Diana Krall Krall is more overtly jazz-oriented than Norah Jones, but the two have a like-minded approach. A piano-playing singer who has made unexpected inroads on the pop charts, Krall has become known for the way she turns less into more. Her jazz trio can put some nice splash behind her - see All For You, a tribute to Nat "King" Cole, for evidence - but it's on ballads that she's truly impresses the most. Love Scenes is a great place to hear her soft magic. As she glides through "Garden in the Rain," she crafts a sound that borders on cinematic.
Cassandra Wilson There's a hush to Cassandra Wilson's kinda jazz, kinda pop music, and most of the time her coos and moans define a track's atmosphere. Like Norah Jones, Wilson knows that a whisper has just as much power as a scream. For years Wilson worked with vanguard musicians, earning props by bending jazz rules while still respecting the music's key tenets. But in 1993 she released Blue Light 'Til Dawn, and by interpreting tunes by Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison and Robert Johnson, she came up with a disarmingly relaxed sound that fit a back porch as well as it did a smokey club. The recent Belly of the Sun was recorded in her rural Mississippi hometown, and its sensualism is gorgeous.
Laura Nyro The queen of New York singer-songwriters, Nyro made her mark in the late '60s and early 70s. She wrote hits for the Fifth Dimension ("Wedding Bell Blues") and Blood, Sweat & Tears ("And When I Die"), as well as cutting a string of albums that eloquently investigated her emotional interiors. Long on craft, and rich with personal quirks, her records - Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, New York City Tendaberry, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat - remain gripping. Sitting at the piano, improvising her way through her own tunes, some fans deemed her a jazz Carole King. Time & Love, The Essential Masters is a great place to start when investigating Nyro's music.
