The High Drama of "Vocal Jazz Ensemble"

She's Not Ignoring You. She's On Vocal Rest.

In the 1970s and early 1980s vocal jazz ensemble was a thing; it was part of the jazz-fusion movement that included such diverse elements as jazz-rock, jazz-folk, and (my personal favorite) jazz-funk.

In 1984 I was a college freshman studying classical guitar; I lived in a dorm with other musicians. I clearly recall, merely by physical proximity, being pulled into the intense emotional drama of “vocal jazz ensemble auditions,” a human endeavor with the apparent gravitas of the Nuremburg Trials.

It was then that I, a Muggle amidst the golden-throated, learned of “vocal rest.” If you are unfamiliar with “vocal rest,” it is a sacred state of being which invests its practitioners with the elevated social currency of a doctor at a trauma scene.

I recall sitting on my bed when a (beautifully) handwritten note was launched under my closed door, gracefully arcing to the opposite bookshelf. It read: Frank — auditions are tomorrow and we are on vocal rest. Put out your cigarette and stop playin…