Female Singer Wanted

[AllenLowe]

listening to Lucy Reed this morning, it occurs to me that the reason I like her so much (also feel this way about Helen Merrill) is that she gets to the essence of the song without artifice; I'm tired of badly executed scat and melisma, sung with bad pitch. Give me a singer who holds the pitch with purity and feeling - basically the same reason I love Sinatra.

So I'm thinking, is there anybody around today, old or young (aside from Merrill, whom I've considered calling, as I knew her a bit from when she worked with Al Haig) who can sing in such a way without sounding moldy and anachronistic? Thinking about a future recording project -

any ideas? It's gotta be a singer I can contact directly - through email or telephone or maybe by peeping in their front window -

[AllenLowe]

let me also ask - has anyone heard Helen Merrill sing recently? Wondering how she sounds -

[Dan Gould]

Too bad it has to be female. Giacomo Gates is my favorite current jazz singer.

[AllenLowe]

I know Giacomo, worked with him a few times - yeah, I'm thinking of a certain tone and style.

[brownie]

Sheila Jordan still sings brillantly!

Have not heard Helen Merrill recently. Wish I had!

[The Rep]

The female singer I am in love with this week is Liane Carroll. She has produced three albums. She is a very good pianist, she just sits and plays piano while singing. She does a solo act like Joe Pass use to, talks to the audiance like they are friends and then sings and you wish you were her friend. Her version of "I Only Have Eyes For You", gets me every time.

[Rooster_Ties]

k.d. lang

That gal has some pipes, and knows how to use them.

[AllenLowe]

Jordan's great, but too difficult - KD Laing's number is unlisted - don't know about Liane Carroll -

[AllenLowe]

looks like she's in Britain - too far to go -

[Larry Kart]

Anita Gravine, NYC-based. Her album of Burke-Van Huesen songs from the "Road" pictures, "Welcome to My Dream" (with Mike Abene charts), is to die for. I should know; I wrote the notes, and it killed me. Some excellent playing from Gary Burton on the album as well. Anita really swings, without any hip chick mannerisms, and she has a gorgeous contralto-ish voice.

[Joe G]

Just throwing a name out: Rebecca Martin

Could be way off base; I'm not familiar with the other singers mentioned here.

[Hot Ptah]

Marilyn Maye would be a good candidate.

[AllenLowe]

thanks - some good suggestions - also got an email from Jim Sangrey with a very nice audio clip of a Japanese singer - thanks, Jim, sorry I can't email you directly from this computer -

[marcello]

Try Juilia Dollison

Wasn't Anita Gravine Michael Moore's wife at one time?

Great singer.

[Larry Kart]

Wasn't Anita Gravine Michael Moore's wife at one time?

Great singer.

Yes, on both counts.

[Chuck Nessa]

Many folks on this board "want" a female singer.

[Joe G]

There's a ton of Julia Dollison clips on youtube, including a bunch with some really good Ben Monder guitar work.

[AllenLowe]

thanks everybody - a lot of good ideas - Jim Sangrey, if you are reading this please send me the email address for the singer you mentioned - (I'm not at my regular computer right now) - also will listen to Gravine and Dollison - Larry, do you know where Gravine lives? can you shoot me a private email with related info?

also, just had a nice phone conversation with Helen Merrill, whom I knew a bit through Al Haig - interesting recollections of Haig, but that's another story -

my idea is to put some songs together for a CD that use "standard" song form, but that are new songs that don't sound typically cloddish (think The Bergman's) with a decent lyric and a nice melody that sounds like it could have been written in, say, the 1920s (but that doesn't sound like a parody or imitation). Merrill was very nice and said I should send her a demo, which I will. Not sure how much of a possibility she is, but we'll see. Will also, of course, pursue other avenues -

Edited February 8, 2007 by AllenLowe

[JSngry]

Allen - check your email.

[JohnJ]

let me also ask - has anyone heard Helen Merrill sing recently? Wondering how she sounds -

Plan to see her at the Tokyo Blue Note in early March. I am also wondering how she will sound.

[paul secor]

Meredith D'Ambrosio