Male Jazz singers - any recommendations?


I have a great appreciation for female jazz singers (Sarah Vaughan being my favorite). But when I was listening to a Horace Silver cd, lately (BTW: the RvG edition and some others are on sale right now at Towers for 9.99$), there was a male singer on the last track and it suddenly struck me, that I was completely oblivious of male jazz singers so far.
Now I'm looking for some recommendations. The Kind-of-Blue/My-Favorite-Things/Koeln-Concert-type of male jazz singer performances. Any suggestions are very welcome.
pipetman

Showing 1 response by rayhall

Louis Armstrong is the unquestioned king of the jazz vocal genre. There really is no one else who comes close in skill, technique and phrasing. The fact that he could achieve all of that with a voice which was not classically beautiful is all the more a testament to his talent. In addition, he was immensely popular. In his time, he was more popular than the Beatles were in theirs.

Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra are generally considered to be pop singers, not jazz singers.

Among the great jazz crooners, Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine stand at the top. Other than to us audiophiles, Johnny Hartman made a relatively small impression on the music scene, although his talent is up there with Billy Eckstine and the two of them sound quite similar.