Thirteen Female Jazz Vocalists You Need to Hear

After I began writing for TAS, I got into a rhythm where, every three years or so, I’d compile roundups of female jazz vocalists who’d recorded an exceptional album during that time span. I wrote these articles with some consistency, although the timing wasn’t set in stone; rather, I waited for the spirit to move me.

Then, for whatever reason, the spirit stopped moving me—either that or I got lazy. “I’ll get around to it,” I told myself whenever I thought about putting together a fresh roundup. But I kept putting it off. Maybe I was waiting for a lightning bolt to come down from the sky.

If so, that’s what happened. The lightning bolt came as a bumper crop of memorable releases that appeared so close together—several within a few weeks of each other—that I had to sit down and write this feature. If the cluster of exciting new music wasn’t motivation enough, the fact that Bill Milkowski interviewed Sheila Jordan about a recently discovered archival recording that preceded her historic 1962 debut on Blue Note provided further inspiration. A nonagenarian jazz vocal legend rubbing up against a baker’s dozen of her progeny—well, how often will that opportunity come around?

My criteria for the female jazz vocal roundup are simple. More than anything, I search for singers who have good voices, but who have also found a context that matches their voices. I didn’t bother with household names—no Patricia Barber or Norah Jones, for instance, as they’re already getting coverage in TAS—though it’s not like the singers in this roundup are toiling away in obscurity. Several have done European tours and appeared at performance arts theaters. On the other hand, jazz and jazz vocalists deserve more attention, and until that changes I’ll keep harping about the singers I like.

Debut Albums

Samara Joy performed with a jazz band during high school, and later graduated from the jazz program at SUNY Purchase. Surely that training contributed to her development as a vocalist, but when you listen to Joy, who’s 23 years old, you can’t help thinking that this woman was born to sing jazz. On her eponymous debut album, she delivers straightforward renditions of better- and lesser-known jazz standards, including “Stardust,” “Everything Happens to Me,” and “But Beautiful.” On this small group session with an attentive and polished guitar trio featuring Pasquale Grasso on guitar, Ari Roland on bass, and Kenny Washington on drums, the arrangements are consistently straightforward, yet the album is quite special, and it seems to me that Joy played her cards right by launching her recording career with a no-frills debut and making sure that her voice remains the center of attention. There’s poetry in her phrasing, and she sounds natural and unforced. You’ll hear a resemblance to Sarah Vaughan; you’ll also hear the voice of someone who will continue to claim our attention. Sweetening the pot, the dexterous guitar fills by Grasso assure us that the band is also very much in the moment.

Another precocious overachiever is Anais Reno, whose debut album Lovesome Thing: Anais Reno Sings Ellington & Strayhorn was recorded when she was 17. Reno’s resume already includes awards in jazz vocal competitions and performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and 54 Below. This 12-track LP starts with “Caravan,” ends with “Take the A Train,” and mostly sticks to songs every Ellington and Strayhorn fan would know. Reno has a light, airy voice that swoops up and hits high notes with finesse and grace. The leader and arranger for the group accompanying Reno is pianist Emmet Cohen, whose discography includes several memorable releases as a leader and sideman on Mack Avenue. Reno has an especially nice touch on the ballads, and “Mood Indigo,” “Day Dream,” and “Chelsea Bridge/A Flower is a Lovesome Thing” are highlights on the album. Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” has tripped up more than one singer, but Reno manages to pass that litmus test with poise.

Everything about the debut album by Kari Kirkland is polished. The black and white photographs on the album cover of Wild is the Wind could be ads in a fashion magazine; the arrangements skillfully frame Kirkland’s voice; and the distinguished list of guest artists includes the late Roy Hargrove on trumpet and flugelhorn. The album was arranged and produced by four-time Grammy nominee Shelly Berg, and the recordings took place at United Recording Studios in L.A. The sound is clean, velvety, and full-bodied. Some tracks give a jazzy twist to pop tunes (like Steely Dan’s “Do It Again,” Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” and James Taylor’s “Steamroller Blues”), but jazz standards like “Too Close for Comfort” and “It’s All Right with Me” are also included. Kirkland has a seductive voice that blends in smoothly with arrangements that add some contemporary jazz stylings. Although it’s available digitally and as a compact disc, I first heard Wild is the Wind on vinyl, and it may be the best-sounding new platter I’ve come across this year. It’s easy to imagine Wild Is the Wind playing at the next audio show—but don’t wait until then to give it a listen.

Lockdown Music

Stacey Kent grew up in the U.S., moved to Europe after college, eventually settled in France, and, after she became famous internationally, began touring around the world. Then, like the rest of us, she found herself stuck at home due to the COVID-related lockdown, and her latest album, Songs from Other Places, makes clear how much Kent misses the whirlwind adventures of a touring musician. Pianist Art Hirahira accompanies her on the album, which features a clean, spacious, and transparent recording with plenty of air. On the opening track, “I Wish I Could Go Traveling Again,” Kent describes the chaos, stress, and disorientation of touring, and “Tango in Macao” describes everything that could go wrong while tangoing—but it’s obvious how much she misses traveling and dancing the tango. Elsewhere, the tone is wistful and the pathos convincing. The performances of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Bonita,” Paul Simon’s “American Tune,” and Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird” are moving interpretations of songs that demand a lot from a singer, and if you’re already a fan of Stacey Kent, Songs from Other Places will deepen your appreciation of her artistry.

Some musicians want to reinvent the wheel every time they record an album, but not Champian Fulton. With musical heroes like Charlie Parker and Dinah Washington, she stays rooted in the music that’s closest to her soul. “I like things that swing,” she once put it. “I’m a bebopper at heart.” The same could be said of her father, Stephen Fulton, who joins her for a series of duets on Live from Lockdown. A mixture of instrumentals and vocal performances, the album features Champian on piano and vocals and Stephen on flugelhorn and trumpet. Standards like “I Hadn’t Anyone till You,” “Satin Doll,” “Moonglow,” and “What Is This Thing Called Love” are delivered with a casual late-night air that calls to mind many mid-century jazz albums. Champian is a soulful singer whose enthusiasm is infectious, and there’s a life-affirming quality to Live from Lockdown. Simply having the opportunity to play the music she loves and share it with other people seems to be all the inspiration she and her father need to record an album that makes listeners feel like they’re part of a small, intimate, and special audience.

Rebirth of a Feeling

In 1998 an opening occurred for a female vocalist to perform with a jazz ensemble six nights a week at a venue in Manhattan known as the Rainbow Room. Hilary Kole auditioned, even though, at age 19, she was competing against vocalists with considerably more experience. Kole ended up getting hired, and her latest album, Sophisticated Lady, was inspired by the nostalgia she feels for the nightclub that launched her career. “When I was contemplating making a new record, I thought back to my days as a young singer at the Rainbow Room,” Kole said. “So, I decided to do a record of classic standards—songs I might have done at the Rainbow Room 20 years ago.” For this project, Chris Byars wrote arrangements that left plenty of room for solos by guitarist John Hart, pianist Tom Beckham, vibraphonist Adam Birnbaum, and Byars himself on woodwinds. The band knows how to bring the fire and play it cool, and the vibes add a certain élan that befits a vocalist who can be sly, sexy, and, when the music calls for it, exposed and vulnerable, as on a bracing interpretation of “’Round Midnight.” Sophisticated Lady comes highly recommended.

The inspiration for ’Round Midnight—Re-Imagined came from stories Amber Weekes used to hear about Sugar Hill in Harlem. “There really was a Camelot,” her father used to say of Sugar Hill, and Weekes pays tribute to that golden era in this 12-song album on the Amber Inn Productions label. Weekes can be saucy, (“Hazel’s Hips,” “Don’t You Feel My Leg”), and there are shades of blues and contemporary R&B in her music. The second half of the album is devoted to a medley entitled “The Bar Suite.” A song long associated with June Christie (“Something Cool”) segues nicely into a tune Ol’ Blue Eyes liked to sing (“One More for the Road”), and linking those two songs together makes perfect sense, as both are monologues delivered on a bar stool by someone who’s feeling a bit lonely that evening. Weekes knows how to sell a song, and when she delivers these laments, it’s like you’re nice sitting next to her and hearing her narrative change yet stay the same.

Sasha Dobson is a member of Puss n Boots, a popular alt-country trio whose personnel also includes Norah Jones and Catherine Popper. On Girl Talk, Dobson focuses on jazz, and the trio that functions as the core group for the projects (Dobson recorded live with the trio while some instruments were overdubbed at a later date) includes Peter Bernstein, who earns an A+ for his sensitive accompaniment and soloing on the record. Dobson grew up listening to jazz, and Girl Talk isn’t so much a departure for the singer as a heartfelt return to her roots. The retro album cover (dig the pale green wall rotary telephone) suggests a nod to mid-century pop culture. Dobson’s whimsical duet with Norah Jones on Neal Hefti’s “Girl Talk” is good for a laugh, “Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps” has its own charms, and you may also get a kick out of “These Boots Are Made for Walking.” Interestingly, Dobson doesn’t ratchet up the kitsch element on these cuts, instead allowing her smoky voice to set the scene. Formats for Girl Talk include vinyl, and you might want to shelve the album between, say, some old Doris Day and Nancy Wilson LPs—in other words, albums by pop singers with a jazz foundation who were popular when rotary phones were all the rage.

Large Ensembles

With records on SmallsLive, Venus, Mack Avenue, and other labels, French-born singer Cyrille Aimée has covered a lot of ground stylistically, and her discography includes a 2019 tribute to Stephen Sondheim and a brilliant live album from 2017. In 2018 Aimee moved from NYC to the Big Easy, where she quickly sought out Adonis Rose, conductor of the 18-piece New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, and Aimee describes the subsequent collaboration, Petite Fleur, as “a narrative about the relationship between New Orleans and France.” The album starts with a gorgeous reading of the Sidney Bechet-penned title track and ends with a performance of “Down” that’s so rowdy that afterwards you might want to circle back to the opening track just to mellow out a little. Between those bookends you get rich, colorful horn charts and fiery solos from NOJO, a talented frontwoman who sometimes sneaks in a little scat-singing, compositions by such titans as Michel Legrand, Jelly Roll Morton, and Django Reinhardt, and a perfect marriage between a singer and a band.

If you’ve read TAS lately, you’ve noticed that Jonathan Valin is a bit obsessed these days with all things reel-to-reel. During a recent visit to his house, I heard an R2R tape on Jonathan Horwich’s audiophile label International Phonograph, Inc. that floored me musically and sonically. The album, Magic, consisted of duets performed by vocalist Dee Alexander and pianist Jeremy Kahn. Jim Hannon praised this performance of standards in his overview of International Phonographic, Inc. that appeared in Issue 297; like Jim, I was impressed with the interplay between vocalist and pianist and a recording that was remarkably transparent and lifelike. That 2014 album is still available on tape or as a download, but if you’re looking for something more recent, I recommend It’s Too Hot for Words: Celebrating Billie Holiday, a 2019 Delmark release that pairs Dee Alexander with the Metropolitan Jazz Octet. More often than not the album has a festive mood, which might not be what you’d expect from a Billie Holiday tribute album, but there was joy in her music, and lots of it. Alexander, in the company of an ensemble that consistently brings the swing, shares the same joie de vivre on It’s Too Hot for Words.

Tribute to Burt Bacharach

Much of Burt Bacharach’s oeuvre can be described as romantic, seductive bedroom music, but it’s not all sweetness and light, and sometimes the bitter and the sweet are so intertwined it’s hard to separate the two. On Whistling in the Dark: The Music of Burt Bacharach, Denise Donatelli explores the dark side of Bacharach’s musical universe. Working with arranger, bassist, and producer Larry Klein, Donatelli has a sensuous voice that vividly conveys the heartbreak and insecurity described in these songs. Highlights include “A House is Not A Home,” “Walk on By,” “In Between the Heartaches,” and two compositions from the Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach collaboration Painted from Memory (“Toledo” and “In the Darkest Place”). Best of all is a performance of “Anyone Who Had a Heart” that’s worth the price of the album. The CD was mastered at Bernie Grundman Mastering, and the recording has a silky, layered, full-bodied sound. Whistling comes recommended to audiophiles, fans of female jazz vocalists, Bacharach devotees, and everyone who likes ballads that make you hurt a little.

Going Back to the Garden

Remember the 1960s? Judy Wexler does, and on Back to the Garden the L.A.-based singer returns us to a time when peace and love were part of the equation, or tried to be anyway. The album primarily consists of songs that were popular in the 60s and 70s and helped define that era. Imaginative arrangements by Jeff Colella and Josh Nelson avoid paint-by-numbers imitations of the original recordings, instead opting for jazz-inflected and colorful interpretations augmented by some trippy vocal harmonies. At times there’s a loose and even playful approach to the performances that seems period appropriate, as with an off-kilter spin on Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” that sounds whimsical (although, as you may recall, there’s a serious message beneath all the frivolity). There’s also a hint of Steely Dan and other groups that blended pop music with jazz. If you could use a little more peace, love, and good karma in your life, take a trip Back to the Garden.

“The world is too much with us,” William Wordsworth once wrote, and considering that most of his life was devoted to sessions of sweet silent thought (okay, I switched over to Shakespeare) and Mr. Wordsworth lived out in the woods in 18th-century England, well, he didn’t know the half of it. A married couple, Sarah Elizabeth Charles and Jarrett Cherner conceived Tone during the pandemic, and although the album was recorded in a Brooklyn apartment, there seems to be a Wordsworthian element to this recording. As Charles put it, “This project, for me, has been a place of solace and self-reflection and self-care.” In that spirit, the couple wrote the eight compositions that make up Tone, along with some input from Robert Frost, whose “Nothing Gold Can Stay” provided some of the lyrics on “Out Loud.” Tone is the quietest, most intimate, and quite possibly prettiest album in this roundup. With soothing music, thoughtful lyrics, and a beautiful blend of voice and piano, Tone can put you in a better place. Apparently there’s more than one way to get back to the garden.