WHAT IS SCATTING?

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 106, 7 May 1934, Page 16

WHAT IS SCATTING?

A LONDON DISCOVERY

NEW- ABUSE OF THE EAR

.An v .irid'icatipn. of. modem culture is pi-osc that no. 0110 can understand, but thousands read. Another indication is ■crooning, but crooning, already, is threatened,by scatting. What is seatting? One would not like to take the responsibility of defining it, or to assume lightly that the word has a feline origm, but here is what a London correspondent says about it:— "As though it were not enough that the London County Council and its €40,000,000, budget should have been handed, over to the "Beds," we have tn our midst a new affliction, known as the "Scat" singer. For thelatter we have to blame Mr. Cab Calloway, the high_ priest of "scatting," who has been making converts by the thousand at the Palladium in recent weeks.

To "scat is to utter meaningless sounds which are something like shrieks of distress or-a cat-fight on a really grand scale, "sung" to the rhythm of "hot", jazz tunes. Even Mr. Calloway is hard put to it to explain why he perpetrated this invention. When pressed lon , the point the other day, he ■, could '.only, say that he had discovered that certain vocal noises suited certain notes of music. Ho had not been inspired to "scat"; he had merely "scatted" spontaneously, improvising as ho went along. .

Whether he has originated an art or a nuisance is a matter of opinion. The theatre is filled nightly by goggle-eyed young people whoso chief ambition in life, appears to be a desire-to scat. On tho pretext, _they- -.scat in chorus; iimd,1 doubtless", return to scan; clalised homes to scat as individuals, so long as the endurance of suffering relations ; and parents lasts. Thousands of bathrooms, and living-rooms are reverberating to the raucous "hi-dc-his" and"ho-dc-hos" of tho Callowny brand. The very office-boys scat as'they stroll out on a'messagOj preferring thfs mode of self-expression to the old-fashioned whistle.- ■-,• .■:.,■■'"

London is a patient,, town; but its tolerance may soon be strained to breaking point. It can, at a pinch, put up'with an epidemic of influenza', or a series of black fogs, or a wet summer, but when its peace is shattered day and night by ;iuveniles and adolescents "who "seat" in public, it is inclined to rebel. Indeed, there are already tlio.«o who talk of invoking The Prevention of Crimes Apt, lest, tho aesthetic reputation of the City go completely to ruin. But, fortunately, it may not be neeossary to go to extremes.' Mr. Galloway, will not be hero much longer, and, in any case, no craze, howpver widespread, lasts for .more than, a few weeks. There is always a new craze to displace it.