Good pieces for BASS vocal section

[ElliottBae]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 8:13pm

I have a friend who I'm starting lessons with. He has a deep, rich bass voice but has absolutely no experience singing. I've been trying to find some good show tunes for him because he wants to audition for Jesus Christ Superstar in a local production in May but everything I find seems to be for Baritone. He can hit a low C with a relative amount of ease (it's really extraordinary) and his tone is very rich, he's a natural, but I just really can't seem to find any songs that would really compliment his voice, any pieces that really hit the low notes. Can anyone help me out?

Posted: 4/4/13 at 9:29pm

Ol' Man River from Show Boat.

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 10:10pm

Why can't you just transpose something for him?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 10:48pm

I'm a very low bass--and when I started singing lessons for roles I'd play, they'd always give me Ol' Man River. Being a bass is not the best for musical theatre (especially if, like me, you got into it due to being able to dance--dancing roles + bass = nothing.)

My best role, which I did in a few productions, was Miles Gloriosus in Forum--in each production I did it we dropped the end "My Bride" to basically as low as I could sing, which seemed to work.

Otherwise--I think transposition is ok. For a vocal recital I did Younger than Springtime (not my choice) and worked on bridging my normal voice with my falsetto which is really strong, though I wouldn't choose it as the ideal way to sing a role.

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 11:37pm

I'm a bass-baritone with a Caiaphas-ready low C, and practically nothing written for men fits in my range. Songs intended for altos and mezzo-sopranos work well for me, so I try to find ones that either have gender-neutral lyrics or pronouns that can be switched without being too precious.
And of course there's this old chestnut,

[latitudex1]

Posted: 4/4/13 at 11:59pm

Well, my thinking is that you don't have to limit your ideas to the musical theater canon for an audition for JCS. A stadium rock/glam rock song from the 70s or 80s would be more appropriate, if allowed.

If you're going down the classic rock route, he could easily sing any rock tenor song an octave down. And if a song he likes doesn't sit in a nice part of his voice, then try transposing to C Major.

[wonkit]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 9:40am

Isn't "This Nearly Was Mine" in the bass-baritone range? Wasn't that Pinza's vocal range?

[DEClarke]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 9:52am

It's not a solo, but you could have him work on Caiaphas' part in "He is Dangerous (This Jesus Must Die)."

[musikman]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 11:25am

It's not really a full song either, but you could use "I feel like I'm not out of bed yet" from 'On the Town' where the dockman/boatman sings.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/5/13 at 11:34am

"Fingers and Toes" and "Tomorrow I'm Gonna Be Old" from Angel could work, but musical theatre solo stuff is rarely about the low notes (except sometimes for women).

How about "Jazz Baby" from the movie of Thoroughly Modern Millie?

If I were md-ing Superstar (and I hope I never do), I'd just ask basses to go with something from the classical repertoire, like Sarastro's aria - all the production team is going to care about is if you have low notes and can walk across a stage, probably.