Many jazz singers allure you gradually rather than grabbing you with the power of their voice or an arrangement instantly. The result focuses you to listen more closely and breathe with them as they inhabit a song. The late Shirley Horn and Freddy Cole mastered this approach, and several living singers continue this tradition.

Andy Bey

After making his mark on two stellar albums with his siblings, as Andy Bey and the Bey Sisters at Prestige Records in the mid-1960s Bey went solo. After recording sporadically, he had something of a comeback in the mid-1990s recording sparse, highly acclaimed sets of standards, often with just voice and piano. Bey’s sultry, slow burn vocal approach creates a hypnotic, almost hazy effect that creates a fluid mosaic feel as songs flow into each other.  Though his entire solo oeuvre is worth exploring, you should start with 2003’s American Song. A sublime ballad set with a sensuous ambiance and rich arrangements by Bey and post-bop pianist Geri Allen it perfectly complements Bey’s deep baritone voice and lyrical singing. His versions of “Prelude to a Kiss” and “Lush Life” are near definitive. 

Start with: American Song (2003, Savoy Jazz)

Most recent album: Pages from an Imaginary Life (2014, HighNote)

Meredith d’Ambrosio

Born and educated in and around Boston vocalist, composer, and pianist is a well-rounded musical artist who employs her lovely voice in a hushed, measured, spacious tones that evoke the rich melodicism and vivid lyricism of everything she sings. One of the finest interpreter jazz composers like Bob Dorough, Dave Frishberg, Fran Landesman, and a talented composer herself, her albums are unified by an intimacy that pulls you in and never lets you go. Trained as a visual artist her original art typically adorns the cover of her albums. Though all of her albums are well-executed, especially those recorded for the Sunnyside label since 1985, a delightful the place to start is 1989’s South to a Warmer Place. Recorded with small group (Don Coffman on bass, Eddie Higgins on piano, Danny Burger on drums, and Lou Colombo on drums) she and her bandmates create an elegant mood in a suite of ballads, including three originals, with touches of swing, bossa nova, and the blues.  You will undoubtedly find yourself immersed in one of these songs unaware of where it began and where it will end and wanting to re-experience it again. To quote jazz writer Lee Heske “she’s a connoisseur’s favorite.”

Start with: South to a Warmer Place (1989, Sunnyside)

Most recent album: Sometime Ago (2021, Sunnyside)

Jay Clayton

Clayton studied classical music in the early 1960s when jazz was excluded from music curriculum but she performed it regularly on weekends and persisted in her love of standards and desire to work with jazz-oriented musicians including many who played free jazz. Considered an “avante-gardist” her singing is more accessible than that implies. Where many singers might depart from a written melody to emulate an instrumental solo Clayton uses harmony to create textural and melodic ellipses of sound that complement the original and takes you on an aural journey before returning you to the center. Possessing a lovely voice, and a great sensitivity to lyrics, and a sense of whimsy, her style is distinctly hypnotic. A smart place to begin is her sensual collaboration with pianist Fred Hersch, who has seamless chemistry with vocalists, on 1995’s Beautiful Love. Though many of the songs will be familiar such as “So in Love” and “Day by Day” she imbues each with a refreshingly intimate aura while maintaining their melodic and lyric essence.   

Start with: Beautiful Love [with Fred Hersch] (1995, Sunnyside)

Most recent album: 3 For the Road [with Fritz Pauer and Ed Neumeister] (2020, MeisteroMusic)

Stacey Kent

Stacy Kent, whose first major recording came in 1997, is difficult to place among her generation because she emerged at a time when jazz was splintering into jazz-pop crooner (Diana Krall) and improviser (Kurt Elling) camps. As such, she feels like a torchbearer for tidal vocalists without being a throwback. Though there are traces of Julie London and Peggy Lee in her dulcet tones she is less arch and sultry in tone. Instead, her interpretive style is balmy in tone, like a person freshly awakened, sipping on a warm beverage and delighted to have a conversation. She is hushed and measured in her phrasing and enunciation but never wispy or precious. Kent is well-known for being a polyglot comfortable singing in English, French, and Portuguese, as well as collaborating fruitfully with novelist Kazuo Ishigoro on lyrics and with saxophonist Jim Tomlinson. The best way to appreciate her style is 2015’s Tenderly. The arrangements, featuring Jeremy Brown on double bass, Tomlinson on flute and tenor saxophone, and Roberto Menescal on guitar, frames her vice perfectly. The guitar and saxophone accents and flourishes achieve a perfect balance with her tones and form a lovely conversation. Though she is a masterful balladeer their swinging arrangement of “No Moon At All” offers refreshing variation in tempo. 2017’s I Know I Dream finds her singing with orchestral accompaniment and its equally lovely.

Start with: Tenderly (2015, Sony/Okeh)

Most recent album: Songs from Other Places (2021, Exceleration/Token)

Norma Winstone

 Vocalist and lyricist Winstone is better known in England than the U.S. but she has an endearing style that anyone seeking a warm and thoughtful approach will appreciate. Winstone studied piano and recorded with numerous avant-garde musicians in England as she developed her voice. She also emerged as a major lyricist writing lyrics for songs by Jimmy Rowles, Steve Swallow, and Fred Hersch, among others. Her discography is too varied to be essentialized but two great settings to experience her include her lovely performances of her lyricized versions of Fred Hersch’s melodies on 2003’s Songs & Lullabies and the more traditional but still extraordinary Dance Without Answer (2014) comprised of originals, Brazilian songs, and familiar pop/rock songs enmeshed in her spare yet impassioned sound.

Start with: Songs & Lullabies [with Fred Hersch] (2003, Sunnyside)

Most recent album: Descansado: Songs for Films (2018, ECM)

A Quiet playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2il5bU4sxWv8nAUDNtaHRa?si=d968683273cf4736

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