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The Collegiate Vocal Jazz Ensemble: A Foundational History

Barbershop arrangements employ mostly basic triads had a foundation in jazz, having studied it throughout
and use occasional added sixths and sevenths for col- his high school and collegiate years. His first encounter
or and interest, Puerling extended and inverted chords with a Vocal Jazz ensemble was as an undergraduate at
with ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths. This extension Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. The recipi-
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of the harmonic structure mirrored what instrumental ent of a music scholarship for clarinet and saxophone,
jazz was doing and set Puerling’s arrangements apart he was required to participate in both jazz band and
from his contemporaries. 9 the jazz choir. Due to his jazz background, he and some
of his fellow students were given the opportunity to act
as leaders and soloists within each group. Later, as a
A Second Wave graduate student at Portland State University, he was
Vocal Jazz maintained its small but passionate niche mentored by a passionate Vocal Jazz enthusiast who
of practitioners throughout the 1970s and 1980s but encouraged him to write and arrange for his groups.
could have died out were it not for the efforts of a sec- This training included hours of listening to and tran-
ond wave of enthusiasts. Like their predecessors, the scribing the music of all the great arrangers. He con-
proliferators of this second wave had to rely on sparse tinued writing for his own student groups, usually due
resources. Although the information was out there, to lack of funds to purchase music, and gradually came
mainly due to the West Coast Vocal Jazz summer to the attention of other directors looking for material.
camps for choral directors, it would often be through One thing these two directors have in common that
happenstance that discovery was made. Such was the differs from the first wave of Vocal Jazz educators is
case of Bruce Rogers, current Director of Choral Stud- that they are both trained singers; the early group com-
ies at Mount San Antonio College in Pomona, Califor- prised primarily piano players, drummers, or other in-
nia. Although he was vaguely aware of popular music strumentalists. This second wave of Vocal Jazz teachers
forms, his training and focus was traditional. A few not only knows how to make a group swing but how
years into his teaching career, he took his high school to sing and present the music with more visual appeal,
group to New York City. While there, he was told about which is helping to dispel some of the initial main-
a group just starting up called New York Voices. He stream resistance to the genre. The misconceptions that
decided to go hear them perform at a club in the city. singing jazz is harmful to the voice are melting away at
“I was completely blown away. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, last thanks to the efforts of these directors and their
I didn’t even know this existed.’ That’s what turned me contemporaries and many performers, scholars, and
on to thinking, ‘Maybe I should do this in school.’” 10 pedagogues who have emerged in the last decade. 13
Also like his predecessors, one of Rogers’s first ques-
tions was, “How do I teach this?” He had zero training Editor’s Note: The full article includes here sections titled “Vo-
and background in jazz, and he did not want to at- cal Jazz Goes to College,” “The Swing Choir Movement,” and
tempt to teach it until he really understood the genre “Publishing Vocal Jazz Repertoire.” The conclusion section is
and its language. His approach was total and complete printed below. To read or download the full article, visit acda.
immersion. “I just listened and listened to everything I org/choraljournal, log into your membership account, and choose
could get my hands on… just really enveloped myself in the June/July 2015 issue from the archives.
the language for months and months and months and
months, read books, and did everything that I could.” 11
Vijay Singh, another educator who was a major part The Future of Vocal Jazz
of the second wave, is a vocalist and an instrumentalist What is the future of Vocal Jazz? Interestingly, there
(in line with Christensen’s ideal “complete musician”). is continuing concern among cited educators that the
His experience differed from that of Rogers in that he obstacles aren’t so much lack of training or resources
was fortunate enough to study in the Northwest around but rather the manner in which to make this sophisti-
the founders of the Vocal Jazz movement. He already cated art form entertaining for, and thus supported by,

56 CHORAL JOURNAL September 2025 Volume 66 Number 2