necessary with microphones.

YoungHegelian म्हणाले...

As a teenager, it always amused me that Bizarre Records and Straight Records, both founded by Frank Zappa and home to Zappa/Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart were subsidiaries of Reprise Records which was founded by Frank Sinatra in coordination with Warner Brothers Records for him & his buddies.

People of our generation forget just how old Sinatra was by the time we became conscious of him. He was born in 1915. Rudy Vallee, who seems like from a whole other world of popular entertainment was born in 1901. They were only fourteen years apart!

guitar joe म्हणाले...

I've only seen a few singers from that generation. The way they used the microphone is really impressive, and rock singers don't do that. I guess they don't need to because the dynamic range of rock is narrower. I saw Nancy Wilson live about 15 years ago, and she was adept at placing the mic at different distances from her mouth to ensure that she didn't overpower during higher notes or when she was increasing her volume for effect. It was really something to see.

Michael K म्हणाले...

Rudy Vallee, who seems like from a whole other world of popular entertainment was born in 1901. They were only fourteen years apart!

I met Rudy Vallee at Jane Russel's wedding. He seemed like a nice man. Sinatra had a talent, sort of like Ella Fitzgerald, to use the song as a basis for his own interpretation.

He had other talents, too. Ava Gardner said he weighed only 100 pounds, but "40 pounds of that was cock."

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

'I saw Nancy Wilson live about 15 years ago, and she was adept at placing the mic at different distances from her mouth to ensure that she didn't overpower during higher notes or when she was increasing her volume for effect. It was really something to see.'

That's why they make millions and we just sing in the shower : )

Readering म्हणाले...

Have a cd of 2 33s of Sinatra and Count Basie ('62 and '64) in my car player right now. There is Sinatra and then there is everyone else. Watch the HBO bio. Sinatra would admit he copied Bing on exploiting the microphone.

Vallee a Yale man who made the Whiffenpoof song famous. (Bing recorded it; not sure about Frank.)

Carol म्हणाले...

To be fair, Bing Crosby knew how to use a mic too.

They were both fabulous singers and I never cared about their personal lives.

Some people just got it.

baghdadbob म्हणाले...

Breath control. Sinatra's breath control when singing was impeccable. And of course, outstanding pitch and timing.

Heartless Aztec म्हणाले...

Neuman (pronounced Noy-man) U87. The Neuman U67 is also a good large condenser microphone. But the N87 is the one....

gilbar म्हणाले...

the Actual History of music is the history of sound reproduction.
Sheet music
78's
Tube Amps
Stereo
Boom boxes
sub woofers

every reproduction technique results in different music.
If you're listening on one type of device, you'll hear the music different than through another.
Music that sounds best through a pocket transistor radio, is NOT the music that sounds best through a Home Stereo..
1980's heavy metal (or 1990's rap) would NOT have been created without Big Bass Speakers
Similarly now that people listen to compressed music through ear buds, music changes again.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

'He had other talents, too. Ava Gardner said he weighed only 100 pounds, but "40 pounds of that was cock."'

Very funny quote.

Milton Berle would have a word : )

Jamie म्हणाले...

Singers who have no power irritate me - the ones who whisper into the mike and let the tech do all the work. Can Billy Eilish sing? Who can say? Also the ones who sing with vocal fry (Selena Gomez, I'm talking to YOU).

You can always bring your voice down if you have proper technique and breath control; being able to project also enables you to use your dynamic range for interpretation. I've been a good and at times well trained amateur (and micro-local professional) singer since I was a pre-teen; I can make my speaking voice heard in any room (and it doesn't stop me from speaking softly when appropriate), whereas my husband's voice, I swear, stops six inches from his face. It's crazy.

It's Ann Wilson, not Nancy, who has (or had) the powerhouse voice in Heart.

realestateacct म्हणाले...

Sinatra claimed he learned how to sing from Billie Holiday.

Stan Smith म्हणाले...

I took a date to a swanky Sunset Blvd. restaurant to impress her early on in our courtship. Frank was there with a bunch of his buddies, all of them three sheets to the wind. This was in December, and the Sinatra bunch was all talking about New Years' Resolutions, specifically about forswearing alcohol for the coming year. A number of celebrity types were at the restaurant, including Jack Klugman and his wife; all were plainly disgusted by the display of Frank and his pals (they were yelling at the top of their lungs things like "A thousan' dolla's to the firs' one who takes a drink!"). Klugman waved the manager over to ask him to ask Sinatra to tone it down. The manager shook his head, and I overheard him say "You don't tell Frank what to do with those friends sitting with him." Friends wearing pin-striped suits and white ties. Really.

It was one of the most expensive and least pleasant dates I've ever been on. Not a Sinatra fan.

ConradBibby म्हणाले...

Crosby was the first one to really take advantage of microphone technology. Before him, the most popular singer -- really a great entertainer -- was Al Jolson. But Jolson's style was to completely belt out a song, high energy without letup. But Crosby figured out the microphone lets you get close to the microphone and sing like you're sitting on the sofa right next to the listener, not trying to be heard by someone in the second balcony.

But Sinatra took that breakthrough to another level by being not just intimate, but also cool and sexy. IMO, Crosby's vocal performances don't really hold up today because of the personality behind the voice. His voice had an amazing tone, and there's no question he was a great musician, but what he was doing was pretty square and meant to appeal to everyone from age 10 to 80. It was safe and largely impersonal.

Sinatra let it all hang out: passion, sexiness, pain, obsession -- he put all of that on display in his singing. That's what separates him from the rest. Tony Bennett and Dean Martin were arguably better vocalists, but they both fell woefully short of Sinatra in terms of the emotional impact of their performances, which is what it's really all about.

Dagwood म्हणाले...

Then one day Freddie Mercury told Frank, "Here, hold my beer."

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

When Rudy Vallee played the old boss in "How to Succeed in Business" with the young Robert Morse he was 66. Robert Morse played the old boss in "Mad Men" starting when he was 76 and ending when he was 84.

Old age came sooner back then. Dean Jagger played the old General in "White Christmas" when he was only 50 or 51. Now, Mick Jagger can pretend to be a youth idol at 79.

Debi Mazar plays Ava Gardner in the Spanish series "Arde Madrid." I would not like to have known or worked for Ava. Too much the wild woman.

cassandra lite म्हणाले...

Listening to Sinatra sing was like watching a movie; his voice told a story. Other singers for the most part just carried the tune. Exceptions were Nat Cole and Rosemary Clooney.

lonejustice म्हणाले...

Never understood the appeal of Frank Sinatra. To me and my friends he was always an old guy from the previous generation. The people who listened to him also seemed to spend Saturday nights watching Lawrence Welk on TV.

Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene म्हणाले...

There are two Nancy Wilsons.

dwshelf म्हणाले...

Never understood the appeal of Frank Sinatra.

I know people who don't understand the appeal of finely dressed women.