Cool Singers Jazz Music » Jazz Singers on the Radio » Russell Davies Show, 18 April 2004

Anita Wardell's voice has a nice tone but most of her tracks were spoiled by buckets of ridiculous scat singing. I don't mind a couple of bars of exuberant scat if the artist is moved to do it, but whole calculated choruses? Oh God! No! I don't care if it's difficult or takes years of study; it's just not worth doing. Another thing that is not worth doing and never was worth doing is trying to put words to instrumental solos. Like in the version she sang of Farmer's Market and the track from Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Cottontail.

The Chet Baker "scat" on Do It the Hard Way was interesting, he sounded a bit uncomfortable, I wonder if it was his idea. He wasn't really scatting, he was just sort of describing the tune with da-da-da.

Forgotten men Johnny Ray and Eddie Fisher demonstrated why Elvis was such a breath of fresh air in the field of white male pop singers.

It's ironic that the nicest wordless singing in the programme was the female backing on the Margaret Whiting track, I Speak To the Stars, from Loulie Jean Norman, the voice from the theme of the first Star Trek TV series.