Their first album, from 1963, was called Jazz Sebastian Bach. Most of the songs were preludes and fugues arrangements of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. They featured drums and double bass, and exuded an exquisite "swing" flavour. Due to the latter, a large part of its admirers around the world must have believed for decades that the name chosen to call this a cappella voices ensemble, was also recalling the popular jazz style of the 1930s.
Ward Swingle and the French group
But no, everything was much simpler. The word "swingle" came from the surname of its creator, the vocalist and jazz musician born in Alabama in 1927, Ward Swingle, who in 1962 put together the group in Paris with the purpose of providing vocal accompaniment to renowned singers. Swingle's musical culture soon led him to experiment with classical a cappella music, using the jazzy device of scat songs, vocal improvisation with syllables and made-up words, a specialty in which Ella Fitzgerald excelled as a virtuoso.
The English group
Ward Swingle (1927 - 2015)
In 1973, the French group dissolved and Swingle moved to London, where he recruited new members to form a revamped Swingle Singers that from that date until today maintains a continuous activity, winning awards, recording, and making successful presentations throughout Europe and the United States.
Unlike the French group, the current eight voices of the British group dispense with all instrumental percussion to execute, through scat singing, a very wide repertoire that, surprisingly, can range from a simple Bach prelude to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, passing through rock music, latin, pop and jazz.
At present, the group is made up of two sopranos, two altos, two tenors and two basses. Absolutely consolidated as a group formation, as individual members have left the group, remaining members have held auditions for replacements. Ward Swingle continued as a performer in the group until retiring to the United States in 1984 and taking the role of "musical adviser" to the Swingles until his death in 2015.
The video shows its version of the well-known piece Libertango, by the Argentine composer Astor Piazolla.
