I am looking to increase my CD collection (mine is really meager right now). I’d like to get some Jazz/blues, preferably female singers. For some reason or another I am enjoying girl vocalists more than guys these days, not sure why.
Recommendations would be great.
Thanks,
Slee
Oh my god. You found my thang.
First of all, the more jazz vocals I hear, the more astonished I am at the absolute perfection of Ella Fitzgerald. Ella was the Mozart of Jazz vocals; no one has ever–will ever–be worthy to kiss the hem of her dress.
My personal favortie Ella album is Ella in Rome: The Birthday Concert.
Other all-time favorites include:
Rose Murphy, the “chee chee” girl. She sang with a twee little Betty Boopish voice, and her scatting took the form of chirping, bird calls, lip trills, and non-words like “chee chee chee.” Just enthralling. She accompanied herself on piano too, and her jazz is solid.
Blossom Dearie, another little girl voice. She sang the “Eight” song in Schoolhouse Rock. Slightly twisted; there’s a subtle dark quality to her songs that’s hard to put your finger on. She’s still around, touring, and is a trifle bizarre to talk to.
Shirley Horn. Rich and deep. Shirley’s velvet tones take a song as slow as it can go–second only to Jimmy Scott–and lingers sensuously over every note.
Peggy Lee. Peggy Lee could make any song sound dirty. Her voice somehow dripped sex, no matter what she was singing about. “Woman,” “Fever,” “Is That All There Is?”–no one has ever touched these songs that Peggy tucked down inside her warm, ample bosom and made her own.
Betty Hutton. The original. Betty is, for some reason I can’t quite fathom, one of my own personal divas. She was a comic belter who never looked ridiculous. Bjork acknowledged that Betty’s original version of “It’s Oh So Quiet” couldn’t possibly improved upon when she did it exactly–but exACtly–like Betty had: every growl, whoop, and whisper originated with Betty.
There are more of course–Billie Holiday, Nancy Wilson, Dinah Washington, Betty Carter, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen Macrae–the above are some of my personal favorites.
Ella Fitzgerald should top your list, especially one of her Greatest Hits packages focusing on her 40s output (The Very Best of Ella Fitzgerald, Something to Live For, etc.).
From the 50s, try Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington.
Lots of great modern stuff; Diana Krall, Norah Jones, k.d. lang (She’s done some great standards albums, like Shadowland and Drag), Bettye LaVette, just to name a few.
Holly Cole.
Madeline Peyroux’s a household favorite of mine. Very reminiscent of Billie Holiday, especially her first album.
Oh man, I love seeing that somebody else knows about Holly Cole. She’s slipped lately, but her *Temptation * is in my lifetime top ten albums of all time list, and her *Girl Talk *is near the very top of my alltime favorite Jazz vocals list.
I didn’t mention her because her last couple albums have been unfortunate; she decided to try to be a small fish in a big pond (pop vocals), rather than quite possibly the very biggest fish in a smaller pond (modern jazz vocals). She blows Diana Krall and Cassandra Wilson *entirely *out of the water. (The producer of *Temptation *took the musicians Holly had assembled for that album with him when he went on to produce Wilson’s breakthrough album New Moon Daughter. I still think of Wilson as a Holly Cole wannabe.)
By the way, Holly told me once that if she had to choose 10 albums to take to a desert island, she’d take 10 copies of Mary Margaret O’Hara’s Miss America. I heartily concur; Miss America is one of the very few albums on the planet that I rank higher even than Temptation.
Wow. Read some of the comments on this album at the Amazon page. It’s on MOJO’s list of the 100 greatest albums of all time.
I have always thought that the Holy Trinity of female jazz vocalists were:
I also love Dinah Washington, Annie Ross - especially her work with Lambert, Hendricks and Ross - and Dakota Staton.
there is plenty of amazing stuff out there - if you like “girl singers” - who deliver standards really well - you could do a lot worse than Rosemary Clooney, who was wonderful.
Cleo Laine
One more vote for the goddesslike voice of Ella Fitzgerald. They don’t get any more perfect than her. If you can get Ella Sings Cole Porter, you’re in for a real treat.
I also love Annie Ross from her work with Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, sultry-sounding Peggy Lee, and the more recent jazz singer Judy Niemack, who scat-sings in the Ella Fitzgerald tradition.
I’ve been very interested in Holly Cole’s Temptation album for a long time – isn’t that her collection of Tom Waits covers? Waits is my favorite artist overall, and I’d love to hear a solid girl singer’s interpretations of his lyrics and melodies. I’m just unfamiliar with her previous work, though.
One more thing, one of our very own Straight Dopers, velvetjones, is a very talented female jazz singer who I’ve had the pleasure of seeing perform live in my own town. She has a website where you can hear a few samples and buy her CD, which I highly recommend: http://julielyonquartet.com/
Well, I was going to come in to suggest Holly Cole, but see that she’s already been mentioned twice. So I’ll just say:
WELCOME BACK LISSENER!!!
You did say jazz/blues so I’ll give you a blues suggestion. Shemikah Copeland. She is the daughter of blues great Johnny Copeland. I had the honor to see her perform live at her fathers last performance before he died. It choked mup when I saw her take the mic from her father when he was too weak to go on. She has an incredible voice.
Let’s not forget Lena Horne.
Again, Ella Fitzgerald.
Thanks for the list, lissener, I’m definitely going to check out some of your suggestions.
To me, most of these suggestions seem more blues oriented than jazz.
If you want jazzier; try Luciana Souza or Eliane Elias.
k.d. lang’s Shadowland album was a homage to Owen Bradley, the country producer. It doesn’t have any jazz on it.
Try Renee’ Marie. She’s from Richmond, but currently lives and records in Atlanta.
Also, I’d try Abbey Lincoln.
If you’re going to get one Ella Fitzgerald CD, get The Best of the Songbooks .
My Fav.
Owen Bradley produced the album. lang, like Lyle Lovett, started out as a country musician whose fan base wasn’t traditional country music fans, and she drifted pretty quickly towards jazz and standards. Listen to “Black Coffee,” “I’m Down to my Last Cigarette” and “Busy Being Blue” again and tell me there’s no jazz in it.
What? No **Diane Schuur?**Check out Deedles, Diane Schuur with the Count Basie Orchestra, and Heart To Heart, a CD of duets with BB King.
Some of Shade was a nice return to what she does well in my (unqualified) opinion but otherwise I completely agree with you.