Ella, Billie, Dinah, Sarah Compiled On Jazz 'Divas' Series

04/15/2003 10:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
LAUNCH Radio Networks

(4/14/03, 10 a.m. ET) -- Classic collections of nine revered female jazz vocalists of the past will be re-released next month as part of Verve's new Divas Collection. A tenth album, The Ultimate Divas Collection, compiles highlights from all nine albums as well as tracks by seven other vocalists. Each album will bear the Divas logo, and all will be available May 20.

Spotlighted on volumes of the Divas Collection are Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone, Astrud Gilberto, Anita O'Day, Blossom Dearie, and Carmen McRae. The music on these sets was recorded from the 1940s through the 1960s.

The Ultimate Divas Collection disk also includes recordings by Shirley Horn, Gloria Lynne, Helen Merrill, Peggy Lee, Natalie Cole, Etta James, and Ernestine Anderson.

Supporting these fabulous females are a number of notable jazz musicians, among them Ray Brown, Stan Getz, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Cannonball Adderley, Oscar Peterson, and Cal Tjader, as well as orchestras led by Quincy Jones, Chick Webb, Johnny Mandel, and more.

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