Ward Swingle was the product of an unusually liberal musical education. In his hometown, Mobile, Alabama, he grew up with the sound of jazz and played in one of the great Big Bands before finishing high school. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Cincinnati Conservatory and studied piano with the celebrated Walter Gieseking in postwar France. In Paris in the sixties he was a founding member of the fabled Double Six of Paris, then took to the scat singing idea and applied it to the works of Bach, hence The Swingle Singers ("The Mod Squad of Baroque Music"), whose early recordings won five Grammies. In this video Ward Swingle shares his world-renowned 'Swingle Singing' methods by conducting an a cappella master class with eight talented singers from the San Francisco Bay Area. With his instruction, guidance and example they learn and perform four of his arrangements, giving the at-home viewer practice and insight into these techniques -- techniques that have made Ward one of the most influential figures in vocal music in the Twentieth Century. |
