Female Jazz Vocalists
I'm not big into jazz vocals - other than Abbey Lincoln or Betty Carter. Not that I dislike it - but it's never been a focus.
Who's the real deal and offers something new or great - and who's a torch song parody?
The most distinctive players in jazz
Who are those jazz who have a tone or sound that is immediately recognizable. To borrow from the cinema term for a legendary director, I'd call these players jazz "auteurs". Like Cinematic icons Bergman, Kurosawa, Scorcese or Hitchcock who had or have a distinctive look, these jazz musicians have a distinctive sound or tone in their playing.
Dificulty here is - what constitutes jazz? Not a problem for me, if I listed my favourite 50 female singers it wouldn't bother me what label was applied. But keeping as far as I'm able to 'jazz' I'd suggest:
ReplyDeleteBillie Holiday
Ella Fitzgerald
Sarah Vaughan
Dinah Washington
Sheila Jordan
Annie Ross
June Christy
Cris Connor
Blossom Dearie
Shirley Horn
Karin Krog
Peggy Lee
Carmen McRae
Helen Merrill
Anita O'Day
Rita Reys
Carol Sloane
Lee Wiley
I could easily name 50+ more whose albums I wouldn't want to be without, but the above have made recordings that can probably be defined as "jazz".
It's well known that when it comes to tastes and preferences, everything and nothing is set in stone. Personally, I could endorse the list you kindly suggested, grumpy, and rather than proposing the omission of some names simply due to personal taste, I think it preferable to include a couple more, since their voices and phrasing —in the strictest jazz sense, of course— make them very much on my mind. I'm referring to Jo Stafford and Kay Starr.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should explain what jazz singing means to me, or at least what I expect to find in a singer in a jazz setting. Well, in my case, aside from a certain affinity with the timbre of her voice —there are timbres I find difficult to connect with, like those of Betty Carter or Mildred Bailey, for example— I look for pitch accuracy and the ability to attack and accentuate phrases like Ella, Sarah, Billie, Dinah, or Anita do :-)