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creative jazz vocalists


jazz1

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Cassandra Wilson is great. No, not a pure jazz singer, but sure makes great music.

Lizz Wright is the most impressive young jazz singer I've heard. She does lots of original songs and a smokin' version of Afro Blue. She comes from a gospel tradition so her voice is powerful, but real warm, too. Her fist album, Salt, is great.

I also saw her this past weekend and she cooked!

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I will investigate Patty Waters, if it is on ESP it must be different!!

Patty is like the vocal version of Albert Ayler. She uses simple folk-song themes as a basis for extended vocal technique, expanding and intensifying through repetition. "Black is the Color" is the infamous side-long tour de force from her first LP, though I really like the College Tour record a lot.

Cheers,

*CT*

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  • 4 years later...

I can't help but notice Cassandra Wilson is missing ... not jazzy enough? She's certainly quite creative.

Cassandra Wilson is a fantastic jazz vocalist. I think I listen to her album "New Moon Daughter" at least once a month.

Amazing, emotional, haunting recording....

61047.jpg

Her band for this recording is also stellar.

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Two women from the SF Bay Area that I like a lot are Madeline Eastman and Ann Dyer.

Madeline Eastman is probably closer to what the OP is asking for. She's very creative with phrasing, time, and vocalese.

She doesn't overuse the vocalese so it's always a welcome effect when it happens. I've seen her perform several times and she's definitely worth catching when you can.

Three cds that I have are also highly recomended.

Mad about Madeline (w/Phil Woods and Cedar Walton)

Point of Departure (w/Tom Harrell and Mike Wofford)

Art Attack (w/Kenny Barron and Tony Williams)

Ann Dyer has three cds out that are all excellent in their own way. They are all pretty unique.

When I Close My Eyes (vocal, bass and drums) This is the newest and shows her classical Indian vocal training she's been working on for a few years)

Revolver (A New Spin) She rearranges the songs from Revolver + Rain with dramatic and very interesting effect. Highly recomended for jazz fans who also like The Beatles.

Ann Dyer and No Good Time Fairies (her first album) Her take on a bunch of jazz standards, some of which she wrote lyrics for like Pinnochio (Wayne Shorter) and Contemplation (McCoy Tyner). The band, which is also on the Revolver album features electric guitar and sax and can be quite angular at times. Not your June Christy type album.

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OK - I've been reading this thread for the past few days and I don't want to throw things off track since I pretty much know what jazz 1 is looking for.

But - I keep reading the names of the various singers who've been mentioned and I keep thinking - has there ever been a more creative singer than Billie Holiday? None that I've heard.

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Dee Alexander!

It's really a shame that she doesn't have a recording released nationally that I can recommend (she has self produced several recordings that she sells at her shows). I hope that changes soon, since for me she is the best around.

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Norma Winstone.

Maria Pia de Vito

norma has a stunning new album

She certainly has....and in the last couple of years has done great albums with Stan Tracey/Bobby Wellins and Colin Towns.

I believe Maria played in New York recently. I got to see her finally at last year's Appleby and she was marvellous, especially in a quiet piano and voice concert. Definitely a million miles from the usual 'GAS' singers.

Very interesting album of vocalese from this New Zealand singer a couple of years back:

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(had the same sort of impact on me that Karrin Allyson's Coltrane album had a while back.

Edit: Turns out she was born in Guildford in England, moving to Australia. So much for NZ!

On the Brazilian jazz front, this has been one of my favourites from recent months:

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Really marvellous songs with a couple of great Robert Wyatt duets. Monica is originally from Sao Paolo but has been living in Britain for some years, putting out a sequence of great albums under her own name and her band Nois. Worth spending a few e-music credits on.

Edited by Bev Stapleton
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Guest Bill Barton

Karin Krog has long been high on my list of creative vocalists, particularly the album with Warne Marsh and Red Mitchell, I Remember You. This one is sublime. IREMEMBE.jpg

The one with Archie Shepp, Hi-Fly, isn't too shabby either. MZCF-1019.jpg

And then there's We Could Be Flying, another fine effort. B0000DJWNE.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

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