― duane, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
Exception: Chet Baker. Dude!
― Omar, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
Jazz singers = CLEO LAINE! Which is dud, dud, dud (though I have a soft spot for poor old Johnny). The only person who should be allowed to scat is Balloo the Bear.
― stevie t, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― the pinefox, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
And that's why I like them! Nat Cole! Dean Martin! Chet Baker! Ella! Important building blocks for pop-rock.
― Blake, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
Nina Simone is brilliant, but I wouldn't call her a jazz singer. Just saw her in NYC, and seeing her again in Oakland, CA, btw.
― Sean, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― adam, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
Also, Josh, you're definitely right about the singer having a separate, elevated place in the group. Maybe it's partly due to the fact that the unamplified voice is quieter than horns and drums at comparable dynamic levels, but I've had it drilled into me to respect and support the singer when there is one. There isn't the same sense of equality in interaction...there are exceptions of course (like when I saw Kurt Elling do 'Resolution' live last year, he was very much an equal part of the group).
― Jordan, Thursday, 5 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― jon, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
However my selction would be Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Anita O'Day, Nina Simone, and early aretha franklin , pre queen of soul era, (imho the difinitive version of 'love for sale' is sung by her).
I can't think of anyone post 60s. There was no longer a need to use vocalists to make jazz pop by then so number of good vocal talents went elsewhere, see aretha switching to soul on moving labels and belting out soul classics. i can't think of any current jazz singers, except one i saw sing with herbie hancock who was just plain dull. then again with a few notable exceptions i can't think of many people currently pushing back the boundaries of jazz, or eving playing well in an old style, with a few notable exceptions of course.
― Ed, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Dan Perry, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― mark s, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Jim McGaw, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― duane, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
That's awfully "Ken Burns' Jazz", don't you think? Not to mention that I don't agree. Trying to create some sort of hierarchy of musical greatness or importance isn't particularly productive -- there are too many apples and oranges, for starters.
And even if the hierarchy were valuable, I probably wouldn't put Armstrong at the top, great as he was. If it had to be a jazz musician, I'd probably pick Miles Davis. But that's more a matter of opinion.
― Phil, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
I stand by my statement. Awfully "Ken Burns"? You think Ken Burns was the first person to rank Louis Armstrong so highly? Saying Louis Armstrong is the most -- or at least one of the most -- musicians of the 20th century is so obvious it's almost redundant. Miles Davis? I love him, but by his own admission he wouldn't have had a career without Pops. Miles's influence was primarily on jazz only. while Armstrong's was on pop music in general. See the difference? And besides, we're talking about jazz SINGERS. Again, I challenge anyone who can find me a singer -- jazz or otherwise -- who has had such a dramatic impact on his art than Armstrong. No one knew HOW to sing pop music before his arrival.
― Jim McGaw, Wednesday, 3 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 18:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
this is a wild statement! care to expand upon this Phil?
does the description of pop here = jazzism?
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 18:31 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 18:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
My favorite jazz vocalist: Eddie Jefferson.
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 19:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
leon thomas is one of my favorites. all of his Flying Dutchman albums are great, as are everything he recorded with pharoah sanders. there are some dud songs (the bad calypso track) and the Full Circle album is kinda weak.
pharoh has a few albums w/vocals but w/o leon that are great "Village of the Pharoahs" with Seditarius Brown and "Wisdom Through Music". both beautiful Impulse albums
Max Roach has done wonderful things with vocals. his wife Abbey Lincoln sang on a few beautiful albums, "Freedom Now Suite" is wonderful. and he's done a bunch of stuff with jazz choruses. they're arranged so strangely. check out "It's Time" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (the second one is more gospel mixed with jazz).
Very similar to the Roach album "It's time" with weirdly arranged chorus is Bobby Hutcherson's "Now". one of my all time favorite albums. Eugene McDaniels is featured singer. the album almost sounds like a musical or something, but it's firmly rooted in a dark jazz sound.
another great jazz singer is Andy Bey. he's appeared on Roach's "Members, Don't Git Weary" and on solo albums.
Don Cherry sings occasionally, and his Codona (COllin walcott, DOn cherry, and NAna vasconcelos) albums are a wonderful mix of vocals, jazz and world music.
two more husband wife jazz player/singers are Michal Urbaniak and his wife Urszula Dudziak (fusion-y) and Doug Carn and his wife Jean (soulful, funky jazz)
and last but not least is Patty Waters who recorded an album for ESP on recomendation of Albert Ayler. the first half is smokey bar room ballads, and the second half is freaked out fucked up free jazz where her vocals compare to Yoko Ono and Linda Sharrock
― JasonD, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 19:18 (twenty-one years ago) link
― g (graysonlane), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 19:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― g (graysonlane), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 19:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
What a voice.
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 19:28 (twenty-one years ago) link
Having recently gotten the reissue of Falling in Love is Wonderful from Rhino, all I can say is that the man is a national treasure.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 19:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Andrew L (Andrew L), Thursday, 24 October 2002 05:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 24 October 2002 08:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
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.
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 24 October 2002 21:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 26 April 2003 01:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Al Andalous, Saturday, 2 August 2003 02:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 2 August 2003 02:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
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.
― Øystein Holm-Olsen (Øystein H-O), Saturday, 2 August 2003 02:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
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!
― plebian plebs (plebian), Saturday, 2 August 2003 06:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― V (1411), Sunday, 3 August 2003 14:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 26 December 2003 00:43 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 26 December 2003 00:54 (twenty years ago) link
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.
― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Friday, 26 December 2003 03:52 (twenty years ago) link
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.)
― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 7 June 2004 12:43 (twenty years ago) link
Lambert, Hendricks and Ross might deserve mention, too.
― christoff (christoff), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 19:21 (twenty years ago) link
― LaRue (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 16:08 (nineteen years ago) link
Anyway, anyone interested ought to pick up Teagarden's "Mis'ry and the Blues," from the early '60s...mellow, good-natured stuff.
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 22:56 (nineteen years ago) link
Annette Peacock - My Mama Never Taught Me How To CookArchie Shepp - Attica Blues Archie Shepp - The Cry of My PeopleCarla Bley - Escalator Over The HillDonald Byrd - A New PerspectiveEddie Gale - Black Rhythm Happening Eddie Gale - Ghetto Music
― JaXoN (JasonD), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 23:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― JaXoN (JasonD), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 23:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 23:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 23:31 (nineteen years ago) link
I just got a copy of this, it’s super awesome: https://img.discogs.com/3CMUYQZZAEJTsZPAT3sTePwmMu8=/fit-in/600x597/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-4385407-1573333696-6819.jpeg.jpgPony Poindexter = Cannonball Adderly (name changed cuz he was under contract for another label at the time).
― brimstead, Wednesday, 12 May 2021 18:03 (three years ago) link
fantastic name he used there
― calzino, Wednesday, 12 May 2021 18:56 (three years ago) link
some top class scatting as well.
― calzino, Wednesday, 12 May 2021 21:52 (three years ago) link
Also of much related interest, covering a lot of ground: RFI: Vocal jazz songform
― dow, Wednesday, 12 May 2021 22:27 (three years ago) link
Oh yeah, and this is cool---can imagiene it as basis of a movie---from the teeming trove of Night Lights archives---stream, download:https://indianapublicmedia.org/wpimages/nightlights/2011/01/Dick-and-Kiz-Harp.jpg
Dick and Kiz Harp were a husband-and-wife, piano-and-vocals duo who ran their own nightclub (converted from a warehouse and called "The 90th Floor," after a lesser-known Cole Porter song they performed) in Dallas, Texas at the end of the 1950s. They‘ve developed a cult following among jazz-vocal aficionados on the basis of two obscure LPs. The Harps, influenced by artists such as Sylvia Sims, Anita O‘Day, and Dick Marx‘s Chicago trio, came up with their own sound--a blend of cabaret, torch song, and Midwestern camp--riding strongly on Kiz Harp‘s magnetic stage presence and slightly hoarse, soulful voice (a listener described her as "Jeri Southern smoking two packs a day"). Their career ended suddenly and tragically in 1960. We‘ll hear music from both of their albums (available again at 90th Floor Records) and we‘ll talk with Bruce Collier, the founder and owner of 90th Floor Records, who recorded both Harp LPs.
https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/dick-and-kiz-harp-down-at-the-90th-floor.php
― dow, Wednesday, 12 May 2021 22:39 (three years ago) link
This young singer I saw in the Birdland Theater last night is pretty amazing, she’s like the second coming of Anita O’Day or something.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 December 2022 12:50 (one year ago) link
Name, please?
― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 27 December 2022 14:38 (one year ago) link
Anaïs Reno
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 December 2022 14:41 (one year ago) link
My friend thought she sounded a little too studied in a video I sent him. I know where he is coming from but she has time to develop, she just turned nineteen, and she sounded great last night.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 December 2022 14:42 (one year ago) link
Will check her out, thx
― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 27 December 2022 15:30 (one year ago) link
Enjoyed a randomly purchased compilation of Sarah Vaughan over the last week . Great voice melismatic and all like that so I think I need to know more about her. This was a set of material from mid 50s to early 60s called Her Finest Hour. Pretty divine
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 27 December 2022 15:31 (one year ago) link
Steveolende, check out Live at Mister Kelly's.Dan, check out her Ellington & Strayhorn album, Lovesome Thing.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 December 2022 15:49 (one year ago) link
Or the new album, which is here:https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kDZ_ZYYbOm_iEJGrOinviQN3qCOQUyh28
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 29 December 2022 03:49 (one year ago) link
First song here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL20ZIlqJ54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaH3wuAUGs0
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 22:00 (one year ago) link
live at mister Kelley’s is so damn good, there was something in the air that night
― not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Friday, 10 February 2023 22:26 (one year ago) link
^maybe too inside baseball and not great sound but still, some sort of slice of history. (xp)
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 22:27 (one year ago) link
And yes, that album is special
― The Windows of the URL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 February 2023 22:28 (one year ago) link
Enji is a Mongolian jazz vocalist singer who sounds as if she has listened to some classic Brazilian music
She’s gotten some luv from Bandcamp daily and Chr&s R@chards at Washington Post
― curmudgeon, Friday, 20 October 2023 14:56 (eleven months ago) link
Thanks!
A little more hype for a recent fave, as posted on the swinging moldy figs thread:
Best jazz vocal I've heard in a while---lots of folks have the chops and spirit, but there's a world in here, for now:Kate Kortum - Dreamsville
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btQNuSQZxWM
― dow, Friday, 20 October 2023 17:28 (eleven months ago) link
Anita O'Day, "Early Autumn"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf5DThAr-_A
― dow, Friday, 20 October 2023 17:31 (eleven months ago) link
Grammys nominees for Feb 2024 awards
30. Best Jazz Vocal Album
For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new vocal jazz recordings.
For Ella 2Patti Austin Featuring Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band
Alive At The Village VanguardFred Hersch & Esperanza Spalding
Lean InGretchen Parlato & Lionel Loueke
MélusineCécile McLorin Salvant
How Love BeginsNicole Zuraitis
― curmudgeon, Monday, 13 November 2023 03:03 (ten months ago) link
Last night I was livestreaming the St. Peter’s tribute to drummer Jackie Williams who passed away recently and saw a vocalist performing I think I should be paying more attention to.
― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 14:45 (ten months ago) link
Also wow that Nicole Zuraitis got a Grammy nomination. She always seems really nice when I’ve crossed her path but I haven’t listened to any of her recordings.
― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 14:46 (ten months ago) link
Sonica, that is the project I have seen her in, with Thana Alexa and Julia Adamy.
― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 14:50 (ten months ago) link
From 2011, but just recently heard for first time: a really distinctive presentation of "Weightless," title track of album by the Becca Stevens Band (she's recently done something w Jacob Collier):https://beccastevensband.bandcamp.com/album/weightless
― dow, Tuesday, 14 November 2023 18:43 (ten months ago) link
a video, even:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk_qfA9YIxg
― dow, Tuesday, 14 November 2023 18:45 (ten months ago) link
Singer I was talking about was Marty Elkins.
― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 14 November 2023 19:01 (ten months ago) link
X post - Have not heard Nicole Zuraitis , Grammy nominee, yet either
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 14 November 2023 19:36 (ten months ago) link
https://hullworks.net/jazzpoll/23/totals-vocal.php
2023 Totals: Vocal JazzCritics were asked to name one album apiece, with no point system.
Cécile McLorin Salvant, Mélusine (Nonesuch) 27Jo Lawry, Acrobats (Whirlwind) 11Gretchen Parlato & Lionel Loueke, Lean In (Edition) 10Fred Hersch & Esperanza Spalding, Alive at the Village Vanguard (Palmetto) 9Arooj Aftab-Vijay Iyer-Shahzad Ismaily, Love in Exile (Verve) 5Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden (Constellation) 4Fay Victor, Blackity Black Black Is Beautiful (Northern Spy) 4Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter, SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree (Edition) 3Irreversible Entanglements, Protect Your Light (Impulse!) 3John Pizzarelli, Stage & Screen (Palmetto) 3Michael Bisio & Timothy Hill, Inside Voice/Outside Voice (Origin) 2Samara Joy, Linger Awhile (Verve '22) 2Karina Kozhevnikova & Krugly Band, Polyphonic Circle (Leo) 2Astghik Martirosyan, Distance (Astghik Music) 2Joshua Redman, Where Are We (Blue Note) 2Säje, Säje (Säjevoices) 2Sara Serpa & André Matos, Night Birds (Robalo Music) 2Luciana Souza & Trio Corrente, Cometa (Sunnyside) 2Susanna, Baudelaire & Orchestra (SusannaSonata) 2Libby York, Dreamland (OA2) 2
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 4 January 2024 06:34 (eight months ago) link