He Was The Cat

There was a fellow named Jefferson who
Would tear it up with the band
A vocalizin’ phenomenon who they used to call the Main Man
He would think like a sage, sing like a horn
And there on the stage somethin’ special was born
He would swing, “dit n’ doo dat”
He was The Cat.

He sang with Moody in ‘57
He put a lyric to bop
When little Benny came down from Heaven
He put it over the top
Jazz was hot in the East, cool in the West
But his vocalese it was simply the best
Because man, couldn’t he scat
He was The Cat.

Eddie was hip but wise as an old man
Takin’ that trip to celebrate Coleman
Lettin’ it rip on “Body and Soul” man
And oh what he’d do, the poetry flew
A founding father was Jefferson but
He never got the acclaim
We’re here to tell you that he’s the one that
Put vocalese in the game
He would dig sittin’ in, blowin’ the hit
And then he would spin out a story to fit
He was some acrobat
He was The Cat.

(vocalese solo
There was a time when there was jazz cookin’ up on every corner
Everybody would sit and listen as they blew
Tellin’ stories they knew in each his own way
Tellin’ the news, bop to blues
Set the moods any way they’d want to
Innovation was always there
Electrifyin’ the air everywhere you’d be,
Let me tell ya
All around you’d hear the sound of life abounding free
Comin’ out of a horn, bein’ born a new way
Never knew what you’d hear
First we heard from The Bean
Then the word on the scene was so choice:
Eddie Jefferson’s voice, what a beautiful noise
Master of a lyric and what an inventor
Singin’ with the spirit of jazz at the center
Anyone who’d hear it knew that he was a mentor
Enter for the love the sound
You found the rhythm town where you can marry vocabulary
To every melody that you hear
For when Eddie would sing, the story was king
He’d talk about a thing, then be sockin it like the swing of a bat
He sang it like that!

He would embrace his lyrical zen to
Tickle those phrases like he was meant to
Take us to places nobody’d been to
An Everest climb, the cleverest kind!
When Charlie Parker and Moody played it
There was a hush in the crowd
And then when Eddie would elevate it
The jazz community bowed
He’d evoke what we heard on the soloin’ rides
And make every word tell a story besides
And we’re all tippin’ our hat!
He Was The Cat.

- (c) Ginny Carr 2012