Gina Fuchs

CMLT398D
Professor Eugene Robinson
04/01/2018
The OOZ​: Archy Marshall’s Quiet Ode to Vocalese

Throughout his music career, Archy Marshall has found a beautiful cross-section between

jazz, and darkwave, punk, or whatever he feels like recording in the studio that day. Though he’s

barely an adult, turning 24 later this summer, Marshall’s music plays with the soul of a seasoned

musician. Marshall, who has produced music under several names and pseudonyms, including

“Archy Marshall,” “King Krule,” and “Zoo Kid,” has done a stunning job in being both

completely unpredictable, and incredibly consistent. This duality comes from Marshall’s

relationship with his music, which tends to have more qualities of jazz scat, or vocalese than it

does with anything else. Marshall always seems to be engaging in an ongoing interaction with

his instrumentals, more than dictating their next moves. At times, we may hear his piano, snare,

or trumpet whispering him to his next word. While Marshall’s voice and its intonations are

unconventional by all definitions, somehow, even when he drops to more of a mumble than he

does a whisper: Marshall feels confident and intentional. He masters this balance most aptly on

The OOZ​, his most recent nineteen track album. In his review of the album, Jayson Greene

argued that ​The OOZ​ can be called a “trip-hop record, a dub record, to punk rock, to tender jazz

balladry, or watery R&B”​1​ depending on what the listener brings to the table. I would argue,

more than anything, that ​The OOZ​ is an ode to jazz. More specifically, an ode to vocalese, and

free-jazz. In this paper, I’m going to explore the relationship between vocalese and lyricism, and

the avenues by which this strong relationship is echoed in Archy Marshall’s ​The OOZ​.
 Vocalese is a style wherein vocalists take “spontaneously created tunes”​3​ and pen “lyrics

to them— re-creating the solo vocally and lyrically, trying to follow every note of the improvised

melody."​3​ Unlike scat, singers will use actual words to interact with instrumentals. They don't

sing on top of melodies, but rather, with them. Notable famous vocalese singers include: Jon

Hendricks, Eddie Jefferson, Slim Gaillard, Harry Gibson, and numerous others. The term of

vocalese, however, came from jazz critic Leonard Feather, and was created to describe a Dave

Lambert, John Hendricks, & Annie Ross’ album, ​Sing a Song of Basie​. The group released this

album after they formed in 1957, and eventually came to such high fame that they won a

Grammy in 1998. As the New York Times profiled it, ​Sing a Song of Basie​ quickly became a

success story that “extended beyond the jazz world.”​4​ With their style, the group wanted to

show the public that jazz could be more of an experience than just a form of entertainment. This

is clearly displayed in their performances and recording. One notable performance that displays

their belief in the experience aspect of entertainment, is their rendition of “​Going to Chicag​o"​2​ at

the North Sea Jazz festival in 2011. In line with the definition of vocalese, we can see where

vocals literally take the place of instruments in their performance. And, we can feel the way

these vocals do interact with the instruments that are present. Most notably in this performance,

vocalists seem to be working hard with the snare drum.

On his own, Jon Hendricks was dubbed the “poet laureate of jazz.” Hendricks was

credited for the creation of vocalese, and for the the expansion of jazz as a whole. Even through

his nineties, Hendricks was active in the world of jazz, meaning he spent over 80 years of his life

(he started performing at age 11)​8​, mastering jazz. On his voice, the Washington Post noted: “​Mr.

Hendricks did not possess the classically smooth vocal style of balladeers...but instead made the
most of his dry, raspy tenor voice and an intense feeling for rhythm”​8. Hendricks
​ eventually

formed the trio, noted above (Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross), and re-created “​the sound of a big

band with their voices”​8. ​Something that was particularly striking about Hendricks was that he,

though a lifelong musician, never learned to read musical notation, but was able to write the

lyrics for more than 50 songs​8.​. One of his most notable were the lyrics to Horace Silver’s

“​Doodlin​’”​9.​ Washington Post referred to this as a one of Hendricks’ “comic ode to unconscious

creativity.” Hendricks was constantly penning lyrics to jazz songs without them, suggesting a

texture to music, and an emotion to sounds, that artists before did not grasp in this way.

Not unlike Hendricks’ music, Archy Marshall’s ​The OOZ​ feels like soft comb through

the brain of Marshall; a fading in and out of his consciousness that somehow leaves you both

wanting more and feeling satisfied. Similar to free-jazz, Marshall’s music cannot be boxed

“completely distinct as a genre,”​4 ​and similar to Hendricks, Marshalls voice is not “​classically

smooth,” or similar to any voice I can pinpoint. ​Especially on ​The OOZ​ , Marshall’s sound

differs from song to song. Take for example his style in “​Czech One​” (track 11 on the album)

versus his style in “​Dum Surfer​” (track 3 on the album). “Czech One” is a dream-like ballad,

one for which for the first 30 seconds, you can barely make out the lyrics. Marshall’s voice

slowly comes in to a clear speech that is often over-layed with an echo. His own echo is the

loudest part of the song, complemented by the occasional synthesizer, keyboard, or saxophone.

Once you realize subject of the song, a loss of love, Marshall’s confusion of loss is clear and

easy to grasp, even if the sound seems to drift away. You are fully experiencing the mind of

Marshall. When he utters “But I still rip at the seams/I can’t sleep at night, never slept at

night/But she still sits in my dreams,” his drifts, like someone without much sleep, whose mind
is focused on things lost. Just like vocalese: Marshall is showing us where music can be more of

an experience than just a form of entertainment. Without reading the lyrics, you understand

them, you feel them before you hear them. “Czech One,” sounds like loss. This “sound” of loss,

to me, spoke to Marshall’s ability to create emotion without words, much like Hendrick’s felt the

emotion of music without words- enough to put words to songs without them.

To continue an analysis of Archy’s music: “Dum Surfer,” opposite to “Czech One,” is led

by louder synthesizers, snare beats, and a much deeper and defined voice that seems to be in a

call and response with itself. Where “Czech One” is in somewhat of a tango with its instruments,

“Dum Surfer” marching with them. This, though, doesn’t come with a loss of similar

experiences. The change of pace parallels the change of subject matter. In the opening of “Dum

Surfer,” Marshall refers to the subject of his song as “Dumb Surfer” (hence the title), who has

met at the bar. Archy has recently won a bet with him: “Dumb surfer is giving me his cash/won a

bet for fifty and now I need a slash,” “Needing a slash,” bring British slang for needing to pee,

which is likely due to the narrator's own intoxication. The shift in location; “Czech One,” is a

stream of consciousness on a train, where “Dum Surfer,” chronicles a bet in a bar, is aptly

displayed by the different instrumentals and Marshall’s relationship to them. Again, we visit the

experience created by this correspondence. This is much like the relationship between classic

vocalese songs, as explored in earlier paragraphs.

On his own process, Marshall has said “I listen to a lot of jazz standards, like ‘​When

Your Lover Has Gone​.’ That’s got really simple but very, very effective lyrics that talk about

being depressed and seeing no beauty in life because your lover’s gone.” Jazz standards being

defined as the most widely known jazz music. What interested me most about Marshall’s
fixation on this specific song, while it is considered classic jazz more than it is vocalese, is his

focus on raw emotion and lyricism. He is drawn to things that are simple but effective, effective

being the operative word. The New York Times, in a piece about Marshall titled “King Krule, a

Cult Singer in the Making, Is Setting the Terms Himself,” recalls a rather unconventional method

Marshall used to recruit a saxophonist for a performance, and eventually, for his album:

“One was a Spanish saxophonist named Ignacio Salvadores, who sent Mr. Marshall an
unsolicited video on Facebook of himself playing under a London bridge. Moved by its
beauty, Mr. Marshall invited him to come play at a show that very night, and there, they
jammed for hours — ‘no conversation, just straight playing music,’ Mr. Marshall said.
Mr. Salvadores went on to perform on much of the album.”​7

For me, this anecdote not only speaks to Marshall’s trust of gut, but also speaks to his alliance

with the unconventional, and with emotion: two topics we have deeply explored in our jazz

study. Marshall’s trust of the “gut,” reminded me strongly of Hendricks’ lyrical association with

sound. Where Hendricks found words to put with instrumentals, Marshall feels the same. Though

he was not putting words to Salvadores’ saxophone, Marshall was moved by the sounds alone.

Enough to play for hours without rehearsal. This, to me, was pure music and emotion.

Marshall also talks openly about his struggles with mental illness (specifically, with

depression) and the ways in which this has manifested itself in his artwork. He has been

theorized on why suicide rates in males tend to be higher, and believes it is because of the

emotional constipation many of them foster due to issues with masculinity. Jazz, historically has

been linked to emotional expression, and, in particular is considered to be an incredibly supple

style, allowing musicians to include a number of musical features in order to express an emotion.

This is somewhere else I find overlap with Archy Marshall and the jazz genre as a whole. A

study done by Dr Geoffrey Wills found that overall, within the community of Jazz musicians,
mood disorders were four times more common​10​. For me, this fact was poignant, especially given

the conversations we’ve had as a class surrounding drug and alcohol dependence, and mental

illness, in jazz musicians in particular.

Overall, I find several connections in Archy Marshalls’ entire discography, not just ​The

OOZ, ​with the world of jazz, and specifically, with John Hendricks and vocalese stylings.

Marshall has a distinct talent for creating emotion with sound, and paring that emotion with his

voice, which has a life on his own. While, unlike vocalese, he is not creating lyrics for

compositions without them, one can imagine his songs, lyricless, to hold similar meanings to the

lyrics themselves. Marshall has found a rich talent for creating musical experiences, much like

Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross, and has a voice and talent that take off like a man who has had a

lifelong career with music. While Marshall’s music is not strictly jazz- it has a jazz soul, and he

himself, bears many similarities to the jazz artists we’ve studied this semester. Where his music

isn’t one thing, I would call it an ode to jazz, one that certainly does the style justice.

Works Cited

1. Greene, Jayson. “King Krule: The OOZ.” King Krule: The OOZ Album Review ,
Pitchfork, 13 Oct. 2017, ​www.pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/king-krule-the-ooz/

2. Markie Marc, Muziek. “Jarreau, Hendricks, Elling & Metropole Orchestra - Going to
Chicago - NSJ 10-07-11 HD.” YouTube, YouTube, 11 July 2011,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx6AwHyp1X4​.

3. Friedwald, Will. ​A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers​. Pantheon
Books, 2010.

4. Keepnews, Peter. “Jon Hendricks, 96, Who Brought a New Dimension to Jazz Singing,
Dies.”The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Nov. 2017,
www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/obituaries/jon-hendricks-96-who-brought-a-new-dimensio
n-to-jazz-singing-dies.html​.
5. Anderson, Iain. ​This Is Our Music: Free Jazz, the Sixties, and American Culture​.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.

6. Joyce. “King Krule Speaks on Inspiration, Personal Development, and Illegal

Downloading.”Pigeons and Planes, Complex, 25 Aug. 2016,
www.pigeonsandplanes.com/news/2013/08/king-krule-interview-the-guardian.

7. Coscarelli, Joe. “King Krule, a Cult Singer in the Making, Is Setting the Terms Himself.”
The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Oct. 2017,
www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/arts/music/king-krule-the-ooz-interview.html​.

8. Schudel, Matt. “Jon Hendricks, Master of Vocalese and 'Poet Laureate of Jazz,' Dies at
96.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Nov. 2017,
www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jon-hendricks-master-of-vocalese-and-poet-la
ureate-of-jazz-dies-at-96/2017/11/22/651da090-cfd9-11e7-a1a3-0d1e45a6de3d_story.ht
ml?utm_term=.da63861cfbcc​.

9. thejazzsingers. “Lambert Hendricks and Ross Doodling Song.” YouTube, YouTube, 6

Aug. 2010,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-eVhMTxvbc&list=RDIYnmSAtZuB0&index=5​.

10. “Mental Health Link to Jazz Greats.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 2 Sept.
2003, ​www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-194556/Mental-health-link-jazz-greats.html​.