37 Vocal jazz musicians

Jackie Allen is an American jazz vocalist. Influenced by jazz, folk, and pop singers, Allen is perhaps best known for interpretations of classic jazz ballads. According to critic Scott Yanow, she brings out "the beauty of the lyrics". Critic Thom Jurek said, "her gift with more pop-oriented material is utterly distinctive and even innovative, since there isn't another singer out there who phrases like her".

Louis Daniel Armstrong, nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter, composer, vocalist, and actor who was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in the history of jazz. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

Esra Dalfidan is a Turkish-German jazz singer.

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, author and visual artist. Widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture for more than 50 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defied pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture.

Kurt Elling is an American jazz singer and songwriter.

Esthero is a Canadian singer-songwriter who lives in Los Angeles, California. The name Esthero refers both to the singer and formerly to the two-person team of herself and producer Doc McKinney. Esthero is a portmanteau of "Esther the hero"; she claims to have gotten the name by combining the name of the heroine (Esther) and last line of the movie from Sylvia Plath's novel, The Bell Jar.

Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, better known as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, former actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw.

Nnenna Freelon is an American jazz singer, composer, producer, and arranger.

David L. Frishberg is an American jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, and lyricist born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His songs have been performed by Blossom Dearie, Rosemary Clooney, Shirley Horn, Anita O'Day, Michael Feinstein, Irene Kral, Diana Krall, Stacey Kent, John Pizzarelli and Mel Tormé.

Melody Gardot is an American jazz singer.

Babs Gonzales, born Lee Brown, was an American bebop vocalist, poet, and self-published author. His books portrayed the jazz world that many black musicians struggled in, portraying disk jockeys, club owners, liquor, drugs, and racism. "There are jazz people whose influence can be described as minor," wrote Val Wilmer, "yet who are well-known to musicians and listeners alike ... You'd have to be hard-pressed to ignore the wealth of legend that surrounds Babs Gonzales." Jazz writer Jack Cooke explained that Gonzales "assumed the role of spokesman for the whole hipster world... [becoming] something more than just a good and original jazz entertainer: the incarnation of a whole social group."

Phyllis Linda Hyman was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Hyman is best known for her music during the late 1970s through the early 1990s, some of her most notable songs were "You Know How to Love Me" (1979), "Living All Alone" (1986) and "Don't Wanna Change the World" (1991). Hyman also performed on Broadway in the 1981 musical based on the music of Duke Ellington, Sophisticated Ladies, which ran from 1981 until 1983. The musical earned her a Theatre World Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical.

Jackie and Roy was an American jazz vocal team consisting of husband and wife singer Jackie Cain and singer / pianist Roy Kral. They sang together for 56 years and made almost 40 albums.

Alwin Lopez Jarreau was an American singer and musician. His 1981 album Breakin' Away spent two years on the Billboard 200 and is considered one of the finest examples of the Los Angeles pop and R&B sound. The album won Jarreau the 1982 Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. In all, he won seven Grammy Awards and was nominated for over a dozen more during his career.

Eartha Kitt was an American singer, actress, dancer, comedian, activist, author, and songwriter known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Baby", both of which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world".

Halie Loren is an American jazz singer and songwriter from Sitka, Alaska. Her albums have reached number one on the Billboard Japan Top 20 Jazz Albums chart.

Quiana Lynell is an American blues and jazz singer, arranger and songwriter.

Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, comedian, and singer. MacFarlane is the creator of the television series Family Guy (1999–present) and The Orville (2017–present), and co-creator of the television series American Dad! (2005–present) and The Cleveland Show (2009–2013). He also wrote, directed, and starred in the films Ted (2012), its sequel Ted 2 (2015), and A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014).

Katrine Madsen is a Danish jazz singer.

Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretation of lyrics. McRae was inspired by Billie Holiday, but she established her own voice. She recorded over sixty albums and performed worldwide.

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh is an Azerbaijani singer, pianist, and composer who plays a fusion of jazz and mugam with classical and avant-garde influences.

Dianne Elizabeth Reeves is an American jazz singer.

Minnie Julia Riperton Rudolph was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You" and her five-octave coloratura soprano range. She is also widely known for her use of the whistle register and has been referred to by the media as the "queen of the whistle register."

Bill Robinson is an American tenor jazz singer both in West Virginia and based in Summit, New Jersey. He has had a long career and continues to perform in his 80s. The Star-Ledger described his voice as "gleaming" and "lustrous" with a "sure sense of swing". He has performed with jazz pianist Betty Liste, jazz guitarists John Zweig and John Carlini, violinist Marion Mansfield, mandolinist Don Stiernberg, Brian Glassman, and many others. He sings in a variety of jazz styles, including the Great American Songbook, jazz standards, bluegrass music, classical music, gypsy music, Brazilian jazz, and others. He has performed at the Apollo Theater in New York. He has opened for comedian Jackie Mason and jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. As a youth, Robinson began singing at the age of six, was influenced by singers such as Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway.

Diane Joan Schuur, nicknamed "Deedles", is an American jazz singer and pianist. As of 2015, Schuur had released 23 albums, and had extended her jazz repertoire to include essences of Latin, gospel, pop and country music. Her most successful album is Diane Schuur & the Count Basie Orchestra, which remained number one on the Billboard Jazz Charts for 33 weeks. She won Grammy Awards for best female jazz vocal performance in both 1986 and 1987 and has had three other Grammy nominations.

Marc Secara is a German singer and recording artist known for jazz, American pop music, and German popular repertoire. He is also a member of the German singing group the Berlin Voices.

Nina Arkadyevna Shatskaya is a Russian singer and actress, best known for her jazzy take on the Russian romance heritage. Staying out of the spotlight, Shatskaya is held in high regard by critics and colleagues. According to composer Nikita Bogoslovsky, "Next to our pop 'legends' she is a true queen: lonely and untouchable." Shatskaya released seven well-received albums and was designated a Meritorious Artist of Russia in 2004.

Elizabeth Shepherd is a Canadian singer, songwriter, pianist and producer.

Suede is an American pop and jazz singer. She was born in Nyack, New York, moved around throughout childhood from NY to the midwest and back, graduating from senior high school in Severna Park, Maryland before college at Wartburg College in Iowa. Self-taught as a child, she starting at the approximate age of 4 years old on the piano, began busking music in junior high school, getting bar gigs before she even graduated. She lived in Baltimore for the majority of the 1980s and became a fixture at many local clubs in the Baltimore, DC, VA, PA circuit and beyond as she began to build her national touring schedule. Suede's popularity steadily increased and she began playing sold-out shows in some of the US's most respected concert halls and jazz clubs, sharing the stage with fellow headliners such as Melissa Etheridge and Sarah McLachlan, and opening for Janis Ian and Joan Rivers, among others. She began her own record/touring label in 1983, Easily Suede Music, and has toured consistently nationally and internationally since. She currently has 4 CDs and 1 DVD released on the Easily Suede label. Her DVD "Suede, Live at Scullers Jazz Club" aired on 54 stations nationally as part of the PBS fund-drive. Her recording of Shirley Eikhard's song "Emily Remembers" became the #1 song of the year on WJZW Radio, Washington, DC. Each of her recordings have sold upwards of 10,000 copies with national distribution and airplay.

Brianna Thomas is an American jazz singer, vocalist, composer, songwriter, band leader, and percussionist. She was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois, United States. She made her singing debut at the age of six. She is the daughter of drummer and vocalist Charlie Thomas. She is known as being one of the best young straight ahead young jazz singers, says music critic and author Will Friedwald. She is known to bring together various forms of American music from bluegrass to jazz in to an original hybrid of jazz/funk/rock and soul. Her voice is said to be strong and her range huge. She incorporates rare music in her repertoire of early female blues and jazz pioneers such as Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, Mamie Smith, and Ida Cox. All About Jazz said of her 2015 debut album, You Must Believe in Love, “Brianna Thomas is the complete package. Through this music she exhibits emotional depth, to-die-for scat skills, incredible pitch control and shading, strong songwriting skills, intuitively elastic phrasing, soulful bearing, and a great range.”

Melvin Howard Tormé, nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells.

Dara Tucker is an American singer and composer.

Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer.

Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. She has been described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating blues, country, and folk music into her work.

Kalil Amar Wilson is an American vocalist, pianist, songwriter, and ethnomusicologist. Wilson began singing as a child with the Oakland Youth Chorus, studied at the UC Berkeley Young Musicians Program, and graduated magna cum laude from the UCLA Music and Ethnomusicology Departments, being named "Distinguished Ethnomusicology Student" of his graduating class. There, renowned jazz guitarist and UCLA music professor Kenny Burrell wrote of Wilson, "A very special young talent with a unique sound that crosses through genres."

Nancy Sue Wilson was an American singer whose career spanned over five decades, from the mid-1950s until her retirement in the early 2010s. She was especially notable for her single "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am" and her version of the standard "Guess Who I Saw Today". Wilson recorded more than 70 albums and won three Grammy Awards for her work. During her performing career, Wilson was labeled a singer of blues, jazz, R&B, pop, and soul; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer". The title she preferred, however, was "song stylist". She received many nicknames including "Sweet Nancy", "The Baby", "Fancy Miss Nancy" and "The Girl With the Honey-Coated Voice".

Elizabeth LaCharla Wright is an American jazz and gospel singer.