# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/jon-hendricks
# Generated: 2026-08-13T00:33:22.877Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/jon-hendricks"
name: "Jon Hendricks"
slug: "jon-hendricks"
description: "John Carl Hendricks, known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists, such as the big-band arrangements of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. He is considered one of the best practitioners of scat singing, which involves vocal jazz soloing. Jazz critic and historian Leonard Feather called him the \"Poet Laureate of Jazz\", while Time dubbed him the \"James Joyce of Jive\". Al Jarreau called him \"pound-for-pound the best jazz singer on the planet—maybe that's ever been\"."
tagline: "American jazz singer, lyricist, jazz critic and historian (1921–2017)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Jon_Hendricks_0157.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Musicians"
  slug: "musicians"
profileType:
  name: "Singer / Musician"
  slug: "singer"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q177220"
birthDate: "1921-09-16"
deathDate: "2017-11-22"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           49.88
  momentum:             0
  historical:           13.715668
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0376735/"
    handle:    "nm0376735"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.discogs.com/artist/253478"
    title: "Discogs"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hendricks"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://musicbrainz.org/artist/44a41c44-ca63-44e3-92a2-0000f14b9d98"
    title: "MusicBrainz"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1702784"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1699160"
    title: "Jon Hendricks"
    type:  "DATABASE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump