Ward Lamar Swingle (September 21, 1927 – January 19, 2015) was an American
vocalist
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
and
jazz musician
This is a list of jazz musicians by instrument based on existing articles on Wikipedia. Do not enter names that lack articles. Do not enter names that lack sources.
Accordion
* Kamil Běhounek (1916–1983)
* Luciano Biondini (born 1971)
* A ...
who founded
The Swingle Singers
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The Swingles are a v ...
in France in 1962.
Life and career
Born in
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...
, Swingle studied music, particularly jazz, from a very young age. He learned clarinet, oboe and the piano as a child. He played in Mobile-area
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...
s before finishing high school. Swingle continued his music studies at the
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, wh ...
, from which he graduated summa cum laude in 1950.
He also met a French-born violin student, Françoise Demorest, and the couple married in 1952.
Swingle then moved to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in 1951 on a
Fulbright scholarship
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
, where he studied
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
with
Walter Gieseking
Walter Wilhelm Gieseking (5 November 1895 – 26 October 1956) was a French-born German pianist and composer. Gieseking was renowned for his subtle touch, pedaling, and dynamic control—particularly in the music of Debussy and Ravel; he made inte ...
and also worked as a rehearsal pianist for ''Les Ballets de Paris''.
In 1959, he was a founding member of
Les Double Six Les Double Six (also known as the Double Six of Paris) was a French vocal jazz group established in 1959 by Mimi Perrin. The group established an international reputation in the early 1960s. The name of the group was an allusion to the fact that the ...
of Paris, which specialised in
scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms using the voice as an instrument rather than a speaking medium. ...
of jazz standards.
Swingle subsequently applied the scat singing idea to the works of
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
. This concept was the foundation for
The Swingle Singers
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The Swingles are a v ...
, which became fully established by 1962. The Swingle Singers released their albums ''Jazz Sebastian Bach'' and ''Bach's Greatest Hits'' in 1963. Their early recordings won five
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
s.
Swingle disbanded the original Swingle Singers in 1973. He moved to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and formed an English group, which variously had the names Swingle II and the New Swingle Singers. With the new group, he expanded the earlier group's 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 produced invitations to conduct the Stockholm and Netherlands Chamber Choirs, the
Dale Warland Singers, the
Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
National Honors Choir at Kennedy Center. In the 2000s he gave 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 continued his work in arranging, composing and guest conducting. In 1997 he wrote an
entitled ''Swingle Singing,'' in which he defined 'Swingle Singing' techniques with illustrations from his arrangements and compositions.
On February 20, 2004, Swingle was named
, England, on 19 January 2015. His widow, their three children, and three grandchildren survived him.
Françoise Swingle died in 2017.