I’ve seen all 4 of these ladies live (the middle two at AXPONA, like you!). Of the four, for me, I agree that Anne Bisson unfortunately has the lightest weight voice. Now, I’ve also heard her do a much smaller venue. I think her performance style worked very well there.
Madeleine Peyroux came near me last year, but I couldn’t attend. To be honest, I’ve seen some of her concert footage and wasn’t too impressed - my feeling is that she is like some performers who just don’t do on stage what they can in a studio. I’d be interested in your take.
Now Melody Gardot - I would LOVE to see her live. When I found out she has an eye condition, I took notice - I am also visually impaired and know from history and experience that it makes ears better. And don’t get me wrong about Anne - I think she’s good, but she’s not as good to me as others on my list.
Interesting discussion. Did you ever revisit Can We Go Home Now? I’d like to hear what you think of it - and don’t worry - just cuz I think it’s good… And another group of their ilk - The Staves. Their album with yMusic called The Way Is Read (Qobuz) is really good I think. It was one of the first recordings I listened to for the first time on my upgraded system and I was really struck with how much more I could experience.
Other than the jazz selections here I don’t listen to these artists whether the recording is exceptional or not.
Here is one of the best sounding recordings I have and I love the music itself:
I recommend the gold cd from Impex Records, though the original mono and stereo LPs sound fantastic if you have great phono playback.
Duke Ellington “Ellington Indigos” Columbia Records/Impex Records gold cd
I am sure the vinyl reissue from Impex sounds excellent–I have not head it.
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Oh, stop being such a fuddy-duddy! Seriously, I’m only a few steps away from that - I don’t care how good a recording is, if it’s not in my sphere of interest, I pass. Fortunately (and often problematically) my sphere of interest is ridiculously large. And the older I get, the harder time I have determining what makes it “jazz” vs. other things. For instance, recently a multi-CD set came out called “Joni’s Jazz” that includes examples from Joni Mitchell’s career that the not only came from albums like “Mingus” that were clearly jazz, but where the compiler felt jazz influenced things and pieces composed and performed from a jazz “sensibility.” I knew of the “definitely jazz” things, but my ears opened a bit for some of the tracks I never would have considered having anything to do with jazz. It’s a moving target.
Regarding Ellington’s Indigos, it’s a great recording, I recently downloaded a remastering of it done by High Definition Tape Transfers. I don’t have anything other than streaming to compare it to, but I did find it much better at bringing out how good the original recording is than streaming versions. Here’s a link to HDTT’s Ellington offerings.
I have a very clear idea of what jazz is, FOR ME, and it spans 1918 to 2026, and includes material within the tradition without fuses of too many other genre elements. . . but “jazzy” is blank enough to include all kinds of things that I don’t care for. . . .and I find Peyroux, Gardet et al to be “jazzy” in ways I just don’t enjoy, and I like some rock bands from my youth now still, but that’s about it. I am familiar with most of Joni’s work, and like a lot of it whether jazz or jazzy or not. But I didn’t buy this compilation of “jazz,” nor all but one of her “archival” box sets–I bought the one that included the “Hejira” years.
I have a cdr from HDTT of the “Indigos” transfer. I prefer the Impex to be honest, or my OG stereo and mono LPs, and my cdr from HDTT has the sides reversed, a cardinal sin! 
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Yeah, I guess we’re pretty in-sync about the main progression of jazz vs. its off-shoots. I do think some of Gardot’s treatments truly fall under jazz for me, as well as Peyroux. The song “Brand New Deal”(Qobuz) from her album Anthem is funky, yes, but man, what a great bari-sax solo.
I’m not so sure I’d get as upset about side-reversal as I did over the Remarkable Carmell Jones album that I bought from Blue Note as one of their Tone Poet vinyl series. It has the channels reversed. Yeah, I guess I could swap cables, but sheesh.
Jon
I think Ms. Eeg appears in one of my Ear Candy Qobuz playlists. And I have some Gardot and Peyroux in the other two female vocalist groupings I mentioned. I got to see Peyroux perform here in the Indy area a couple of years ago on a twin bill with Paula Cole. Great concert. I’ll look for Bisson - her name sounds familiar - and Rubarth. Thanks for the tips.
Channels reversed is a bit more peeve-making than sides reversed I guess. If it weren’t an album I’ve listened to for forty years perhaps that would be less irritating to me regarding “Indigos.”
I’ll agree that some of the Gardot and Peyroux are really jazz. . . they just don’t do anything for me.
That album is really good. She’s done a few other “duet” albums.
Thought of three more audiophile-oriented ladies:
- Carol Kidd - A Scottish singer with a wonderful voice. I discovered her because my older brother decided to ditch his entire analog system and do headphones and streaming only. So I got Carol Kidd’s first album (vinyl) on Linn Records. I just looked on Qobuz and Apple Music and there are just a few of her albums.
- Rebecca Pidgeon - Probably don’t need to say much - if you call yourself an audiophile, you know who she is. If not, shame on you.
- Sara K - same as Pidgeon, big in audio circles.
Both of them started with Chesky Records and their recordings are very good. I will say that maybe the recordings themselves are a bigger deal than just focusing on their vocals.
I got to this topic a little late and many of my favorites were already suggested. One I did not see (apologies if I missed it) is jazz vocalist Patricia Barber. I like her voice and find the recording quality generally excellent. I tend to like her earlier work:
A Distortion of Love (1992); Café Blue (1994); Modern Cool (1998); Companion [Live] (1999); Nightclub (2000); The Cole Porter Mix (2008)
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Into the Labyrinth by Dead Can Dance and The Mask and Mirror by Loreena McKennitt.
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It’s never too late to talk about best-sounding recordings! You might have caught above us talking about hearing Anne Bisson and Amber Rubarth at AXPONA. Last year it was Patricia Barber. I’ve known about her quite some time and have great respect for her as a great jazz artist, as well as someone whose recordings are great.
By the way, this thread is about ANY great recordings - we just got off on a side tangent focusing on female voices. Speaking of arriving late, it was many years of serious listening before I woke up one day and decided to expand into audio quality. For many years I thought audiophiles were ALL about sound and not about music really. But I have been really impressed with how many here know a lot about the music itself that they’re listening to. It’s actually pretty rare that I see a recommendation for a recording and say, “Nah, not good music to me.”
Case in point, in the female vocalist list above submitted by @Craig_Burgess he listed an album by Kasey Chambers that I listened to last night. Yes, great recording with amazing presence. Her voice is a bit on the “squeaky” side, but for the genre - Country / Americana - her voice works well, sorta similar to Iris Dement. But about halfway through I decided to look her up and despite being an “Americana” thing, she’s from Australia and comes from a country music family from down under. It is really fantastic music, with a deep and very personal soul, harkens back to some earlier Country styles. Look it up - you won’t be disappointed.
I’ll have to look for that. The only McKennitt I have in my library is a 5-song EP called Share the Journey. It sounds great. I don’t even remember where I found it or why I came to own it, but I’m glad I do.
Funny you should talk about the rarity of deciding the music isn’t for you, in the same post you mention Patricia Barber. I have five of hers (including the so-called “unmastered” version of Café Blue) because, well, Patricia Barber. But try as I might, I can’t get through any of them at a sitting. I finally decided I just don’t care much for her style. But that’s on me - I don’t mean to denigrate her musical bonafides. She’s the real deal.
Kasey Chambers is an interesting example. You’re 100% right about her voice, and I know people who just can’t abide it (including my wife, who even dislikes Alison Krauss’s singing; I’m kind of that way myself with Dement). But I love to hear it, especially in the context of her musical style. I especially love the track “These Pines,” with its chorus harmony that reminds me very much of the traditional country records my grandmother played when I was a little kid - everything from Homer & Jethro to Eddie Arnold, and nearly everything in between. I can’t keep myself from singing along with that harmony line every time I play the song (who among us has never sung along when the music moves us?).
My wife, by the way, disdains any female vocals that sound even a little bit “waif-like.” I’m not sure she’s really enjoyed anybody since Mary-Chapin Carpenter. 
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I also find Patricia Barber tiresome.
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The Mask and Mirror is one of my favorites and there was a time when I used it to test changes to my system back when it was quite different from what I have today. It blends North African influenced music with Celtic and Folk. Sounds like a hodgepodge I know but she manages to pull it off. Hard to believe it’s a little over 30 years since it’s release.
The EP you mention is not one I’m familiar with but I’m gonna keep my eye out for it. Thanks.
Regarding Patricia Barber, I wouldn’t rate her among my top-50, but I do like her, and really think her recordings are great. My brother, who is 5 times the audiophile I am, gifted me with the CD of Cafe Blue soon after it came out. I imagine he had to look around to make sure nobody in the store caught him buying a CD - up until a few years ago, he thought digital was the work of the devil. Then he sold all his analog gear and went streaming and headphones only. I never realized how good of a recording Cafe Blue was until later - I should have figured knowing my brother. I guess what I like about her is more cerebral than emotional.
Another voice for your wife is Kat Edmonson (just kidding). Kat is a jazz singer and I like a lot of what she’s done in what she calls something like “Legacy Pop” - it’s jazz, but a bit, well, whiter. And her voice takes a little getting used to, but I think her writing, phrasing, and recordings are quite wonderful. The song “Nobody Knows That” (Qobuz) from her second album “Way Down Low” really evokes rich feelings.
Regarding Country, when I was a kid growing up in the American South during the 60s and 70s, it was known as Country-Western and any kid in school who liked it was called a redneck. I did like some, but it wasn’t until the 90s when my daughter came home from summer camp with a cassette of country tunes that I discovered the genre had picked up where a lot of pop music in the 70s left off. Between marriages I dated a lady from Nashville who’s a good songwriter. Of course, there’s the joke, "How do you get the attention of a songwriter in Nashville?’ “WAITER…over here.”
Oh, and one more waif voice: Adrienne Lenker of the alt-folk group Big Thief. During Amber Rubarth’s performance at AXPONA a few years ago, she mentioned Lenker’s work. I don’t know what it is about her voice, but it comes across to me as like a wounded bird or something like that. I did find out about Big Thief on an audiophile site somewhere and their recordings have a kind of raw presence - not for everyone, but give them a listen. I like their 2022 album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (Qobuz). The first track is good.
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Agreed. An unusual voice, but I like her. She has nice phrasing.