Jazz Vocalists - CD/SD

And Billie Holiday is magnificent too, and Bessie Smith and Nina Simone and Louis Armstrong and if we count him (and I don't) very much Frank Sinatra. I'm less keen on Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan - I like them both, and they are technically magnificent, but I can't quite fall in love. I have quite a few of their records, and keep expecting to fall for them any day.

My problem with vocal jazz has always been that it has this smooth tone to it that I never could get into; but then, I only really heard the superpopular stuff.

Howeever, there's a song on that Abbey Lincoln album that's co-written by Billie Holiday, that has one of the loveliest melodies I*ve ever heard, which leads me to believe that I need to give ol' Holiday a proper chance one of these days.

Meanwhile, Roach's Freedom Now Suite was, as I'm sure for many others, my introduction to Lincoln. Her phrasing, and the power and grit she has really hit the spot for me.

Then, of course, there's Leon Thomas' singing with Pharoah Sanders, which is quite the wonder in its own right.

1. there were significant periods when jazz singing was a central style of pop singing. Mr McGraw from 2001 may be OTM when he suggested that Armstrong is the most influential singer of the 20th century, because along with Bing Crosby and one other (forget who and the book I left at work...), according to Giddens, he invented pop singing as we know it (or knew it before rock and roll - but rock owes more to Crosby that anyone lets on anyway - Elvis knew this).

2. Armstrong's improv genius was both vocal and on trumpet. Scat was vocal improv, and Armstrong took it form a regional fad to the mainstream.

3. Armstrong could turn really hokey stuff into art. I've heard this myself on the set I bought - really corny lyrics are made expressive (and funny - his singing has tons of comedy in it).

Also, it is clear to me that Ella and Billie were actually popular pop singers. Just because (non-hip hop) pop now boils down to either post James Brown funk backing soulful teen groups or earnest young singer-songwriters does not mean that Jazz wasn't once pop.

A-and, listen to Songs for Swinging Lovers and tell me that Sinatra isn't a jazz singer!

i really like sarah vaughan as well. she has the same sensitivity as the best instrumentalists. there is a version somewhere of "they cant take that away from me" where she sings the word "key" in the line "the way you sing off key" off key and its fucking brilliant.

I think I need to start checking out jazz magazines. I don't like most of the genre, but what else is there currently? Obviously that will seem like an outrageous question, but fundamentally that's how I feel. Outside of some foreign things, there's not too much new music for my to get excited about beyond some avant-garde jazz and accessible experimental music.

(I've been forgetting to use my new e-mail address.)

Lambert, Hendricks and Ross might deserve mention, too.

Anyway, anyone interested ought to pick up Teagarden's "Mis'ry and the Blues," from the early '60s...mellow, good-natured stuff.

Annette Peacock - My Mama Never Taught Me How To Cook
Archie Shepp - Attica Blues
Archie Shepp - The Cry of My People
Carla Bley - Escalator Over The Hill
Donald Byrd - A New Perspective
Eddie Gale - Black Rhythm Happening
Eddie Gale - Ghetto Music

Ernie Andrews is another great one who doesn't get talked about much.

Betty Carter's Feed the Fire, from '93 with DeJohnette, Holland and Geri Allen, was a fine disc, doesn't sound over "mannered" at all.

AP sings in a gruff bluesy tone over sorta out, blues rock jams. at times she reminds me of Linda Sharrock (especially on the fusiony Paradise album). she also does a bunch of sing/talk stuff and has often been compared to Patti Smith (even though it's the other way around as she like to point out in her hillarious liner notes - she's an egomaniac, but almost has a right to believe the stuff she belives). she was the first person to sing through a Moog keyboard, and some of that stuff is just WILD. the other closest comparison i have is that Escalator Over the Hill album. both very, very of their 70s times

I bought an EP of hers from the early 50s at an antique shop a few years back, found out it was worth a nice chunk of change and sold it, but I recall a really pretty version of "Fools Rush In" that I'd like to hear again.

xpost

Heard Billie Holiday and Dakota Staton songs on the radio today. Just gorgeous.

http://www.divaville.org

I used to DJ at her old station, and it was always cool to watch her shift begin, as she brought in crates and crates of vocal jazz.

David Raposa, et al.,

Why hasn't anyone defended Peggy Lee in the time intervening David's comment at the top of this thread and now? Haven't you heard Black Coffee?

Somebody said something bad about Peggy Lee upthread?

nobody said nothing about Joe Williams upthread (ok neither would i have 4 years ago, went through a phase of jw last year). love that 'flickering' thing he did with his otherwise luxurious baritone and he was equally adept at blues and soul jazz and such as he was with the jazz standards from what i've heard.

and i still haven't heard much of the count basie stuff with which he made his name. and he was claire huxtable's dad!

x-post James Redd

Maybe not, maybe it's just a poorly thought-out paragraph that can be ambiguously interpreted.. Practically the second post in the thread.

Oh yeah, now I see the problem.

Here is a Peggy Lee thread for further reference Peggy Lee is the Bomb

X post - Have not heard Nicole Zuraitis , Grammy nominee, yet either

https://hullworks.net/jazzpoll/23/totals-vocal.php

2023 Totals: Vocal Jazz
Critics were asked to name one album apiece, with no point system.

Cécile McLorin Salvant, Mélusine (Nonesuch) 27
Jo Lawry, Acrobats (Whirlwind) 11
Gretchen Parlato & Lionel Loueke, Lean In (Edition) 10
Fred Hersch & Esperanza Spalding, Alive at the Village Vanguard (Palmetto) 9
Arooj Aftab-Vijay Iyer-Shahzad Ismaily, Love in Exile (Verve) 5
Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden (Constellation) 4
Fay Victor, Blackity Black Black Is Beautiful (Northern Spy) 4
Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter, SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree (Edition) 3
Irreversible Entanglements, Protect Your Light (Impulse!) 3
John Pizzarelli, Stage & Screen (Palmetto) 3
Michael Bisio & Timothy Hill, Inside Voice/Outside Voice (Origin) 2
Samara Joy, Linger Awhile (Verve '22) 2
Karina Kozhevnikova & Krugly Band, Polyphonic Circle (Leo) 2
Astghik Martirosyan, Distance (Astghik Music) 2
Joshua Redman, Where Are We (Blue Note) 2
Säje, Säje (Säjevoices) 2
Sara Serpa & André Matos, Night Birds (Robalo Music) 2
Luciana Souza & Trio Corrente, Cometa (Sunnyside) 2
Susanna, Baudelaire & Orchestra (SusannaSonata) 2
Libby York, Dreamland (OA2) 2