The Swingle Singers

The Swingle Singers are a vocal ensemble founded by the American jazz musician Ward Swingle in Paris in the early 1960s. Swingle was an established figure within the Paris music scene and had been involved with artists such as Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour prior to creating his vision for a vocal ensemble.

The group was an immediate success and between 1963 and 1965 picked up four Grammy Awards; Swingle himself was already a Grammy Award winner having picked up an award for a solo performance in 1960. After a successful decade with the French version of the ensemble, Swingle disbanded it and relocated to England in 1973 where he immediately began setting up a UK version of the group. The new band differed from the original group in that it performed almost exclusively a cappella, whereas the original chorus had relied on a double bass player and a drummer for accompaniment.

With a recording legacy of over forty albums the Swingle Singers in both English and French incarnations have proved themselves to be one of Europe's most enduring and popular chorus ensembles.