Readers recommend: songs with deep voices

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/may/14/readers-recommend-songs-with-deep-voices

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I remember the first time I hit it. Not so much a note clearly sung, as a groany rattle, a scrape, more a throaty spluttering cement mixer filled with sand and pebbles. I was 13, my voice had broken for a few months, but my larynx was still liable to leap uncontrollably into a momentary Mickey Mouse. My mate Michael, standing next to me, almost made me burst out laughing, but the apparent gravitas of the moment and the glare from a older colleague across from us stemmed the smirking. And so the note was held, for a few faulty seconds. It was my debut in the local church choir’s bass section – my first audible bottom E in Edward Bairstow’s I Sat Down Under His Shadow ... “with great delight”.

Deep voices aren’t so much in demand in the world of popular song, where it is more often high voices that hog the limelight. My attention also went that way in my mid-teens – away from my church scene where rock’n’roll and girls were certainly not to be found and you needed to join a band for that. But deep-voiced artists, whether male or female, can put in an even more powerful performance perhaps because of their relative rarity in pop, soul and rock. And some of the biggest sex symbols in music history have had deep ones.

But while this week’s song nominations need not be limited to those genres, nor do they need to be confined to singers with the very lowest notes. Singers with low voices often stand out and it is not so much the pitch, but the context in which they sing such notes that can qualify them in your nominations. Nina Simone, for example, inspiration to Nick Cave and many others, does not sing as low as a male bass, but her contralto range and delivery would more than qualify her for this week’s contenders.

But how low can we go? The offical Guinness Record holder for lowest voice and indeed astonishing range of 10 octaves is US singer and composer Tim Storms – most people struggle to reach a full two octaves. For my money his range doesn’t necessarily create great music, but who does? Here are a few suggestions of singers, but not songs, for your consideration:

One of the first superstar basses of the 20th century was Paul Robeson. Handsome, smart, built like bull, and like many great singers born into the church – his father was a preacher – he was heavily involved in the civil rights movement, was a political activist against fascism in the Spanish civil war, and was blacklisted in the McCarthy era. Yet alongside his singing, his acting roles made him famous, in particular Show Boat and Othello.

Staying in a gospel theme, but in a different demographic, you might also check out Florida-born singer JD Sumner, who before Storms, held a world record for sing the lowest note (a gut-gurgling G almost two octaves below my basic E) and as well performing with the Stamps Quartet, also did backing for Elvis Presley. Perhaps most mesmerising of all is his moving hairline.

The classical genre is full of strong basses, but one of the greatest must surely be Russian basso profundo Vladimir Miller. His voice is richer than any oil fields and lower than the temperatures in Siberia, where he was born.

Looking for something more unusual? Female vocalists certainly qualify if they sing relatively low to their peers, or the music that accompanies them, and then there’s a whole other league in the form of Iceland’s Hallbjörg Bjarnadóttir Nielsen, who in this clip from 1960, shows not only what the female voice can be capable of, but also that cheesy TV programme formats are nothing new at all.

The acting world is full of rich, deep voices, ranging from Orson Welles (listen to him making a frozen peas commercial) to Ving Raimes, smoothies such as George Clooney and Morgan Freeman, to the horror-hype voice of king of movie promos Don LaFontaine. Then there’s voice of Darth Vader himself James Earl Jones (though I still admire his evil snake king in Conan the Barbarian more). What would they sound like if they sang? Are there any songs in which a deep voice is significantly spoken? Are there some poets or notably deep-voiced hip-hop artists to nominate? Chuck D? Michael Franti? There are plenty.

Humans have deep voices, but elephants can go deeper. While the human ear can pick up a range as low a 20Hz, elephants are thought can make rumbles down to 12Hz or even around 5Hz, and their feet and trunk can pick up the bellows of fellow elephants from several miles away, as much through vibration as sound. If you have any songs that feature their voices, or other deep-voiced creatures, then bring on the bass of the natural world.

Finally, this week there’s deep, and then there’s where the jaws of hell begin to open up. Try, if you dare, a little Ken Turner singing Rainbow of Love.

So then, dig down in the subterranean depths of your music collections for vocal performances in the lower range that are striking, expressive and special, and lift them carefully into comments below. This week’s deepy committed guru is the marvellous Mnemonic. Welcome back! Put forward your songs in comments, or optionally in Spotify, by last orders (11pm BST) on Monday 18 May for publication next Thursday 21 May. Time to get the low down …

To increase the likelihood of your nomination being considered, please:

• Tell us why it’s a worthy contender.• Quote lyrics if helpful, but for copyright reasons no more than a third of a song’s words.• Provide a link to the song. We prefer Muzu or YouTube, but Spotify, SoundCloud or Grooveshark are fine.• Listen to others people’s suggestions and add yours to a collaborative Spotify playlist.• If you have a good theme for Readers recommend, or if you’d like to volunteer to compile a playlist, please email peter.kimpton@theguardian.com• There’s a wealth of data on RR, including the songs that are “zedded”, at the Marconium. It also tells you the meaning of “zedded”, “donds” and other strange words used by RR regulars.• Many RR regulars also congregate at the ‘Spill blog.