"..it's man vs. machine."

May 20 09:42 UTC 2002

The tradition of imitation as far as Eurocentrism (or the classical 
eras/Classical to Romantic, depending on your perspective) has usually 
been instrumental imitation of nature.  Vivid examples include certain 
percussive instruments for weather, oboe reeds for babies crying, and 
stylistic motifs for flute compositions to evoke imagination of bird 
calls.

The 20th century, however, has been quite different.  There are 
examples of vocalists imitating instrumentalism.  Examples?

In the jazz and classical areas, there is Bobby McFerrin.  He remains 
respected in serious circles although "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and the 
recording _Simple Pleasures_ on which it appeared had pop success in 
the late 1980s.  He uses studio techniques quite a bit to create group 
compositions; essentially, he's singing and accompanying himself with 
recording technology, but his "Spontaneous Inventions" live 
performance is an example of solo improv.

Darren "The Human Beat Box" Robinson, of the hip-hop group The Fat 
Boys, perfected an imitative style of a beat box, according to 
http://thebox.free.fr/fat.html, since Robinson's family couldn't 
afford a drum set (I'm assuming drum machine, actually-- the Roland SP-
12 was a standard on the early scene).

Razhel "The Godfather of Noyze" of the group The Roots is the latest 
artist to continue this old school trend, using the freestyle method.  
He imitates the record scratching technique in his raps that 
Grandmaster Flash first refined and popularized in the very early 
1980s.  "Razhel vs. DJ Scribbles," with appearances by Kenny Mohammed 
(another beat-boxer that is touring sidekick with Razhel) and DJ 
Slinky is a good recording reference.  See 
http://www.mcarecords.com/ArtistMain.asp?ArtistId=122 for more 
information.

I can't think of other musicians per se that vocalize instrumental 
music at this time-- open to suggestion.