♪ In love with a Latin rhythm ♪ ♪ Soft Brazilian ♪ (Phil Mattson) The essence of vocal jazz is not so much improvisation as instrumental jazz is.

It's mostly about singing arrangements that treat the song in interesting harmonic and rhythmic ways.

There's sometimes where you just like nice harmony.

[playing jazz chords] But if you did that all the time, then boring, or something, you know.

So it's kinda this mixing up of texture that is a key to writing an interesting arrangement.

(woman) ♪ My life a wreck you're making ♪ (Phil) Right now I teach singing and arranging and I accompany several singers in town and I write arrangements, and I'm directing 3 vocal jazz groups.

We sing songs from "The Great American Songbook."

They're called standards-- they're the songs of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin.

They're good songs, and they're arranged in such a way to maximize harmonic interest and rhythmic delivery.

♪ While I play for you ♪ ♪ Sometimes it's hot then again it's blue ♪ I describe Phil Mattson as innovator, pure innovator.

Phil Mattson is the greatest jazz vocal arranger on the planet and in the circle of music, everybody knows Phil Mattson.

One, 2, 3, 4.

♪ Dum dum dum doo-doo ♪ (Phil) You've got to separate more.

[Phil plays the passage as he would like it sung] Let's do it again, and let's take the tempo just a little slower.

I think it would be more bossa nova-ish if we took it... When I was 5 years old, I played a chord on the piano that was a dominant 7th chord and the hair on my head and back stood up.

It was just the sound of those notes, and even though I resisted it from time to time, ultimately, I ended up being a musician.

The Phil Mattson Singers began in my basement in 1983 and we entered a contest called The Great American Choral Festival, and we were fortunate enough to win that and won $10,000.

We were nominated twice for Grammy Awards.

I've arranged for most famously Manhattan Transfer, but also very well-known, the Real Group from Sweden, Chanticleer, The Four Freshmen, Dale Warland Singers.

I've done approximately 150 arrangements.

One, 2, 3, 4.

♪ That's the way things seem to go ♪ ♪ In Old Brazil ♪ (Phil) In the early '70s, late '60s, I was hired to direct a vocal jazz choir.

There weren't many arrangements published at that time.

When I started arranging, I had a lot of really inspirational ideas that turned out to be new for vocal arranging at the time.

Each group has its own sound, but I think what they're interested in is something unique that I might bring to their repertoire.

One and 2 and... (men and women) ♪ Looking through my bossa ♪ ♪ Nova eyes ♪ Well we'll figure it out, we'll figure it out.

[all laugh] It's hard to know what to do, right?

Phil's arrangements are not easy.

Phil is very sophisticated.

He's just so knowledgeable about music, about chords, about how the voices flow, they go from one note to another, and the way they come up and down and come up and down between each other.

Somehow it's gotta come make sense this way, but when you hear the chords, it's somehow gotta make sense that way when you hear the voices going in and out.

Somehow Phil Mattson figured it out.

[extremely rapidly] ♪ Doo-be do-be doo-be do-ba doo-be ♪ ♪ Doo-be do-be doo-be do-ba doo-be doo-be doo-ba ♪ ♪ Doo-be do-be doo-be do-ba doo-be doo-be doo-ba ♪ ♪ Doo-ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪ ♪ Doo-be do-be doo-be do-be doo-be doo-be doo-ba ♪ [saxophone solo] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (Phil) Richie was instrumental in getting the Manhattan Transfer, probably the most popular vocal jazz group, to commission an arrangement of Body and Soul.

And I introduced Phil to the Manhattan Transfer, because I knew it was a match made in heaven.

♪ Sounds good to me ♪ ♪ Should sound good to you ♪ ♪ I love to hear him playing "Body and Soul ♪ ♪ Very pleasing to the ear ♪ (Phil) "Body and Soul" and is a very difficult arrangement to sing.

Very difficult; the chords are changing all the time.

The voice singing is kind of in clusters, where everybody's going up and down, so nobody's sitting on the same notes very often.

♪ Dum dum dum-dum ♪ ♪ Dit-dum dum dum ♪ ♪ Dit-dum dum-dum-dum ♪ (Richie) "Bossa Nova Eyes" is a composition I wrote about 10 years ago, and Phil Mattson has done a fabulous vocal arrangement on it.

Instead of starting right off with the song, which is this... it starts with a solo bass singer just singing a groove like this... ♪ ♪ Then the ladies come in with something like the melody on doo.

♪ ♪ ♪ Da da da da-da da da ♪ (Phil) The first time the group sang it, they were really excited.

To sing a brand new arrangement is fun, and there's something about this arrangement turned out well.

♪ Bossa nova eyes ♪ ♪ Just move as the spirit moves you ♪ ♪ Feelings tell you ♪ (Phil) More than almost anything I've loved harmony in music.

That's what thrilled me Melodies yes, rhythms yes, but harmony's the most and harmonies are very much a part of jazz.

♪ With you I am looking through my bossa nova ♪ ♪ Eyes da da ♪ (man) "Minnesota Original" is made possible by The State Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, and the citizens of Minnesota.

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