https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwoE4peasr0

This is a video of Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.  This video was interesting first and foremost because in all of the camera shots, the performers look like they’re having fun.  It’s almost seems like their primary goal is to have fun and the music and entertainment aspect just happens to how they’re having fun.  The vocal style that Armstrong and Teagarden use in “Rockin’ Chair” was also really interesting.  It was sort of a cross between singing and speaking, and so “Sprechstimme” was the first word that I thought of to describe the vocals.  This isn’t an operatic context, so that description may not be totally accurate, but I was struck by how I could hear phrasing and musicality in the lyrics, even though their voices sounded like they were just talking to each other.