Ladies in Jazz

[GeorgeO]

Candy Dulfer , Dutch saxophonist plays very well-Saxuality her Grammy Award nominated( dont know if she won the award) is very good-I'm just listening to it. Watch her videos on Youtube, she is very sexy to boot!

Pamela Williams is another sax player, also very good.

 

[kler]

Tal Wilkenfeld plays bass in Jeff Beck's band..has also released a solo album & is quite good.

 

[moktan]

for me the first lady of jazz will always be ella fitzerald..

 

[subhash]

check out susheela raman

 

[moktan]

and asha putli...she who has been recognized by the high priest of free jazz ornette coleman..

 

[marsilians]

Some great ladies who have contributed to Jazz are billie holiday, Alice Coltrane, Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Natalie Cole, Diane Reeves and of course Diana Krall.

There are lots more but these are only some I have albums of.

 

[ajay124]

Mahalia Jackson
Ella Fitzgerald
Billie Holiday
Nina Simone
Sarah Vaughan
Dinah Washington
Diana Krall
I like all of them.
The best 7 male singers would perhaps be
Nat King Cole
Louis Armstrong
Ray Charles
Sam Cooke
Otis Redding
Marvin Gaye
Roy Orbinson
But my favorite is the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.Now that was truly the voice of the century.(Listen to Trouble of the World on you tube.The two CD Essential Mahalia Jackson set is truly a gem)
Billie and Ella are incomparable but I rate Nina Simone higher because of the raw emotion in her voice and the things she sang about.My only grouse with Ella Fitzgerald,Billie Holiday and Nat king Cole---three of my favorite singers is that they ONLY sang love songs.And some of the lyrics were positively tacky.
Nina Simone sang many songs made famous by the Beatles,Dylan,CCR,Joe Cocker etc. and it is amusing to hear how bad all these superstars sound as compared to Nina!
Also like Aretha Franklin and Mary Blige.

 

[suri]

Nina Simone sang many songs made famous by the Beatles,Dylan,CCR,Joe Cocker etc. and it is amusing to hear how bad all these superstars sound as compared to Nina!

yeah!

 

[Latheesh]

I picked 2 Jazz albums couple of days back from Landmark

Live in Paris - Diana Krall
My One and Only Thrill - Melody Gardot - Amazing voice

I liked both

 

[longshanks]

This new girl Esperanza Spalding has some good talent in jazz.

And there is Marta Gmez,Sophie Milman .

 

[sidvee]

My Fav - Patricia Barber
Have seen her live twice and have all her Cd's and two SACD's. Even the recordings are reference quality.
Cheers
Sid

 

[ajay124]

@lateesh and other folks on this thread...
Check out Mary Blige(pronounced blarge).She is into mainstream soul/urban but in my opinion the best female vocal singer around at the moment.Diana Krall is good but the 'white' voice has its limitations.Don't much care for Patricia Barber.To many 'special effects'.To judge a Diva's vocal chops I mentally try to filter out all the background music and focus only on her singing abilities.Try it with all the diva's and you may find that Mahalia Jackson is Numero Uno!
All my favorite singers are afro-americans---Mahalia Jackson/Billie Holiday/Ella Fitzgerald/Nina Simone/Aretha Franklin.Mary is the true heir to Aretha the queen of soul.Her 'Retrospective' album would be a good place to start.Listen to tracks like 'one' 'stay down 'my life' and you will be hooked.
I just put on her 'one' with U2.Its like a rousing anthem.Guaranteed to get you on your feet and dancing/singing!

 

[sidvee]

.Don't much care for Patricia Barber.To many 'special effects'.To judge a Diva's vocal chops I mentally try to filter out all the background music and focus only on her singing abilities.!

To each his own I guess but I have heard Patricia live at the Green Mill in Chicago and her singing abilities/vocal dexterity/composition of lyrics etc. at-least IMO are astounding. And as subjective as we all are I never really cared for the "Black voice" in female jazz - too husky and masculine for my taste. I do like Diana Krall as well.
Cheers
Sid

 

[ajay124]

You're right Sidvee.To each his own.

 

[GeorgeO]

What about Eva Cassidy, one of my all time favourites? A huge loss to music when she died.

 

[kindofblue]

Billie Holiday. Rules.

GeorgeO, Candy Dulfer is the one who played with Pink Floyd once... Awesome playing, awesome looking.

 

[metalmickey]

dusty springfield?...dont know whether she's jazz!!!!!!! but had an awesome voice and was considered one of the best white singer in the soul genre....was even consdrd the queen of brit pop then!......one of my all time fav female vocalist......these days also seem to be liking the bluesy katie melua!!!!!!!

Dusty Springfield - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[moktan]

@lateesh and other folks on this thread...
Check out Mary Blige(pronounced blarge).She is into mainstream soul/urban but in my opinion the best female vocal singer around at the moment.Diana Krall is good but the 'white' voice has its limitations.Don't much care for Patricia Barber.To many 'special effects'.To judge a Diva's vocal chops I mentally try to filter out all the background music and focus only on her singing abilities.Try it with all the diva's and you may find that Mahalia Jackson is Numero Uno!
All my favorite singers are afro-americans---Mahalia Jackson/Billie Holiday/Ella Fitzgerald/Nina Simone/Aretha Franklin.Mary is the true heir to Aretha the queen of soul.Her 'Retrospective' album would be a good place to start.Listen to tracks like 'one' 'stay down 'my life' and you will be hooked.
I just put on her 'one' with U2.Its like a rousing anthem.Guaranteed to get you on your feet and dancing/singing!

ajay i generally follow the posts that you make since we seem to share so much as far as our musical preferences are concerned...and now you talk about Mary J Blige..great..especially enjoyed her duet with Wycleff Jean..was it 'someone please call 911"..while staying on the subject of black ladies..two contemporary names that come to mind are India Arie and Erykah Badu...
cheers

 

[ajay124]

ajay i generally follow the posts that you make since we seem to share so much as far as our musical preferences are concerned...and now you talk about Mary J Blige..great..especially enjoyed her duet with Wycleff Jean..was it 'someone please call 911"..while staying on the subject of black ladies..two contemporary names that come to mind are India Arie and Erykah Badu...
cheers

I have never followed music released in recent times but sometimes a whiff of smoke somewhere leads you to a decent album made since the mediocre 80's set in.Mary Blige has made some good music.Some not so good because most of the time like Diana Krall she has chosen to be blatantly commercial with music aimed primarily at teeny boppers...Cheesy lovey dovey lyrics....quite a shame as Diana could have been a great Jazz singer and Mary a great Soul singer.As things go I would rather listen to Nina Simone or Aretha Franklin.

 

[GeorgeO]

Cassandra Wilson/Carmen MCrae/Dionne Warwick?