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Emile and Laura De Cosmos
have lived music all of their lives. Emile is well-known in the New
York/New Jersey area in the field of music, especially the Jazz arena.
Formerly an adjunct professor of Jazz Improvisation and an Applied Music
Instructor at Jersey State College, amongst other teaching positions,
Emile is now a featured writer for "Jazz Player" magazine. He is also the
author and publisher of "The Polytonal Rhythm Series", a 19 book
collection. Together with co-author and wife, Laura, Emile's newest
publication is, "The Woodshedding Source Book." Laura, a professional
pop/jazz musician with experience in big band jazz, also teaches
privately. In New Jersey, she had a "great job" as Choral Director and
assistant band director at Lincoln High School in Jersey City. The De
Cosmos currently reside in Florida.
Female Jazz Vocalists
Recently, someone asked me, which female jazz singers would be good additions to their personal jazz collection. I'm happy to share my opinion with others, but it's always a good thing for me to point out that while I may feel very strongly about the impact these artists have had on the development of jazz over the past century, there are even more out there that hold equal validity, constituting their place in history as well. If you have a favorite jazz vocalist, that you feel should have been mentioned in this brief article, please send it in to us with comments about why you feel this artist should be recognized and we'll place your contribution below this article.
Each of the female jazz vocalists discussed in this article had a unique style. Through their own depth of personal experiences, talents and artistry, they've etched their own "niche in time". Each of the talented ladies in this article share timeless beauty, placing them as true classics!
Billie Holiday is one of the most highly regarded jazz vocalists of the twentieth century. She sang with the emotion and style that many singers have tried to emulate through the years. A singer that came before Billie Holiday, who bridged the gap between popular and jazz styles of the 1930s, was Mildred Bailey. She was the first female to sing with big band/jazz orchestras thus paving the way for other big bands to add female singers. Maxine Sullivan was a singer whom Billie Holiday admired. Maxine received more fame, in her day, than Holiday. Ella Fitzgerald was a singer who was inspired by instrumentalists, and she could "scat" (an improvised jazz solo, singing nonsense syllables, rhythmic vocal sounds), like no other! She first recorded in 1935 with Chick Webb (whom she later married) and performed with virtually every famous jazz musician in her time. Sarah Vaughn was another great scat singer. Her voice had a deep, rich, mellow tone. She had a great sense for chord structure and intonation, (singing in tune). Annie Ross, with the trio of Lambert-Hendricks and Ross, sang lyrics to famous instrumental solos and jazz tunes. Other great jazz stylists, with very interesting vocal tone colors (timbre) and imaginative renditions of songs, are Carmen McRae, Betty Carter, Dinah Washington (who has more of a blues and R&B style), Nancy Wilson, Della Reese, Peggy Lee, Abbey Lincoln, Ivie Anderson with the Duke Ellington orchestra, Rosemary Clooney, Lena Horne, (in her later years), Sheila Jordon and Rachele Ferrell.
Some jazz labels to look for when creating your library of female jazz vocalists are Verve, Commodore, Columbia, Capital, Impulse, Blue Note, Polygram, Steeplechase, and Prestige. Great jazz singers listen to both vocalists and instrumentalists, so after you have heard some of these great jazz artists, expand your listening repertoire to include some of the influential instrumental artists but we'll save that for a future article, here at MusicStaff.com.
Emile De Cosmo
©, 1999
Edited by D. Jeter, 2000
Reprinted with permission,
©, Musicstaff.com, 1999, 2000
Complementary Links
Check out Emile and Laura's Woodshedding Source Book.
Jass.com - A jazz historian's and conossieur's delight!
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