A program from January of 2018.

A lot of real jazz lovers express a rather loud indifference—bordering on contempt—for the role of ‘vocals’ in jazz. Comments like ‘cheesy lounge singers’, ‘they keep the instrumental soloists from truly stretching out’, they make jazz musicians into accompanists, etc. come up.

Yet for many of us—-myself included—the vocalist can sometimes help ‘translate’ what the jazz musician or composer is doing into something I can understand. And a really great jazz vocalist does more than that. They can be an instrument unto themselves, convey a story in a way that is less ‘abstract’ than what the instrumentalists can do, and during the best of times, they function as one of the instruments……enhancing the development of the composition in the same way that any other soloist does.

Here you’ll hear some great vocalists: Nina Simone, Eddie Jefferson, Lambert Hendricks & Ross, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gene McDaniels, Julie London, Buddy Greco, Tony Bennett, Alex Samaras, Jennifer Scott, and Betty Carter. I also talk a bit about what makes somebody a ‘torch’ singer (at least from my perspective).