Vocal Jazz

A chronological history of jazz vocal presented by André Francis and Jean Schwarz. 10 CDs with more than 12 hours of music.
The resulting 2 boxed sets of 10 CDs in each, unlike any other available today, groups together the main vocalists in the story of jazz from the first half of the 20th century. Each of these 20 CDs offers in more or less the same proportion, the purest of African-American song with gospel and blues singers, from truculent Ma Rainey to majestic Bessie Smith, sophisticated Sarah Vaughan to popular Louis Prima, the folk-related tones of Charlie Patton to the honeyed voice of Frank Sinatra.

A chronological history of jazz vocal presented by André Francis and Jean Schwarz. 10 CDs with more than 12 hours of music.
The resulting 2 boxed sets of 10 CDs in each, unlike any other available today, groups together the main vocalists in the story of jazz from the first half of the 20th century. Each of these 20 CDs offers in more or less the same proportion, the purest of African-American song with gospel and blues singers, from truculent Ma Rainey to majestic Bessie Smith, sophisticated Sarah Vaughan to popular Louis Prima, the folk-related tones of Charlie Patton to the honeyed voice of Frank Sinatra.

Limited edition Deluxe 8CD set featuring the best female voices in jazz history. This is no ordinary compilation, but an anthology of 15 complete original albums by some of the best loved jazz vocalists: Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Anita O day, Abbey Lincoln, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald etc.

Nancy Wilson's not the first name in bluesy jazz (check out Dinah Washington and Joe Williams for that), but she usually can enliven the form with her sophisticated and sultry style. That's made clear on her rendition of "Stormy Monday Blues," where she eschews blues clichés in favor of a husky airiness, at once referencing a lowdown mood and infusing it with a sense of buoyancy. This split is nicely essayed on Capitol's Blues and Jazz Sessions, as half the tracks ooze with Wilson's cocktail blues tone and the other find the jazz-pop chanteuse in a summery and swinging mood. Ranging from the big band blues of "I've Got Your Number" to the lilting bossa nova "Wave," Wilson handles all the varying dynamics and musical settings with aplomb. Featuring cuts from her '60s prime with the likes of Cannonball Adderley, Oliver Nelson, George Shearing, Gerald Wilson, and a host of top sidemen, this best-of disc offers a fine, off-the-beaten-path overview of Wilson's Capitol heyday.

The Norwegian trio GURLS – tenor sax player Hanna Paulsberg, bassist Ellen Andrea Wang and lead vocalist Rohey Taalah, made quite a noise with the cheeky, feminine songs of its debut album Run Boy, Run (Jazzland, 2018, the record won the Norwegian Grammy, Spellemannprisen for the best jazz record of the year). Four years later Gurls return with a live album, Oui, a new lead vocalist, Marianna Sangita Angeletaki Røe, a few new songs, and new arrangements of the not-so-old songs, together with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra (TJO).

Jet Lemon Band was born in 2014. It is an incredible combination of two Russians (Jim Aviva - lead vocal and keyboards, and Sammy Lukas - piano, saxophone back vocal), two Germans- (Benjamin Schlothauer - bass, and Jakob Kufert - drums) and South Koreans Ju Young Cheong - guitars. The initial idea was to cover songs of the great rock bands of the '70s but the inspiration morphed into a desire to honor just one legendary group Led Zeppelin II, recreating the genius of this band in the style of jazz The band welcomes the opportunity to combine two very different kinds of music - jazz and rock into one cohesive album and to capture the imagination of both fan bases.

Jacintha is a Singaporean jazz singer/torch singer and stage actress who has been well-known in parts of the Asia-Pacific region since the '80s and has been increasing her exposure in North America since the late '90s. Jacintha has never been the type of jazz artist who goes out of her way to be abstract, difficult, or complicated; her work has been quite accessible and easy to absorb, drawing on direct or indirect influences that have included Julie London and Shirley Horn as well as Brazilian star Astrud Gilberto. Jacintha has long been fluent in English. Her visibility in the United States and Canada started to increase in the late '90s, when she began working with producer Ying Tan and started recording for the Los Angeles-based Groove Note label. Jacintha's first Groove Note release, Here's to Ben: A Vocal Tribute to Ben Webster, was recorded in 1999 – and that album marked the first time that a Jacintha album was widely distributed in North America.

This album was originally released in 1988 as "Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry, Be Happy". Vocal virtuoso Bobby McFerrin ranks among the most distinctive and original singers in contemporary music – equally adept in jazz, pop, and classical settings, his octave-jumping trademark style, with its rhythmic inhalations and stop-on-a-dime shifts from falsetto to deep bass notes often sounds like the work of at least two or three singers at once, while at the same time sounding quite unlike anyone else.

Waterloo, Dancing Queen or Voulez-vous. Famous, perhaps even played a bit too frequently. But what about Waterloo as a jazz ballad or Money, Money, Money in swing?