Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. West End Blues - Eva Taylor
2. In the House Blues - Bessie Smith
3. 2:19 Blues - Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra
4. I Left My Baby - Jimmy Rushing
5. 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do - Billie Holiday
6. Blues With Helen - Helen Humes
7. I Won't Be Here Long - Hot Lips Page
8. Jelly, Jelly - Billy Eckstine
9. Lotus Blossom - Julia Lee
10. Goin' to Kansas City - Jimmy Witherspoon
11. Goin' to Chicago Blues - Jon Hendricks, Dave Lambert, Annie Ross, Joe Williams
12. Never Make Your Move Too Soon - Ernestine Anderson
13. D.B. Blues - Lorez Alexandria
14. Come on in My Kitchen - Cassandra Wilson
15. Nobody's Fault But Mine - Blind Willie Johnson
16. One Day - Angelic Gospel Singers, The Dixie Hummingbirds
17. I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About in My Song - Mahalia Jackson
18. Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer) - Bessie Smith
19. Doctor Jazz - Jelly Roll Morton, Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers
20. Shakin' the African - Don Redman
21. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) - Ivie Anderson

Disc 2:

1. Man from Harlem - Cab Calloway
2. Let Me Off Uptown - Anita O'Day
3. Saturday Night Fish Fry - Pearl Bailey,
4. Hog Wash - Louis Jordan
5. Good Rockin' Tonight - Wynonie Harris
6. All of Me - Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra
7. Top Hat, White Tie and Tails - Louis Armstrong, Russell Garcia
8. I Can't Give You Anything But Love - Ethel Waters
9. I Can't Give You Anything But Love - Billie Holiday
10. These Foolish Things - Billie Holiday
11. Lover, Come Back to Me - Mildred Bailey
12. Don't Get Around Much Anymore - Al Hibbler
13. You're Driving Me Crazy - Big Joe Turner
14. Don't Be That Way - Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald
15. Night and Day - Frank Sinatra
16. Some of These Days - Jimmy Rushing
17. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away) - Sarah Vaughan
18. I Get a Kick Out of You - Dinah Washington
19. There's a Small Hotel - Joe Williams
20. Just You, Just Me - Nat King Cole

Disc 3:

1. Give Me the Simple Life - Dakota Staton
2. Love Me or Leave Me - Nina Simone
3. You Are My Sunshine - Aretha Franklin
4. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
5. I'm Gonna Lock My Heart (And Throw Away the Key) - Etta Jones
6. Yesterdays - Billie Holiday
7. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday
8. You've Changed - Billie Holiday
9. Someone to Watch over Me - Ella Fitzgerald
10. Until the Real Thing Comes Along - Ella Fitzgerald
11. Until the Real Thing Comes Along - Fats Waller & His Rhythm
12. You Don't Know What Love Is - Dinah Washington
13. For All We Know - June Christy
14. Angel Eyes - Chris Connor
15. In the Still of the Night - Billy Eckstine
16. Save Your Love for Me - Nancy Wilson
17. Trav'lin' Light - Shirley Horn
18. Prelude to a Kiss - Sarah Vaughan
19. My Little Brown Book - Gloria Lynne
20. Lush Life - Johnny Hartman
21. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) - Carmen McRae

Disc 4:

1. This Is Always - Betty Carter
2. All of Me - Little Jimmy Scott
3. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? - Earl Coleman
4. You're My Thrill - Helen Merrill
5. Could I Be the One? - Al Green
6. Jazz Me Blues - Lucille Hegamin
7. Mooche - Baby Cox
8. Parker's Mood - King Pleasure
9. Lullaby of Birdland - Sarah Vaughan
10. Down for Double - Mel Torm�
11. Jumpin' at the Woodside - Jon Hendricks, Dave Lambert, Annie Ross
12. Left Alone - Abbey Lincoln
13. Stolen Moments - Mark Murphy
14. Worry Now Later - Jeanne Lee
15. Get It Straight - Carmen McRae
16. 'Round Midnight - Bobby McFerrin
17. Doodlin' - Dee Dee Bridgewater
18. Improvised Scat Song - Jelly Roll Morton
19. Hotter Than That - Louis Armstrong

Disc 5:

1. Sweet Sue, Just You - Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra
2. My Honey's Lovin' Arms - Bing Crosby, The Mills Brothers
3. Ool-Ya-Koo - Dizzy Gillespie
4. Disappointed [Excerpt] - Eddie Jefferson
5. Them There Eyes - Ella Fitzgerald
6. Way You Look Tonight - Anita O'Day
7. This Masquerade [Excerpt] - George Benson
8. Frenesi - Betty Carter
9. Jazzola - Noble Sissle
10. Hobo, You Can't Ride This Train - Louis Armstrong
11. Rockin' Chair - Louis Armstrong
12. 'Tain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It) - Trummy Young
13. Vol Vist du Gaily Star - Bon Bon, George "Bon Bon" Tunnell
14. We've Got the Blues - Leo Watson
15. Cow Cow Boogie - Ella Fitzgerald
16. Babalu (Orooney) - Slim Gaillard & His Orchestra
17. Chi-Chi-Chi-Chicago - Nellie Lutcher & Her Rhythm
18. Did You Call Her Today [Excerpt] - Ben Webster
19. Takes Two to Tango - Lester Young
20. Mumbles - Clark Terry
21. Close Your Eyes (Shut Yo' Mouth) - Major Holley, Slam Stewart

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #318837 in Music
• Released on: 1998-05-19
• Number of discs: 5
• Format: Box set

Amazon.com
Singing begot jazz. Sure, that's a vast oversimplification, but there's probably no better way to say it. The voice as the foundation and essential instrument of jazz's evolution is expansively presented in this five-CD box set compiled by Robert O'Meally, biographer of Billie Holiday. His goal, he writes in an accompanying 100-page booklet, is to show the sweep and the development of jazz singing in all its permutations, including blues, bebop, and scat, from the greatest figures--Bessie Smith, Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Jon Hendricks­-to smaller or newer gems like Mildred Bailey and Cassandra Wilson. O'Meally has also endeavored to represent styles related to or dependent on jazz voicings, so the likes of soulful Marvin Gaye and June Christy are also represented. This set handily orients listeners and entices even more exploration. --Peter Monaghan

Vibe
The Jazz Singers may not be quite what you expected or hoped it to be--no Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett, Al Jarreau, or Dianne Reeves--but it will damn well rock your lil' world.

Jazz Times
In an attempt to escape the straitjacket of chronology, [Robert] O'Meally divides the anthology into eight categories, some arbitrary and others curiously amorphous. Even more disputable is O'Meally's idiosyncratic choice of artists. Admittedly, every jazz aficionado has fixed ideas about the roster of performers that a vocal compilation should contain, but The Jazz Singers' line-up [seems] excessively subjective.

Customer Reviews

4 1/2* A Superb Sampler
This is an excellent collection of jazz singers, ranging chronologically from Bessie Smith and Eva Taylor to Cassandra Wilson and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Stylistically, it presents classic jazz singers like Holiday, Vaughan, and Fitzgerald, Armstrong, and Billy Eckstine to pop/jazz artists like Sinatra (but no Tony Bennett), blues- and gospel-influenced singers (Bessie Smith; Mahalia Jackson) and a variety of singers very loosely associated with jazz: Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and Al Green!.

Of the latter singers, I suppose the producers can co-opt R&B and soul if they want, but to me it's a stretch. On the other hand, these are some of my favorite singers, so I don't mind the producers blurring jazz boundaries a little too much. Robert G. O'Meally, the extremely knowledgeable author of the superb 127 book that accompanies the five CDs, makes a defense: He states that both Gaye and Franklin made at least one straight jazz record (not sure which those would be), and that these songs are included "to indicate that jazz is a rollicking and rowdy river that flows into and out of other styles." Well, ok, but the potential buyer should review all the singers presented here so that he/she knows the breadth of that river.

Sound quality on the older songs is mostly good, though there is no evidence of remastering (listeners of some of the technologies aimed at "cleaning" the sound of older recordings will attest that remastering can either enhance or obscure a recording's musical value). As stated above, the booklet is tremendous, and really makes this collection a great value. EACH song and singer is fully discussed, often in relation to other songs in the collection. O'Meally writes clearly and with interesting details, he has a great understanding of singing and its relationship to music. For example, on Lorez Alexander's "D. B. Blues," a tribute to Lester Young, O'Meally writes that she evokes his "sinewy, sometimes airy tone, his angular phrasing, his artful uses of silences..."

Lorez Alexandria is a good example of the breadth of singers in this collection. She is not nearly as well known as some of her contemporaries, and this compilation of the under appreciated along with the famous surprises as well as delights.

My main complaint with this compilation is with the "Novelties and Take-offs" section of Disc 5. While it may be, as the true, as O'Meally suggests, that jazz has a tradition based partly on "low comedy, hokum, and fun," these are not essential recordings by any means. Actually, a few of these songs are a little painful to listen to. This collection would have been much better by deleting most of these, and including more numbers by the greats mentioned above.

Overall, however, this is an excellent introduction to the luminaries of jazz singing (as well as the sometimes overlooked). I think it's a good starting point for those exploring the diverse sounds of the idiom, and who want a wide sampling from which to pick their favorites. There's so much music (as well as the superb commentary by O'Meally) that almost everyone will find much to enjoy here. (NOTE: This appears to be same collection as that released by Sony for the Smithsonian Collection in 1998.)

Superb and Masterful Collection of the Jazz Greats
This box set contains every essential hit from every essential jazz artist. Armstrong, Holliday, Fitzgerald, Cole, and a little Simone, they're all here! This has to be the greatest compilation of jazz greats I have seen in my few years of living.

A great lesson for the creation and extension of jazz singin
What a pleasure to listen to this album. Five CD's take some time go through but it is worth every minute. The way this album is assembled is pure genuis by Prof. O'Meally. This album should be enjoyed by young adults as well and up to senior's. If one doesn't enjoy this album, one must be brain dead.