SCAT happens

From today’s New Yorker crossword, by Natan Last: 44-A, four letters, “Emulate Jelly Roll Morton, in a way.” The answer: SCAT. No. This, I suspect, is what happens when someone goes to Wikipedia to create a clue.

Yes, the Wikipedia article about scat singing references Morton’s discussion of the origins of scat singing. And Morton gave a demonstration of scat singing in his 1938 Library of Congress sessions. But I think you’d be hard-pressed to find many jazz listeners who would ever think of Morton — pianist, composer, and bandleader — as a scat singer.

And no, Mel Tormé is still not a “cool jazz pioneer.”

I will now cheer myself by listening to the “Avocado Seed Soup Symphony.” Scat surrealism at its finest.

[If Last had done a little more browsing, he might have chosen a better clue, because while Wikipedia’s article about scat singing mentions Morton, Wikipedia’s article about Morton doesn’t mention scat singing.]