The Swingles are an a capella vocal group. The Swingle Singers originally formed in 1962 in Paris under the leadership of Ward Swingle. In 1973, Swingle disbanded the French group, and formed an English group known initially as Swingle II and later as the New Swingle Singers, before settling on the Swingles name. They began as session singers and original lineup was Anne Germain, Claude Germain, Jeanette Baucomont, Christine Legrand, Claudine Meunier, Jean-Claude Briodin, and Jean Cussac, with Legrand (sister of Michel Legrand) the original lead soprano. The ensemble sang some jazz vocals for Michel Legrand.
The eight session singers sang through Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier as a sight-reading exercise and found the music to have a natural swing. They recorded their first album Jazz Sebastien Bach as a present for friends and relatives. Many radio stations picked it up and this led to the group recording more albums and winning a total of five Grammy Awards. The French group typically performed and recorded with a double bass and drums as accompaniment. In 1973, Ward Swingle disbanded the original French group when he and his family moved to England.
In England, Swingle assembled a group of singers with an emphasis moved from classical music to a cappella arrangements of madrigals and then on to other styles. The group has remained continuously active since its formation, with departing members replaced by audition. Ward Swingle continued as a performer in the group until retiring to the United States in 1984 and taking the role of “musical adviser” to the Swingles until his death in 2015.
Until 2011, the group consisted of eight voices: two sopranos, two altos, two tenors and two basses. However, when alto Lucy Bailey left the group in 2011, the Swingles announced the decision not to replace her, but to continue as a seven-person line-up. The current group performs primarily, but not exclusively, a cappella and over the decades has explored a wide range of styles, from show tunes to rock to avant garde to world folkloric music to straight ahead jazz to classical, including the entire repertoire of the original Swingle Singers.
An early hit for the group was Bach’s “Air on the G String”, recorded with the Modern Jazz Quartet; Luciano Berio wrote his postmodern symphony Sinfonia for Eight Voices and Orchestra in 1968 with the Swingle Singers in mind. They also premiered Berio’s A-Ronne in 1974, which they later recorded. They also recorded Ben Johnston’s “Sonnets of Desolation” in 1984.
In 2005, their recording of Bach’s Prelude in F Minor was incorporated into the hit single “They”, by Jem Griffiths; the piece was also used in the 2006 film The Gigolos. The English group sang with French pop star Etienne Daho on his songs “Timide intimité” and “Soudain” from his 1996 album Eden. They appeared several times on the The Two Ronnies TV show in the early 1970s.
