Voice Over Artist | Lindsay Abbott

Archive for the ‘Jazz’ Category

Thought it very apt on this Valentine’s Day to add this audio clip of My Funny Valentine, recorded by me about 5 years ago at Sound Recording Technology, produced by the brilliant Ian Shepherd :

Why sing in American when you have an English accent?

One of my pet hates is native English accented singers singing with American accents . In my opinion it’s fake. Why can’t they be original, be themselves?! Even Leona Lewis , who is an amazing singer, finds it necessary to do so. One might argue that, now she’s an international artist, she needs to be accessible to the massive American market which she has conquered, but the fact is that she was singing in an American accent during the competition!

Using the X-Factor  for a moment, what I don’t understand is that, with all the vocal tuition that the finalists receive, why don’t their voice coaches  correct them?

When I’m singing with my jazz and swing band, I make a point of not singing with an American accent. The only exceptions are where the rhyming of the words are based on the American pronunciation/inflection. For example, in Moondance, by Van Morrison  :

‘Can I just have one more moondance with …my love’
‘Can I just make some more romance with you…my love’

If you were to say  ‘moondarnss‘ and  ’romarnss‘ with an English accent, you’d sound like a prize pillock! 

Of course, most of the jazz standards  and swing  standards were written by American writers, just look at the Great American Songbook for example,  or one of the real Jazz standards music books, but in most cases you don’t need to use a fake American drawl. The other challenge is when American colloquialisms  are used, such as in Mack The Knife  ’On the sidewalk, on a Sunday morning don’t you know..’.  Clearly, this would sound a bit strange if you sang it in the style of Mary Poppins !

The style of the genre does lend itself to a more relaxed and laid back style of presentation and, if you can get that relaxed, laid-back sound, losing the fake twang, and without sounding like Mary Poppins, you’ve achieved the style and won’t sound ridiculous!

We are performing some live jazz as a backdrop to what is fast becoming the networking event of the year. If you haven’t already heard about it, this is the Network of Networks December 16th Event being held at the The Cambridge Cancer Care Centre in The David Rayner Building, Scotsdales Garden Centre, Great Shelford, Cambridge. This FREE event started out as a little idea and has grown into a big event with over 200 people, and is being organised by Ann Hawkins of The Inspired Group.

The event is being sponsored by: The Very Early Lunch Club (Best of Cambridge), Business for Breakfast, The Business Club Cambridge, Cambridge Women, Cambourne Network, The Womens Business Clubs, O4RB , ABC Advantage, The Cambridge Business Breakfast Club, and The Inspired Group.

To find out more, please click on: http://thecompletenetworker.com/ – but please note that this event is now SOLD OUT with a reserve list waiting: Check out our special blog page on the site too