No, this is not a list of “The Best Of” jazz vocals albums. It’s more of which ones feel like the artist is drawing you into his or her own life. There is a difference. Is the heart on the sleeve?
So, here’s list of albums that I’ll put on when I want to feel that certain feeling.
- Frank Sinatra: Where Are You?
- Frank Sinatra : In The Wee Small Hours
- Frank Sinatra: Close To You
- Frank Sinatra: Only The Lonely
- OK, so I start out with a bunch of Sinatra. But who did it better. Where Are You? is gloriously desultory, Wee Small Hours richly agonizing, Close To You unapologetically romantic, and Only The Lonely is what you want to hear to keep feeling sorry for yourself.
- The Tony Evans/Bill Evans Album. Both gents are at their intimate best, with “Some Other Time” and “Young and Foolish” never done better.
- Billie Holiday: Lady in Satin. Her penultimate recording, if she were any more fragile, she would snap.
- Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane-Hartman put out a lot of intimate sessions, but this one, with “Lush Life” is the one when
lights are at their lowest. 
- Madeleine Peyroux: Dreamland. This one, with Ms. Peyroux in a different setting for each song, has a bohemian flavor that brings out the gypsy in you
June Christy: Something Cool. Wear a jacket for this one, as the Misty Miss Christy will send shivers down your spine. However , her album of duets with pianist Stan Kenton isn’t too far behind.- Chet Baker: Sings. No one coo’d like Baker, and he gives definitive reads of “Time After Time” and “I’ve Never Been In Love Before
Joao Gilberto: Amoroso. Who knows what he’s saying? Who cares? I believe him!
