Best female vocals on CD

I agree with Rayhall. I find it painful to listen to Krall's "interpretations" of standards. Just listen to Billie Holiday sing All or Nothing At All- and then listen to Krall's version on Love Scenes - it makes me want to gag. Her cds ARE well recorded though. Billie Holiday gets under your skin, drills through your veins and changes your chemical composition forever - if one accomplished little else in life other than listen to her sing, it would still be a life well spent. Nina Simone is another jazz singer that ranks up there on the celestial scale. I love Ella - I just wish the instrumentation on a lot of her work were less syrupy. Cassandra Wilson's voice is amazing, but does anyone ever get through her albums in their entirety? Holly Cole's performance of Jersey Girl - YES! Margo Timmins is phenomenal - the most EXPRESSIVE singer in rock,IMHO. Joan Osborne (whatever happened to her?) sounded incredibly versatile and exciting in Relish.

First, let me admit that my previous post was a bit over the top - I wrote it as I was listening to Billie on my headphones and was struck (as always) by how "different" DK is from . Now clearly, "different" is not the same thing as worse, and I certainly did not mean to indicate intellectual superiority over anyone who likes DK. To my ears DK, despite (and ironically, perhaps because of) her lush voice sounds superficial and uninteresting - that's all. I agree with Craig's assessment of Margo Timmins - intimate, seductive, haunting - she certainly is all of that and more - and these are precisely the adjectives that DON'T come to my mind when I hear DK. To paraphrase another cliche, its all in the ears of the listener, I guess.

Audiogon is the only place that I have contributed to any discussion and I must say that I am glad I did. I usually avoid chat groups because of the personal and often vituperative attacks that are so charecteristic of them. This particular thread is distinguished by its thoughtful and civil exchanges - Thank you all for making this so pleasant. Redkiwi, your statement regarding what we jazz lovers look for in our music expressed very neatly what I was unable to articulate in my posts. Thank you.