Oct. 25, 1964 - The Swingle Singers, known to Americans until now only through two very popular records, “Bach’s Greatest Hits” and “Going Baroque,” materialized Saturday night at Carnegie Hall.
The singers, whose specialty is wordless vocalizing of the works of Bach over a swinging jazz beat, are four women and four men. All of them are from Paris, as are their two accompanists, a bassist and a drummer. Their leader, Ward Swingle, is an American‐born Parisian.
Using five microphones, they sang what amounted to “scat” versions of compositions not only by Bach but by Vivaldi, Handel, and Mozart as well. Numerous microphones were required to separate the various duos and trios into which the singers split for their adaptations of the pieces.
The group is well disciplined in its unusual craft. The singers are individually precise even when their “words”— which usually consist of “baba‐daba-daba” — come tumbling out at a headlong rate, and they have a strong ensemble feeling.
Before the Swingle Singers appeared, Clark Terry played his trumpet and flugelhorn backed by the Oscar Peterson Trio, who had the opening portion of the program to themselves.
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