Haley Reinhart and Morgan James.
Catch them with Post Modern Jukebox.
exceptional voices of female singers (non-classical)
What I'm talking about here is what critics of classical singing refer to as "the instrument": the exceptional beauty or uniqueness of the timbre of the voice qua voice. For the moment, put aside preferences w.r.t. repertoire, interpretation, performance, style, delivery, etc., and just consider the *sound* of the voice. We're *not* talking about favorite female artists here, because that kind of preference is based on a whole amalgam of factors.
I suspect some of the top figures in the category I've tried to define often aren't very popular among audiophiles, because of those many other factors.
My first three nominations: Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, Eva Cassidy.
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Beth Hart Exceptional singer and exceptional performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzFd0e5WanU |
Here are some to consider: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0764MKGRX/ref=dm_ws_ec_fl_dp_B0764MKGRX I only down loaded 6. Can you guess which? (hint: I already had all of the wall of sound stuff) |
Staying strictly with the OP's concept of best "instrument" (purity of tone, range, timber) and leaving aside issues of interpretation, phrasing, and in the case of 2 of those below, choice of material, my short list is, in no particular order: Linda Ronstadt Whitney Houston Alison Krauss Christina Aguillera Sara McLachlan |
Good grief! Here I am surrounded by a group of music lovers and no one has mentioned the late, great, and beautiful Dinah Washington? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odMLsULJeCU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFNqTStUDYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGOnb-2e6kM By the way, if you don’t have this album, run ... don’t walk to Ebay. :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPTLPElr7cI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPTLPElr7cI Frank |
Surprised so few mentioned the late great (sadly passed away long before her time): Eva Cassidy , who's rendition of Over the Rainbow blows away all others and that's starting with Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand , Judy Collins....... Of course so much more there too. http://evacassidy.org/eva-cassidy-albums/ |
It would help if I read MORE carefully before posting an emotional response!Tablejockey, FWIW there were others who have also posted in the thread expressing surprise that a particular artist had not been mentioned earlier in the thread, when in fact the artist had been mentioned earlier in the thread. BTW, there’s no need to necessarily read more thoroughly. Just use the "Find" function of your browser to search for a given name, on each page of the thread. I often find that function to be very useful. In Firefox and Edge the Find function is in one of the sub-menus which can be accessed under the three bars or three dots at the upper right corner of the screen. It will also be under the Edit menu, at least in Firefox, if the menu bar has been enabled at the top. On another note, also FWIW but relevant to the OP’s question, a quote from Sir Elton John: Judith Durham, like Karen Carpenter and Eva Cassidy, possesses the purest voice in popular music.Regards, -- Al |
"Actually "Ella" was mentioned by the very first poster....@jerroot " slaw, Hah! MY blood pressure has now gone down... It would help if I read MORE carefully before posting an emotional response! "For uniqueness, Rickie Lee Jones and Ella." Maybe I didn’t notice because Ella WASN’T listed as first in that lineup. Kinda think she shouldn’t even be in that same sentence. I do enjoy RLJ, but really, it just seems like an honorable mention by the poster. |
GOOD GRIEF! I can't believe its taken this long for someone mention ELLA FITZGERALD! Must be a generation thing? Absolutely NO list of American female vocalists should ever exclude our FIRST LADY OF SONG! The American Songbook would never be what it is without ELLA. Google "first lady of song" and guess who? Yeah, her glory days were pre 70's, but real magic doesn't fade away...... THE HORROR! |
