Best female vocals on CD

Trisha Yearwood is on the soundtrack CD to "Stuart Little" the mouse movie. Very nice disco-ish vocals, and assume that she has other albums/CD's. I had mentioned the late great Laura Nyro earlier in this thread and a few days later stumbled upon "The Best Of Laura Nyro", a double CD. Unfortunatley her voice does not ring true on this compilation by Sony/Columbia due to poor sound engineering (way beyond the CD vs vinyl debate, just a plain crappy over compressed/limited and tasteless job). Except for three live cuts that the engineer(s) did not botch, it does not bring back the fond memories of listening to the vinyl versions. Picked up Holly Cole "Temptation" and could not get into it at all. Though she's interesting in a kind of "Beat me up, take me home and call me Peggy" way. Not to everyone's taste. On a more positive note Linda Thompson of Richard and Linda has a great voice and so did (young) Nico of Lou Reed fame. Claudine Longet is a nice piece of vocal fluff, just don't play her around the Olympic Ski Team.

Duh! Just found out from my adopted daughter/neighbor that Trisha Yearwood is country/pop. One of her favorites and she is a profesional vocalist.

My all time favorite Jazz singers are Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn, and asked to choose between the two I really couldn’t. They both have what it takes to be considered great in my book, voices, phrasing, style, range and originality. I love them both. Today I would agree that Shirley Horn is carrying the torch. Diana Krall will never let you forget her with that image of her blonde hair blowing in the wind while sitting at the keyboards. It’s not hard to like her. I enjoy listening but she is really not a great stylist, just an overall excellent performer who stays within her range and well knows her limitations. Oh Whitney Houston, What happened to you girl? I really held so much hope for you. That voice oh how wasted on such ….better not say it out loud. Gosh I could go on with many of the others but there really is no point, many of the above have done better than I so I’m just going to mention one voice that I didn’t see here but think belongs. She isn’t my very favorite, but she did a whole lot for Broadway and show music, (I HAD to listen, 3 sisters OK?). What about Mary Martin? I suggest a listen to the Original Broadway “Sound of Music” Her voice on some of those songs really moves me. Power, feeling, joy and honesty. I can’t come up with any female broadway artist that did it better. As for Janis Joplin. I saw her perform at The “Electric Factory” in the late 60’s. It was tragic watching her with the ever present bottle, but one thing I’ll never forget about her and it comes back every time I listen was how she projected her feelings, it all came out when she sang, that is her legacy. I’ve never seen anyone that moved me more.

Nice Tubegroover! I didn't think that anyone was interested in non-groovy performers, no offense Mary - you are a legend. I would like to add Patti LuPone from the new Broadway cast recording of "Anything Goes", RCA 1988. And also, Nancy Walker and Betty Comden from "On The Town" the original cast, Columbia.

How about - Bebel Gilberto (Brazilian artist) and Samia Farah (French artist), both of the cd's are recorded really well. You guys should check these out!!!