Male singers?

[Jay Norem]

What about Tom Waits? He's close to blues, and he definitely isn't smooth.

[Nav Singh]

Originally Posted by Phil Kelly

I'd like to give a shout for my old friend Frank D'Rone who at 80 years young still sounds as great as he did when we worked together in the early 60s. Like Tony Bennett, he has lost NO vocal chop over time.

In February, Frank released a new CD which I arranged /conducted and produced called " Double Exposure" on Whaling City Sound Records. It cam off very well and beat the John Pizzerelli CD of the same name by three months in getting to the marked.

You can hear some examples from the CD on my website here in the news section:

http://www.philkellymusic.com/news.html


( oh yeh, my band played pretty good on this CD too! )

Frank is a longtime friend of my guitar teacher, I got to hear him sing at my teacher's holiday parties, when he invites all the local jazz musicians for food, merriment, and musical festivities. He even trusts Frank enough to allow him to play his favorite guitar at these parties. (in addition to singing, Frank is also an accomplished guitar player).

I understand that Frank has been under the weather of late, but he's on the mend, scheduled to play the Chicago Jazz Festival this year (Yay!)

The local jazz radio station here (College of DuPage) played the shit out of Frank's new record, and every time I heard them play a cut, they always credited the record as "Frank D'Rone with the Phil Kelly Orchestra".

It's mind boggling how the years and decades have not taken away Frank's voice. As you said, Frank remains an incredible singer.

[Tom K]

(Belgian) David Linx ought to be mentioned here as well.

[tsrebel]

I'm overwelmed by your helpful responses! Thank you so much! Now I have some serious listening to do

[escher]

another one with a very peculiar style not yet mentioned is Leon Thomas. And strangely enough no one have mentioned Chet Baker.

[tsrebel]

I'd like to thank especially those who mentioned Mose Allison, Andy Bay, Jimmy Scott, Sachal Vasandani, Ed Reed, Kenny Washington and Mark Murphy! I'm definately going to listen more to these artists.

[page]

Many great singers mentioned but I would not say they all fit the criterium 'showing vulnerability'. One that definitely does and hasn't been mentioned yet is Eric Bibb. Not really a jazzsinger, more close to blues and singersongwriting. I love his songs which are his and since you mentioned ' their own lyrics' I think you should give him a listen. I would recommend the live album 'Troubadour' with Staffan Astner.
Sting can touch me too with his lyrics as well as his voice, but I'm not sure whether he would fit your liking. I didn't mention Andy Bey since I'd thought he would be too smooth. There are other male singers I like with not too smooth voices like Van Morrison, Curtis Stigers, Kurt Elling and Ray Charles but they don't quite touch me like the ones I've mentioned before.
I guess I still find it easier to think of female singers that show emotion than of male.
There are some national male singers I absolutely love and who show emotion, all true poets in my opinion but you wouldn't understand what it would be about since it would be in Dutch. Lyrics are extremely important for me since I sing but also since I've always loved the spoken and written word since I love language in general.

[tsrebel]

Sounds alot like myself. I've got published two books of poetry here in Norway, and my singing (although my poems are so far unsingable) has kind of developed from that. Previously, I've listened to a lot of singersongwriters in other genres, but just recently got into jazz and singing myself.
I guess I find Andy Bey interesting not only for his voice, but also for the courage to be openly gay (as a gay man myself).

[page]

I sometimes forget that that is so difficult since I live in Holland and we have had gay marriages for 10 years now. I think we were the first country but still gays sometimes get molested here by some people with weird ideas. I didn't know that of Andy Bey. I have been enjoying his music for some time, ever since someone mentioned him here.

Great to hear about your poetry, I write some too or at least I try to and have started to write my own lyrics and music from that for almost two years now. Still early stages but it is so much fun developping my skills in this. We have some poetry threads on the board you might find interesting. One is called 'the jazz & poetry thread' which is in the General Music section. You are welcome to join there and / or the other poetry threads and post your or other poems / phrases you enjoy!

[tsrebel]

Norway is among teh easier countries to be gay in as well. A bit old, but I still think alot of it is true: http://jazztimes.com/articles/20073-homophobia-in-jazz
I'll check out the poetry threads (and the rest of the forum) tomorrow. Thanks!

[page]

Thanks for that link, you're probably right and I feel kind of sad about it. I just posted on some Olympic thread about the participation of the women sporters of Saudi Arabia; it is the first time they are allowed to participate. Equality still has a long way to go in this world.

You can use the search button to find those threads, but if you can't find them, don't hesitate to ask me.

[Phil Kelly]

Another of the younger singers I enjoy is Jamie Cullum.

[TokyoJazzNight]

Check out Claudio Ottaviano :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwqaWEnzdl0

[Valerie]

just want to give a hearty "Amen" to the mention of Gregory Porter! he is one of the best out here. he isn't strictly a jazz vocalist but has a very strong jazz foundation, fused with R&B, soul and gospel. and, as has been mentioned, he is a monster songwriter as well. we are going to be hearing more and more of him. he was nominated for a Grammy for the second year in a row. and DownBeat's jazz critics named him in third place after Kurt Elling and Tony Bennett, i believe.

[jav]

Since this has been resurrected, I have to add my favorite male jazz vocalist Kevin Mahogany. I never can understand why he gets left out of these discussions.