Do they, or a close approximation thereof, exist?
Oops! I came in to list Females who play bass and sing (Aimee Mann, Tina Weymouth, Kim Deal, etc.) but I see that’s not what you’re looking for.
[Emily Litella]
Nevermind.
[/Emily Litella]
If you mean women who sing in actual bass range, I seriously doubt it, but there might be a few. I’ve seen women sing tenor, but not bass.
Perhaps Diamanda Galas. I can’t think of anyone who comes closer, anyway. She’s got quite an amazing vocal range.
One or two of the women in the vocal group Sweet Honey in the Rock sing really frickin’ low, but I have no idea whether they qualify as basses or not.
In popular harmony singing, such as barbershop quartet, the term “bass” may be used to denote the singer who handles the root of the chord, regardless of whether the person sings in what is classically considered the bass range. Consequently, the Sweet Adelines groups have female bass singers–as well as baritones and tenors.
Isn’t there a scene in the movie Ray in which the Raeletts argue over who will take the bass part?
In my years of singing operas, operettas, oratorios and the like, I have met several women whose voices fell neatly into the tenor register. I have known one who could comfortably sing baritone. I would probably not be at all surprised to learn of a woman who could (through training or natural ability) sing bass notes of concert-quality.
Now actually *hearing *one, on the other hand, would be very surprising indeed. :eek:
I’ve always been under the impression that a bass is by definition the lowest male voice. A quick glance at the dictionary confirms this.
True enough. I guess I was (and am) asking who those female singers are that sing closest to the range of from around the F below the bottom of the bass clef to the E above middle C, then. 
Thanks for the tips so far—I’m off to check them out.
Barbershop singing has a bit of a different take on the whole thing.
I’ve watched a few of the videos from the linked chapter site. My goodness, I never pictured that a woman could sing so low! I guess because it usually isn’t done. Since I don’t hang around choirs, singing groups, etc., I guess I was out of the loop. Nice catchy melodies, as well.
The Cookies (a 1960’s “girl-group”), sang “Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad About My Baby”.
One of the Cookies had an incredibly deep voice and I believe she was mentioned in a previous thread some months back.
I can sing along with baritones.
Well, if you want to call it “singing.”
In any case, I can make my voice go very loooow. My speaking voice is fairly low, too.
The lowest female voice is generally called a contralto, with a usual range of G below middle C to an octave above middle C.
Which is nowhere near a male bass.
Bea Arthur?
Ooh, another opportunity!
Here’s some songs by one of the lowest singers I know, Happy Rhodes (I do have permission to share her songs). Most are a combination of her spine-chilling ethereal highs and her deeep rumbling lows:
Temporary and Eternal (acoustic version) (starts center high, goes low)
Winter (mostly very low. This was mind-blowing live)
'Til the Dawn Breaks (from 1986, starts with one of her high voices then goes way low, especially in the middle part of the song)
Beat It Out (another very old song, goes very low)
She uses her high and low (and centered) voices on most of her songs though. these are the lowest I can think of off the top of my head.
She’s never taken singing lessons, and has some vibrato, but she just learned to sing by singing along to people she loved, like David Bowie and early Kate Bush.
I love seeing her live because it’s thrilling to see all those different voices coming out of one human’s mouth. I’ve got a recording from 1996 of her covering “Space Oddity” that had me staring at her with bug eyes, she went soooo low. I saw her live in January and her voice is still amazing.
Oh my god. That’s wonderful stuff. She has a timbre similar to that of Paul Davis before she even hits bottom. And, well, I don’t think I need to go on about her voice quality. The range is stupefying; she’s like a female Ivan Rebroff. I do hear the Kate Bush influence, too; a good thing IMHO. Amazing how she so readily shifts voices. Thanks so much for sharing that.
Bea Arthur. Heh. I’d forgotten about her. 
I’d like to hear her sing; I don’t think I’ve heard her.
I’m glad you like her. I’ve been a fan for several years. There’s much more where that came from, if you have a mind to delve. At least, here are a few more high/low songs.
Life On Mars (not a Bowie cover, an acoustic version of a song she wrote when she was very young)
When The Rain Came Down (for a long time, this was mislabeled on Napster as Kate Bush and Annie Lennox)
Hold Me (about as “rocky” as Happy gets. It’s not used much, but she gets very low in this)
Oh The Drears (an oldie, has high and sorta low together in the intro)
Glory (remix) (no deep low as such, but an unusual mid-high using a low voice. I know that makes no sense, and I have no idea what that’s called, musically, but she does it a lot. There are better examples but this is the first one that popped out of my brain. She does it on this one and this one too.)
I’m sorry, I don’t think I know who that is. I say think just because the name is vaguely familiar, but I don’t know if that’s because it’s not an unusual name.
You can if you want to :D. I do love hearing fresh perspectives. She has a fan base, but not here on the Straight Dope, yet I’d think there would be a percentage of Dopers who would like her.
boggle I’d never heard of him, but I just listened to some samples. Happy might be the Ivan Rebroff wannabe (in range, anyway) because otherwise, she doesn’t come anywhere near him. Wow. I take that you put her in the same sentence as a deep compliment to her range.
You’re welcome. I’m a huge Kate fan and that’s how I came to know of her. A Kate-fan friend of a friend with a tape sort of thing. Besides my Samples page, I keep a Rarities page with several live cuts. What she does is no studio trickery (not that you suggested it was). Listen to this one, The Chariot. It’s just an audience recording, and not really the best version (she wasn’t feeling well), but you can hear her use both voices (and others) in the song. Also, she tells a story about the song at the end, so you can hear that her speaking voice is fairly low too. That’s from 4 months ago.
Thank you for listening. Seriously, thank you.