The Jazz Singers: A Smithsonian Collection of Jazz Vocals from 1919 to 1994

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About The Jazz Singers: A Smithsonian Collection Of Jazz

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 Review 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. -- Vibe A godsend for fans of pop music in general and jazz in particular. -- People 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. -- Jazz Times