[Dixielandjazz] Jazz??

[gary]

Listmates & especially Bill Sargent,
   Now that just about everyone on this list has pulled this string I would
like to add my opinion.
   There are damn few living "jazz" singers around no matter what their
stripe. Be they male, female, black, white, American, European or whatever!
   The last male "jazz" singer was Al Jolson and even that's open for
discussion.
   Now that I have your attention let's get back to basics. The original
songs and singers were referred to as the "blues" not "jazz". Look in just
about any discography of traditional jazz and you will find that most of
them have "blues" in the title.
   As for the singers starting with Bessie and all the rest, they sang the
Blues, not Jazz. The musicians played Jazz to back them up.
  I am sure that most of you have heard the phrase "he could really make
that instrument cry". Now that's a "Blues" musician!
  We have a vocalist on this list who is neither black or American. Her name
is Judy Eames. She is not per se young and that is to her advantage because
before you can sing the blues believably you have to have lived it.
   Singers are just like all the other musicians regardless of their axe.
There are those that do it with passion and those who just read the notes.
Expertly maybe but no soul, no passion, nothing directly from the gut.
That's what separates the wow from the ho hum.
   Now that I have said my piece let's stop knocking "Chick" singers for
their gender. Face it men, things have changed considerably in the last
hundred years. They even train Women Marines in the same platoons with the
men and they die just as easily but that's another string which I prefer to
let lie.
   All of you have a great weekend!
   Gary (one lung) Wallbridge