Mel Torme speaking is more musical than most singers singing.

@BillAnt

4 жыл бұрын

He was singing and rapping before rapping even existed. ;) (aka scatting) Mel's was a really talented guy... the actor Harry Anderson of Night Court fame was a huge Torme fan, even got him on the show many times. There are re-runs of Night Court currently on the LAFF tv channel.

@robstockton2463

8 ай бұрын

@@BillAnt So you’re equating rapping and scatting, even though rapping is spoken-word and scatting is wordless singing? That’s a stretch, mate.

Mel will forever be a national treasure. Incredible talent!

I've been getting into jazz singing lately and just discovered this guy. His pitch is out of this world.

@JaceMogill

2 жыл бұрын

Spoiler alert: No autotune

@bonitavanderwal2712

Жыл бұрын

Hi there, please check out his scatting ! Out of this world !

@robstockton2463

8 ай бұрын

He’s an excellent technician for sure, and he was maybe even a better scat singer than Ella was. His smooth voice and his range are impressive. But he’s not great at the storytelling aspect, and he didn’t gravitate to songs with narratives. Pretty much straight-ahead delivering the song without much nuance or emotional investment (as was the style then). Check out Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughn for more interpretive delivery.

@gringochucha

8 ай бұрын

@@robstockton2463 I agree with your take. I've been listening to Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan my whole life. Nat is number 1 in my book. Cheers!

@desmondkowalski6863

6 ай бұрын

@@robstockton2463 go check out his version of "Autumn in New York"

I love when he talks about cold tones and the fact that true jazz singers often aren't loaded with vibrato. It's so nice listening to the older greats like Ella that don't do all those vocal gymnastics that seem to so impress modern audiences.

The velvet fog! Listened to him while I was learning vocal singing in High School. I had the pleasure of seeing him twice in Seattle in his later years. After his concert, my friend and I waiting by the backstage door. Even though he was just getting over a cold, he kindly came out and greeted those who were waiting. I ended up with a signed drumstick! I’m surprised anyone would have thought that he was not a jazz singer in the early 60’s!

Probably the best jazz-singer of all times. And the most manysided one. Used his voice as a musical instrument.

@Cruz_ignatius

2 жыл бұрын

True he could sing and even fight Sinatra out of the water ;)

@gabchaim8232

2 жыл бұрын

@@Cruz_ignatius Blown away again, after watching the show once more. MT must have been the hardest working entertainer in the whole business. The guy has got many skills + could really fulfill any audience's wishes. The baritone uke is a find. Only reason i can think of, why he never reached ultimate top: he ain't got the looks.

My favourite jazz singer. Master of scat

I was introduced to Mel Torme at 11 years old through Judge Harry Stone.

Laying it down, throwing shade, and jazzicizing semanticizing baby! Yeah!

A masterclass of jazz singing... maybe in a couple of lives, I could get to half his level. One can dream.

Mel Torme could sing the phone book and it would be unforgettable. Plus, his enunciation was spectacular.

Pianist Gary Long is just one of many guys you probably never heard of and who probably never made it big, but the guy plays some beautiful chords. Would have loved to have heard more of him.

This guy´s tonal transitions are amazing!, what a mastery of a correct way using his built in resources!!!

He had a regular gig at the Carlyle Hotel back in the 80s, caught him there more than once. Great singer.

this is a gem.

The 'the velvet fog' himself, was quite the singer. Had a fabulous range, was a great 'scat' vocalist also! RIP Mr. Torme, and thanks for the outstanding memories!

@DavidAndTheDummies

3 ай бұрын

He also detested that nickname. Funny how we find it so accurate and he hated it😂😂

@user-rz6bc2cl3c

3 ай бұрын

Yes, and, thanks, BTW, Did you happen to know why he hated, the velvet fog, so much? It sure was strange to me, I would have thought he might be a little 'proud' of that tag.

Excellent!

A true legend ... underrated !

Mr. Pavel Voronin, your channel is a real treasure!!!

Mel Torme was a music scholar as well as an amazingly talented musician and singer. What a fine TV show. Wish this type of programming was more prevalent today. I always admired Ralph J. Gleason and have learned so much by reading his comments.

I was born only a couple months before this video was recorded, and growing up, I was aware of Mel, mainly from appearances on TV... I discovered the magic of the younger Torme later in life - what a supremely talented singer he was... What it must be like to be a person too young to have known of him while he was alive, and now just discover through the Internet... We do have some gems these days, but nothing, it seems to compare with these talents from the midst of the 20th century...

this is excellent! a rare opportunity (for me) to hear Mel Torme talk about his craft...wonderful music

such casual excellence & genius

Beautiful voice 🥰 I love his style. His voice is so dreamy 🥰 it's such a shame such amazing talent does not exist in this world anymore 🥺

Perfection. Class. Talent.

Met him once after a show at Michael's Pub on Third Ave in mid 80's. Waited for him with my girlfriend and he eventually showed up in a windbreaker, looking for his driver. We ambushed him inside near the entrance and he looked nervous, but answered some of our questions about my favorite TV movie: The Comedian. He was elusive and probably exhausted. Then suddenly he leaned forward and passed gas loudly. Strange moment.

Oh this is so good and informative. Mel was the best.

he plays so many instruments well and sings like a boss.

Thank you Pavel Voronin for putting this treasure on KZread!

Man, he is so articulate and literate. And I just discovered him today after watching An Education. And I like to think I have a vast musical culture. How about that...

Insane vocal precision from a man w perhaps a two-octave range. Mezzo-Baritone close description (then grapple w Sinatra there). The patron saint of Harry Anderson's 'Night Court', The Velvet Fog was gifted w a thing in his throat that only added and never subtracted from his internal math. Clearly, he knew he was a different singer than what audiences expected at the time. Props to Ralph Gleason. Need more 'Jazz Casual' !

Fukking love this. Love you Mel.

i love how much respect this guy has for the genre. almost unreal, this man's voice.

One word: class

Great thanks to Pavel for posting this! Listening to Mel I felt like I was getting an academic seminar in jazz voice. Then there were the extraordinary vocals. Much to love here.

😊Talk about the “Jazz Police”! 🔥His top notch professional vocal precision is so stunning that I can totally understand why he would publicly call out the intonation inconsistency of Anita O’Day. His scat articulations and pitches were unbelievably spot on!

Wow ! What a talent

Wow, this is unreal!!!!

Bless youtube again. Ralph's cardy is in a museum.

Muchas gracias from Madrid for this Pavel. Fantástico!!!

Wow, thanks for posting this show.

Excellent voice, hi is a artist not just a entretener

I love this guy!

Mel is 39 in this video. I love this style of music and TV.

Evergreen!!

I belive Mel knows more songs than any other singer, maybe Ella next.

Very talented is Mel Torme

It's worth noting that even though Mel had a somewhat narrow interpretation of vocal jazz, that didn't mean he looked down on more traditional pop or blues singers. Sinatra, for example, was someone he had immense respect and admiration for, at one point calling him the best singer in the world and even narrating a PBS documentary on Sinatra before his death.

@robstockton2463

8 ай бұрын

I just always wish Torme invested a bit more of himself. He doesn’t give the most insightful or interesting interpretations. He wasn’t a storyteller, more of a technique machine. (Not that I don’t appreciate his technique, though - it’s just that his singing impresses more than it moves.)

I love this man!Thank you!

He was at his best

Totally innovative!

Great job, Man. Thanks🍺

Probablement le plus grand crooner. Exceptionnel mel.

Ralph Gleason seems a cool and nice guy, never seen him talk before just knew his rep

Torme is in really good voice here. But it's funny to hear Torme and Ralph Gleason spending ten minutes discussing what a jazz singer is. All these years later, the distinction between jazz singers, pop singers, and blues singers seems really unimportant.

@ryanintopeka

5 жыл бұрын

And yet still very obvious and real as far as what those differences are.

The Bob Dorough he's talking about went on to do Schoolhouse Rock.

Teddy Wilson also recorded Sid's Soliloquy.

@craigbrowning9448

6 ай бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/lXuNlqeKmprbiqg.htmlsi=jqr_XWMsNU5j54HC

Molto bravo

Check out his scatting on "Route 66" in the last minute of this clip. Wild.

Better than Sinatra, I would say! The voice itself is smooth and lovely, and his sense of jazz, impeccable. He's a true musician!

@evanmeaux1292

3 жыл бұрын

Well especially later in his career it would be difficult to classify Sinatra as "true jazz". He verged more into pop-jazz territory, Mel was definitely much more in-tune (no pun intended) with true jazz... He knew jazz "code" live (i.e. how to interact with the musicians in a live jazz setting much better then Sinatra, etc)

@trekkiejunk

4 ай бұрын

@@evanmeaux1292 -- As much as i like Sinatra, he was never a jazz singer. He was pop-jazz at his jazziest, and corny and out-of-touch with the music he sang in the late 60's and 70's. By the 80's, he was just going through the motions of his old hits.

Correction here: Mel said "Dat Dere" was written by Oscar Brown,Jr. Bobby Timmons wrote the tune in 1960.Oscar Brown penned the lyrics a few years later.

Mel was clearly a perfectionist. He was perfect, and he knew it. I hope he wasn't hard to work with.

@762Scott

3 жыл бұрын

He worked with another perfectionist: Artie Shaw. THAT must have been interesting.

Bravissimo

good singer.

very interesting when Mel starts talking about what is a jazz singer

Love his voice! Thank you so much for posting this. Was this a regular TV show? Mel sang so many of my favorite songs! I loved the simplicity and the conversation. I believe my first introduction to Mel was the movie A Man Called Adam starring Sammy Davis, Jr.

@scottkuzminski8114

4 жыл бұрын

Was a one off PBS show, back when PBS was called NET

Hello Sweet Pea I didn't forget! 🦙

I love Tommy Meatballianno

The shadows behind the great Torme quartet remind me of Dali painting s

I wonder if this is out on DVD. It would be nice to have it OFF this thing and on hand with better picture and sound. Mel is great in this!

Night Court led me here…

The interviewer wants him so bad to mention Sinatra

An archaic instrument called the uke...and it's a baritone like he is!

Is this program available on a dvd? So little Torme is available.

👍

1:04

THE VELVET FROG!

Ouch - poor Anita O'Day.

@762Scott

3 жыл бұрын

Yes. "Sweet Georgia Brown" at Newport: What more could he want?

@magicgenius

2 жыл бұрын

His ego is in full embarrassing force here.

Unfortunate tape edit at 23:38....wonder what they edited out of his story....this was on PBS, 60 years ago, so he couldn't have said anything risque.

24:18

Does anyone know which two male singers he's referring to @5:00?

@callmeic

5 жыл бұрын

Sinatra for sure, unsure about number 2. Perhaps nat king Cole.

@melaniesky

4 жыл бұрын

Ian Cumings maybe the other person he’s referring to is dean martin?

@colejohnsondrums

3 жыл бұрын

@@callmeic I think nat is a jazz singer especially in his trio so I would say frank and Dean maybe

@djblackjackshellac

2 жыл бұрын

I would guess the two pop giants of the time, Bennett and Mathis. I think Sinatra was too firmly established in the musical canon to be thought of in Mel’s “right now” context.

Hello Sweet Pea when you coming home?

Need the lyrics to dat derre

The Velvet Fog. Unlike Frankie Snotrot Mel could improvise. And unlike MOST PEOPLE he knew what he was talking about. Mel also knew about textual declamation, something only a few songwriters and composers knew about. Today's singers and songwriters, it's a safe bet, have never heard of such a thing.

What music does it say that it has grown up listening to? It's just that he has such a closed accent that I don't understand it.

13:25

20:05

주펄작가님 때문에 여기까지 오게되다니 ㅋㅋ

Mel Torme's voice always reminds me of Stan Getz' tenor. But I disagree with him strongly about Mark Murphy. That guy was definitely a jazz singer.

LOL, what about Louis Armstrong?

Really you and Jesse 😑

He did NOT just dis Anita O'Day AND MARK MURPHY on the air! Wow, I love you Mel, but DAMN, you're wrong, wrong, WRONG!!!!

Love Mel but that's jazz that sounds "white"!!...

@waldolydecker8118

Жыл бұрын

you don't sound "white" or "nonwhite"....you just sound "stupid."

What ia this need for conceptual hygiene.

He was a way better singer and much more versatile than Sinatra ever was. But he sadly lacked the sex appeal that Sinatra had in abundance, so it was Sinatra that made it to super stardom and not him.

Not too many great male jazz singers. I will add Al Jerreau and Bobby McFerrin. Women, for some reason, outclass and outnumber the men excepting these three.

Very good singing and playing...I thunked Mel was a complete bore when I heard him as a teen...but he's the bee's knees , most interesting, a word he uses a lot , and a very likeable personality..

Is he a jazz singer? What a stupid question.