Hey Dopers,
I’m looking to expand my musical tastes and am turning to you guys to give me some recommendations. I love listening to the christmas cds by Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and the Rat Pack.
I have looked online and am a bit overwhelmed by the choices available - should I go for compilations? Best-ofs? Complete albums? Which ‘Best-of’? There are so many…
Please help me out…
I’d go with ‘best of’ albums to start with. It’s hard to go wrong there. Try some Nina Simone and Chet Baker. Jane Monheit is a decent choice for a newer jazz voice. Lots of people hate Diana Krall, but she does a good enough job on the standards. Dinah Washington and Ruth Brown are powerful voices, certainly.
Any recommendations on which ‘best of’? Each of the female ones have like 15 of them
I know you’ve already done Ella, but IMO the single greatest album in the entire genre is Ella In Rome - The Birthday Concert.
The review comments on Amazon are usually quite helpful. Look for the albums that have 4 or 5 stars with more than five reviews, if possible, such as this one. .
Well the only Ella I have ‘done’ is one of her christmas album which I doubt qualifies as her must-have album :b
Cassandra Wilson Blue Skies.
Every Dinah Washington compilation in current release is a “Best Of” affair and it’s hard to go wrong with any of them. Your best bet, though, is The Swingin’ Miss “D”. You know that Residence Inn commercial where she’s singing “Relax, Max”? It’s on here.
My favorite Ella Fitzgerald compilation is “Something to Live For,” but “Ella and Louis” (duets with Louis Armstrong) should be higher on your short list.
I like some vocal jazz in French, such as Montreal Jazz Club. Also, I like the compilation Jazz Ladies. Something more current I also like is Feeling Good, Joe Sample & Randy Crawford.
Just wanted to thank all of you for your replies sofar…please keep them coming
So I went out and got myself the following:
Smoke gets in your eyes
Ella & Louis The complete Verve
Pure Ella
What would be a good compilation to get? To get some exposure to others besides Ella, Dinah and the Rat Pack?
For classic jazz vocals, try some Lena Horne. For a more modern sound, Patricia Barber is good.
The Manhattan Transfer–4 part vocals. Lyrics an education in Jazz history.
Agreed, and most of the best examples of those lyrics are penned by Jon Hendricks.
Which brings us to Lambert, Hendricks and Ross (but don’t dismiss the quality of Lambert Hendricks and Bavan - Annie Ross retired, and her replacement was pretty good, too).
Shout out to Tierney Sutton, who may or may not still be a professor of vocal jazz at USC.
Also Karin Allyson.
Stepping in to recommend -
Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane
Trudy Desmond the late under-rated Canadian singer.
This is my favourite Sarah Vaughan album, though there are many other worthwhile recordings of hers. Surprised no one’s mentioned her upthread - I consider her part of the Trinity of female jazz vocalists along with Ella and Billie.
Blossom Dearie is an old favourite of mine, and I love her version of “I’m Hip.”
And last of all, my favourite Bobby McFerrin album. Do not think of that incredibly infectious ear worm he recorded in 1985 or 86 - this album is why Bobby McFerrin deserves to be heard.
Best wishes, hope this helps.
Kurt Elling is very stylish.
I like Sheila Jordan, Sarah Vaughn and I, too, love Blossom Dearie!
I have “When the world was young” going through my head… it’s wonderful.
I also like Canadian singer Holly Cole.
Mark Murphy for some far-out scatting with a sense of humor.
Give John Pizzarelli a try.