Breathing like a trombone

From 1940 to 1942 Sinatra was the singer of Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra. Dorsey was a trombonist known for long, smooth lines that seemed never to pause for breath.

Where the breath goes

Dorsey’s breath control at the trombone shaped how his singer phrased. Dorsey himself observed that Sinatra would take a musical phrase and play it all the way through seemingly without breathing for eight, ten, maybe sixteen bars. To build that breath, Sinatra swam and held his breath under water, running lyrics in his head.

In practice

It is the first thing we work on with a band: where the singer breathes, and where the horns breathe with him. A phrase that does not stop sounds like speech, and that is the whole point.