Vocalese is a style or musical
genre of
jazz singing wherein words are sung to
melodies that were originally part of an all-instrumental
composition or
improvisation. Whereas
scat singing uses improvised nonsense syllables, such as "bap ba dee dot bwee dee" in
solos, vocalese uses
lyrics, either improvised or written and set to pre-existing instrumental solos, sometimes in the form of a tribute to the original instrumentalist. The word "vocalese" is a play on the musical term "
vocalise" and the
suffix "-ese", meant to indicate a sort of language.