scat

“But she’s not a scat singer. She improvises more in the technique of the Baroque period, expanding and contracting phrases or adding trills that deviate from the melody.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026

“And there’s lots of coyote scat — they’re just marauding around. The lizards are back and some of my roses survived.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2026

Newly christened, she became known for scat singing, a vocal style that originated with ragtime - which enabled her to improvise melodies using her voice as an instrument.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2025

For music, the show has an original score by the veteran trombonist Craig Harris, played by a jazz band that includes three vocalists who do sometimes scat.

From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2024

Piles of bear scat on the trail and, at one point, a set of fresh grizzly tracks—each print half again as long as a size- nine boot print—put me on edge.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

She sang open-throated declarations, recited broken poetic verses, scatted with the authority of a jazz singer, moaned with bluesy intent, and occasionally let loose an unbridled shriek or giggle.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026

Hancock sang identifiable words during “Come Running to Me,” but they were mutated by a vocoder, and most of the evening’s other vocals were scatted and altered.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2017

After they climbed off Parker, the Sparks scatted about the court. 

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2016

The beautiful public baths, just off Twenty-third Street on Asser Levy Place, across from Peter Cooper Village, are like a pun on the defeat of the rebel forces that scatted here, headed north.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 25, 2015

Coming out of the river bottoms, I scatted up a long hogback ridge, and broke out on top in the flats.

From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls

Here, Fay Victor, a uniquely daring and creative singer, adorns her vocal with all manner of creaking, wailing, moaning and scatting, yet she maintains Bey’s feeling of directing a congregation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026

“It doesn’t really make sense. You just have to kind of follow the sound. I still remember the reception that I got from it. Angela Jackson said, ‘You’re scatting on the page.’

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2025

Scooby-Doo’s name came from Silverman, who had heard Frank Sinatra scatting “doo-be-doo-be-doo” on a recording of “Strangers in the Night,” and whose own name was used for Fred, the group’s ascot-wearing leader.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 13, 2020

Across the table from each other in a jail’s visiting room, the brothers are scatting, their vocal jam making sweet jazz in a cold, hard space where instruments are not allowed.

From New York Times ● Oct. 29, 2019

But feeling hungry myself, I reasoned that it would be pointless to waste whatever little energy I had left in scatting them away, for they would soon return.

From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane