Forewarning. There is a section on here that features pop artists who have crossed over into Jazz proper at least once that isn't at all what you'd expect from them. Most notably Queen Latifah who put out a cd under her real name Dana Owens.
This is an odd thing to say and seems pretty unlikely, but if you love Billie Holiday then you will love this lady. She is like the reincarnation of Billie. Her voice is strikingly similar and all her songs sound like this. I'm trying to find her version of "I wish I Could Shimmy like my Sister Kate," but am not having any luck. This is her best song as of the last time I looked into her:
Madeleine Peyroux - Don't Wait Too Long
Jill Scott - The Way
I've bought her cd about 3 times for myself due to scratching, and have given it out as a gift 5 times or so. She becomes all their favorite, but they are people I know who are into this kind of music. Great Jazz. She played Big Mama Thorton in a movie that I'm going to clip out and post soon.
Amel Larrieux - For Real
I don't know much about her. I've only got the one album, but this song as well as a few others are extremely well done.
Diana Krall - Maybe You'll Be There
Another Canadian doing Jazz. She's the one I think I tried to get a duet with Natalie Cole in the music post I did first, but couldn't find. Maybe I did? This is my favorite song (and live performance) of hers. She's like the new Tony Bennett and sings with him an awful lot too. This is a live version of the song from Paris. It spoke to me when I broke up with my ex and he moved to LA, so it might be more sentimental for me than how good it really is. You decide.
Jolie Holland - Old Fashioned Morphine
Jolie Holland - God Damned Shame
John Mayer Trio - Waiting on the World to Change
Fucking phenomenal cd.
Queen Latifiah - Simply Beautiful
Her best song here imo. Player in top right corner.
Zap Mama - Damn Your Eyes
Raw natural talent that hasn't been seen for a long time. She's from Belgium where there is a very strong and talented scene right now. This song is in english, but she sings in dutch, french, and several african languages too. There is no embedding on that video so you have to click thru. The next video is her and Jasper Steverlinck (another insanely talented Belgian) singing at a Tommy Hilfiguer festival. She's another artists I'd give my right arm to see live.
This shouldn't be in this post, but this is Jasper singing U2's In the name of love, better than U2 ever performs it.
Vivian Green - Emotional Roller Coaster
She's pretty good, but I like everyone else on this list better. Not all her songs are this good.
There there is an even larger movement in jazz regarding instrumentals which I'm only going to post one song. The technology has advanced so much that there is a ton of innovative stuff being done with instrumentals, that just couldn't be done before. It is so accessible now to people who just couldn't afford to gather a ton of musicians, and now you don't have to.
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