Rainey , Alberta Hunter , Chippie Hill , Trixie Smith and Clara Smith , as well as vaudeville-orientated acts such as Butterbeans & Susie , Eva Taylor and Lillie Delk Christian , or the country singer Jimmie Rodgers . For some , Armstrong ’ s singing seemed like a capitulation to “ entertainment ”, as if entertainment were a derogatory term , or to a lowest common denominator in music . At its most extreme , criticism of Armstrong ’ s singing dismissed it as an egregious example of Uncle Tom-ism , an absurd and slanderous charge that nonetheless hovers just below the surface in many otherwise respectable jazz histories . In practical terms , vocals became more important to Armstrong in direct proportion to the decline of his once-iron-hard technique , but that is an insufficient explanation .
There are other , perhaps less extreme examples . The case of Nat Cole is among the most obvious . He seems like a further example of a great jazz player who past a certain career point seconded piano playing to crooning , becoming a major mainstream star in the process and leaving jazz behind . It ’ s a view that has been retrofitted to dismiss all of his music as somehow inauthentic . The esteemed discographer Brian Rust said that while Nat made many records in the immediate post-war years , “ there is virtually no jazz music on any of them ”, an assertion swallowed whole by fellowcritics , but one which evaporates in the face of straightforward , unprejudiced listening . The great pianist never really left jazz behind . There is as much , or as little , improvisation in his later hits as in the light , jiving piano music of his earlier career .
It has become a cliché – though for some reason it is rarely addressed by those who detract Chet Baker ’ s singing – that all singers are really instrumentalists and that all instrumentalists aspire to the physical immediacy of singing . Billie Holiday
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