Apart from the divine Billie Holiday, my favorites are Anita O’Day (no one swings quite like her), Abbey Lincoln, Carmen McRae (Carmen Sings Monk is sublime) and Cassandra Wilson (esp. Blue Light Till Dawn).
Stephanie Nakasian
Cheryl Bentyne (yes, the one from Manhattan Transfer)
Chris Connor
Linda Ronstadt (in her work with Nelson Riddle) – just kidding!
Annie Selleck
Tierney Sutton
Meredith d’Ambrosio
Kitty Margolis
Madeline Eastman
Anita O’Day
And I would like to heartily endorse all of the above suggestions, particularly Ranchoth’s offering of Madeleine Peyroux.
Barbara Morrison.
Again, Ella. One of my faves is “Take Love Easy” with Joe Pass on guitar. Beautiful and simple, just her vocals and Pass’ guitar.
For blues, Etta James. I like “Mystery Lady” which is jazzier, a Billy Holiday tribute album. Every cut is delicious.
I LOVE Kitty Margolis. And of course Anita O’Day; an alltime great. Madeleine Peyroux is uneven, and not always “jazz,” but I do like her a lot too.
I was going to mention her too. I really love her Don’t Smoke In Bed CD
You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Bille Holiday.
–Cliffy
My favorite version of “Someone To Watch Over Me” is by Dakota Staton. 
Glad to see Diane Shuur mentioned. I love her tribute album to early jazz singers. I also like Patti of Tuck and Patti. He plays wicked guitar, she sings like an angel. Their music ranges from modern jazz to gospel to standards to jazzy interpretations of the Beatles and Stevie Wonder.
Many of the previous recommendations have been all over the board in terms of whether your talking about jazz or blues or pop or whatever so I’m going on the presumption that mentioning female vocalists in any of these idioms is appropriate. I’m not criticizing just commenting.
I would suggest adding the following (mostly jazz) while noting wholehearted endorsement of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday for jazz and Holly Cole, kd Lang and Margaret Mary O’Hara for Rock:
[ul]
[li]Patricia Barber (I believe out of Chicago at least that’s where I saw her) - Modern Jazz[/li][li]Ma Rainey - When Jazz/Blues were synonymous[/li][li]Bessie Smith - same comment as Ma Rainey. Bessie learned from Ma and Billie learned from Bessie[/li][li]Sarah Vaughan - combination of Jazz and Pop but great voice[/li][li]Marcia Ball - southern blues with a little cajun/creole thrown in along with sometimes soulmates Angela Strehli and Lou Ann Barton[/li][li]Eva Cassidy - a beautiful, ethereal voice [/li][li]Sue Foley - good citified electric blues[/li][li]Toni Price - good electric blues[/li][li]Kim Richey - hard to categorize but a great writer and singer though leans somewhat toward country at times[/li][/ul]
A lot of excellent suggestions already, but may I mention Marlena Shaw? I’ve seen her live a coupla times and she always rocks the house.
Man, I LOVE Patricia Barber. Though she’s a bit of a bitch IRL, but hey, so was Picasso. And Toni Price! Definitely not jazz, but I’ve never seen her mentioned anywhere unless it was by me! Very cool.
And I know how subjective these things are, but I think of k.d. lang as existing outside of rock. k.d.'s the kind of music we would have today if rock never happened: if we went from Frank Sinatra and Doris Day right to the present day, without any detours for Elvis or Beatles. At any rate, it seems to me that she draws MOST of her influences from the pre-rock era. Ditto Holly Cole and M[sup]2[/sup]OH, though not so much.
I am a fan of Sheila Jordan. I have been lucky enough to see her live twice here in Victoria.
“The Crossing” is my favourite album. The title song takes my breath away, sends shivers up and my down my body, and helped me make it through many a dark night.
Durnit, Waterman!
I sifted through the whole thread to give a nod to Kim Richey. Her earlier albums are more country. Her later stuff is quite unique, imho. Also on the more country/Patsy Cline end of the spectrum is Mandy Barnett.
Also, Jennifer Nettles, lead singer for the “hot new” Top 40 country band Sugarland had some great jazzy tracks on the albums she produced while in her earlier Atlanta area bands, Soul Miner’s Daughter and The Jennifer Nettles Band.
[Slight Hijack] Mandy Barnett’s I’ve Got A Right to Cry was one of the great torchy ballad records in a long time - but she hasn’t released anything since then. In the same honky-tonk, western swing style as Mandy are the original releases by Shelby Lynne and perhaps you can still find her album titled Temptation (Since Western Swing is a form of jazz then this isn’t a total hijack).
There are a ton of other female artists who sit just under the horizon of popularity that have released awesome albums over the last 5 years that also just don’t fit into any particular category. From A through D of my list would be: [ul]
[li]Tanya Donnely & Be Good Tanyas[/li][li]Jonatha Brooke & Jennifer Kimball & their group Story[/li][li]Janet Bean & Freakwater[/li][li]Matraca Berg who is an awesome songwriter [/li][li]Cindy Bullens - Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth written after the death of her young daughter [/li][li]Burns Sisters - who do some awesome harmony/group singing [/li][li]Eliza Carthy - her mother is Norma Waterson (one of the great English folk singers) and her dad is Martin Carthy and together they have perfomed as the Watersons and Eliza has done music ranging from Punk to traditional English folk[/li][li]Neko Case - the voice of alternative rock/alt country but what a voice[/li][/ul]
Lot’s of great music. Sorry for the slight hijack.
My husband took me to see Paula West as part of a surprise Valentine’s weekend, and we were both absolutely floored by her performance.
Fantastic voice, perfect timing, just a pleasure to listen to.
I’m fairly certain that Tanya Donnelly has nothing to do with the Be Good Tanyas, although one of their members’ last names is Parton, so I wonder if there are other connections.
The Story used to be one of my favorite bands. It was too bad when Jonatha dumped Jennifer because she thought she could make it on her own. I was ashamed to be a little bit pleased when Jonatha’s career fizzled shortly thereafter.
And I LOVE Matraca Berg and Neko Case. A LOT.
You are quite correct regarding the “Be Good Tanyas” and Tanya Donnelly. The “Be Good Tanyas” are Frazey Ford, Samantha Parton, and Trish Klein. No idea regarding possible connections between Samantha and “Other” Partons. Sorry for not checking my facts before posting.
Regarding Neko Case, have you listened to her as a part of the New Pornographers (though “Twin Cinema” has less of her presence thanthe previous release)?
I’ve listened to ALL her stuff, and seen in her various other incarnations. She’s very active in local Seattle music.
oh and, thanks eq.