Search - Double Six :: Les Double Six

Les Double Six helped revolutionize group vocal Jazz

velour | Tiburon, CA USA | 01/11/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In 1958, Mimi Perrin of France had an idea - form a vocal Jazz group to sing Count Basie tunes, arranged by a young, relatively unknown artist named Quincy Jones. The vocal group she had in mind would have six members. She would use the recording technology of the time to double-record each member, therefore creating 12 voices - hence the name of the group - Les Double Six. Each member would take a different instrumental from the original song, such as saxophone or trumpet, and sing it. Not in a scatting style, but with actual lyrics. Mimi would write the words herself, from scratch. In French. Sounds crazy, right? Between 1959 and 1966, when the group won the Downbeat Poll as the best vocal Jazz group, Les Double Six helped revolutionize group vocal jazz. This CD is a compilation of their first two albums - `Meet Quincy Jones' of 1960 and `Les Double Six' of 1962. Due to the layering of vocals, the group has a dense, heavy sound. This is tempered by the frequent solos by each member, which mimic in every way the original instrumental recording. There are some amazing solos here - one of the standouts is the bass solo by Roger Guerin on the 10:37 version of `Walkin'. After hearing it, you'll swear it's the closest anyone can get to the sound of the bass instrument, while singing words with the human voice! Although all of the lyrics are in French, the sound is universal. After a few minutes, it doesn't matter if you can't understand the lyrics. In fact, I think that is part of what makes this CD special - the words just become another sound, another instrument. Quincy Jones said it best himself: "When I listen to this magnificent group, I think of Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. Like Sarah and Ella they think like Jazz musicians first and vocalists second". This CD is an excellent time capsule of group vocal Jazz."