Recommendations for a jazz record which demonstrates vinyl superiority over digital

serious and silly questions to the experts:

are there Jazz singers vs singers singing Jazz tunes?

I am thinking Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse, Roberta Flack, Norah Jones. Is their ability to sing in a certain what makes them jazz singers or a good singer is a singer, period, and they will sing whatever they are inclined to?

@grislybutter

How about Cleo Lane? She could sing ballads, swing and do scat with very pure, very rapid notes backed by ’her’ British Jazz band led by Johnny Dankworth (later Sir John Dankworth). I remember a drum solo where the drummer ended up playing one tiny end of a vertically held drumstick with another drumstick. Had the audience spellbound.

Cleo Laine, or Lady Dankworth as she is now known, was also an actress, singer in musicals (eg Show Boat in London which ran for 910 performances) and an opera singer (Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins).

For those who think British jazz ain't jazz, she was recognised in the USA:

• Grammy Award nomination, Best Female Jazz Vocalist, Smilin' Through with Dudley Moore, 1983
• Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female, 1986

@richardbrand I will below note the systems I have available to compare on the bottom for info only.

If you want to compare a Jazz LP to streaming I would suggest as others have Dave Brubeck Time Out, but specifically the 45rpm version. Having tried this on an available ’basic’ system it is superior to any of the available 33rpm versions, I have an early "Time Further Out" and "Time out" where Take Five is from the same sessions and a later 33 Time Out.. On my system there is very significant difference between the LPs. So if you are going to test against "best of digital" High Res, etc., Then you would benefit most from having vinyl with the greatest ’groove length’ per second when from comparable masters.

Noting you opened with Vinyl vs Other but said you "didn’t like trad jazz much", but thought it gave "best chance". Then if you did want a non-jazz alternative to the above then the American Mastered 45 rpm version of Fleetwood Mac Rumours has similar superiority to the 33 rpm version, but please note the european 45rpm has the same code, is better than the 33 version, but not as good as the American 45 rpm.   Another would be Eva Cassidy Songbird on 45rpm. A non 45 version would be Sade, Soldier of Love.

If you like such "non-jazz" alternatives that could be good to test against digital I can suggest some more.

Until about 2017 I had also not bought Vinyl since shortly after CD. I typically ’try’ unknown potentials via streaming / high res as you did with KoB.

I will make no judgement of the relative merits of my system front end options save from the CD / Streaming would be the more expensive if everything were bought new and I would not consider that I am utilising systems where any are clearly "in a different league" for their relative positions within vinyl/CD/streaming types. They are:

Vinyl - Origin Live Voyager/S with Renown Arm, Ortofon MC Diamond into Whest Titan Pro II / Whest MC Reference Phono stages.

CD - dCS Vivaldi CD/SACD Transport, Dac, Upsampler, Clock with additional rubidium master clock.

Steaming - Taiko SGM Extreme [to above Vivaldi], I also have an Aurender W20 (not SE) to which the Taiko is superior.

Power Amp for all the above can vary between Dan D'Agostini and Vitus.  Pre-Amp can vary. (Vitus / Trinnov / Music First)

Speakers can vary between Focal and Wilson Benesch.

All cables with phase stable dielectric to avoid PTFE knee related issues.

Hope this helps.

Jazz doesn’t, and shouldn’t appeal to everyone. It’s like a very rare and fine wine, which only a few appreciate.

Music theory isn’t necessary to appreciate jazz, nor is it complicated. Jazz uses the same 12 notes used in Classical music. So how is it musicians created a music, that on the surface appears, complex? But is it complex, or simply your ears aren’t tuned how to listen? That’s why I said, many don’t understand jazz, which has no bearing on whether they like it. Compared to jazz greats, I’m a very mediocre jazz musician. But still, it’s been a journey I’d not trade for anything.