The Iceman
1273 posts
Nov 13, 2013
6:15 AM
|
The Norwegian singer Ylvis (creator of "What Does the Fox Say") is not only an unbelievable vocalist, but seems to be able to recreate all genres of music better than the originals with an extraordinary sense of whimsy.
----------
The Iceman
|
Frank
3260 posts
Nov 13, 2013
7:05 AM
|
I would love to see his parody of this classic tune :)
|
Komuso
204 posts
Nov 13, 2013
5:39 PM
|
Pulling off great musical comedy with top shelf production is no easy feat.
----------
Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Your harmonica Mojo Dojo
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream
|
Aussiesucker
1346 posts
Nov 13, 2013
9:50 PM
|
Clever ...not best. But many of these style of pop artists make good use of technology whereas their voices IMO are just middling to awful! But they make money.
----------
HARPOLDIE’S YOUTUBE
|
wolfkristiansen
226 posts
Nov 13, 2013
10:32 PM
|
I do have an opinion on this. For my taste in music, the best singer in the world is (was) Mahalia Jackson. She's not around any more, but left a beautiful body of work. Candice Glover, the winner of this year's American Idol, reminds me of her.
One's opinion on the best of any kind of artist is going to depend on one's taste in that art. For my father, the best singer would be a difficult choice between Beniamino Gigli, Jussi Björling and Enrico Caruso.
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
|
wolfkristiansen
227 posts
Nov 13, 2013
10:50 PM
|
|
The Iceman
1274 posts
Nov 14, 2013
5:21 AM
|
I don't know of any artist (except Weird Al Yankowich) that covers so many different styles and does them, if not better, than as good as others that specialize in one style of music.
----------
The Iceman
|
Tuckster
1371 posts
Nov 14, 2013
1:40 PM
|
Loved the humor but it wouldn't be my choice if I wanted to hear some music other than blues.
|
nacoran
7337 posts
Nov 14, 2013
3:53 PM
|
I've noticed that people who do good vocal impersonations tend to have good singing voices. I guess it makes sense... they've got a good ear for detail and the ability to change their voice in weird ways. Comedic timing seems to help with rhythm too. It helps you feel when things are supposed to hit.
----------
Nate
Facebook
Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
|
kudzurunner
4373 posts
Nov 14, 2013
6:35 PM
|
Karen Carpenter.
Don't laugh. The production is cheesy, but she's got something. Like Mel Torme, she's got the velvet.
The documentary tells the story. She's got the...what is it? Liquid in her voice. I know, I know: blues guys aren't supposed to like Karen Carpenter. If you do nothing else, listen to the stuff starting at 7:03. AND she's playing drums!:
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Nov 14, 2013 6:40 PM
|
walterharp
1216 posts
Nov 14, 2013
6:42 PM
|
Can they sing chords like this? hang in till 6:10
Last Edited by walterharp on Nov 14, 2013 6:42 PM
|
davew
3 posts
Nov 14, 2013
7:20 PM
|
I have to agree with Adam, Karen Carpenter was great. Their songs were very well produced, but she could just sing. I've often told people "I like the Carpenters, but don't tell anybody". I would also nominate Aretha Franklin, and Nat Cole. I could go on, of course.......
Dave W
|
Komuso
206 posts
Nov 14, 2013
7:50 PM
|
Etta James is top shelf singing. Surprised no one mentioned her, whether you like blues or not.
----------
Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Your harmonica Mojo Dojo
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream
|
wolfkristiansen
229 posts
Nov 14, 2013
10:00 PM
|
In 1999, with my wife, I watched a movie called Pleasantville-- a movie about seeing/feeling/enjoying the beauty around you, despite the world saying no. The movie was great. At the end, as the credits rolled, I heard an unrecognized (to me) female sing a great, lyrical song called "At Last".
I'd never heard it before. I couldn't believe I'd never heard it, blues Nazi that I am. I exclaimed to my wife... "Listen to that song. I don't know who she is, but every note she sings is drenched with blues". By that, I meant this (obviously pop) song sounded bluesy. I did some research, and discovered the singer was Etta James. I loved the song the first time I heard it, and still do. The singing is beautiful, subtle, and full of feeling.
This is a long winded way of pointing out, as Komuso did-- Etta James deserves mention in any discussion of the best singer in the world.
Here's the song, for the 2 people on this continent who haven't heard it--
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
|
BigSteveNJ
16 posts
Nov 15, 2013
2:02 PM
|
Etta James
Mahalia Jackson
Rosetta Tharpe
Albertina Walker
Jimmy Witherspoon
Nat Cole
...any one of those people could easily be "best" in one category or another.
The key is that none of them sound like each other, and no one else sounded like any of them, or ever will.
|
Diggsblues
1306 posts
Nov 15, 2013
4:20 PM
|
I agree Adam Karen Carpenter had an incredible voice.
Eva Cassidy is in that same rare place.
----------
Last Edited by Diggsblues on Nov 15, 2013 4:26 PM
|
Frank
3284 posts
Nov 15, 2013
4:46 PM
|
It depends what world we are talking about too...there a many worlds, each person often lives in there own little one. I always thought that tiny tim had one of the greatest voices ever, period...Singing begins and ends with tiny tim as far as I'm concerned. Listen to his music, realy realy listen - not as a critic but as a lover of tonal expression. Use good ear phones and you won't be sorry - he should of been as big as the beatles and "tip toe through the tulips" is up there with "let it be" any day of the week :)
|
rbeetsme
1420 posts
Nov 15, 2013
4:48 PM
|
Diggs, thanks for the posts, I'll be listening to more Eva Cassidy. I've often heard that Karen Carpenter was one of the best ever. My mom thought she was the best pop singer she'd ever heard. (My mom was a top shelf singer, could sing low down with Etta James in the morning and soprano opera in the evening) I really like susan Tedeschi, Nora Jones and Odell too.
|
gene
1134 posts
Nov 15, 2013
5:27 PM
|
"Who is the best singer in the world?"
There's no doubt in my mind that that distinction goes to ME...when I'm good 'n' drunk.
|
Frank
3289 posts
Nov 15, 2013
6:29 PM
|
I have heard the greatest singer in the world so many times throughout my lifetime that I am convinced that there is a Supreme Glorious Being...Something about the voice of a truely gifted singer that inspires visions of Heaven, Love and all things Gracious, Kind Merciful and Beautiful :)
|
kudzurunner
4376 posts
Nov 16, 2013
12:14 AM
|
One of the greatest singers you've never heard of might be Tricia Walker. She's a Mississippian, an older woman, and one of the nicest people I've ever met. She oversees the studio recording program at Delta State, and she has a career as a singer/songewriter. Her song, "The Heart of Dixie," is problematic in some people's eyes: it's an appreciation of "the help," so to speak. It's a young white Mississippi girl's feelings for her grandmother's black housekeeper, who becomes her mother's housekeeper. That's what it is. But Walker doesn't run away from it, and she's got something in her voice that sounds like magic to me. Real feeling. Real feelings are sometimes awkward, and that's what makes them beautiful--at least when they're spun into a song like this:
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Nov 16, 2013 12:21 AM
|
Kingley
3280 posts
Nov 16, 2013
1:59 AM
|
There are and have been so many great singers especially among women. For me though the woman who has always stood out above the rest is Billie Holiday. Others that I like a lot are Bobbie Gentry, Eva Cassidy, Karen Carpenter, Julie London, Patsy Cline, Whitney Houston, Melody Gardot and Gabrielle.
|
wolfkristiansen
230 posts
Nov 16, 2013
5:10 AM
|
We, in this forum, are harmonica players. Most of us are blues harmonica players, some are modern blues harmonica players. Thank you, Adam, for giving us a place to discuss the instrument we love. Kudos to Kudzu. Harp-l members, don't freak, each forum has its niche.
Besides harmonica, what binds us is a love of music, am I right?
Singing is the ultimate musical art. Half of us sing badly. Strike that, half of us sing passably. So... thank you, Iceman, for starting this topic. How can singing ever be OT?
I sat through your video for the first time yesterday. It's a clever video. Elvis's half brother Ylvis has a great voice and great ideas. But... "Best Singer in the World"?
You started this topic with a provocative title, knowing, I suspect, there is no definitive answer. Here's a definitive answer-- it ain't Ylvis. If you were sincere in putting him up for the title, our disagreement probably stems from what I said in my first post in this thread. It's a matter of taste. I look for heart and soul, and "pipes". Kudzu looks for pipes too-- "she's got the velvet"; "liquid in her voice" (aside-- I agree, Karen has these attributes in spades, AND heart and soul).
Ylvis has pipes but I can't find the heart and soul.
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
Last Edited by wolfkristiansen on Nov 16, 2013 5:49 AM
|
Slimharp
49 posts
Nov 16, 2013
8:58 AM
|
A couple more among many: Ella Fitzgerald, Alison Krauss, Dione Warwick,Bobby Darren, Linda Rondstadt, Frank Sinatra.
|
TetonJohn
164 posts
Nov 16, 2013
9:18 AM
|
wolf: interesting about Ylvis and pipes vs. heart and soul. It seems to me, at the moment, he is parodying the heartless and soul-leess, he is parodying some pop production of emotion. So, in that context, I think real heart and soul would be out of place. I suspect there is real heart and soul in his choice to parody -- let me project -- in his disappointment with heartless and soul-less pop genres -- a disappointment that exists because one knows what real heart and soul feels like. So, my guess is that he may be able to move beyond parody (which i really liked) to real expression if he chooses to go there.
Enough of my idle speculation....
The phony angst of stonehenge being genre (parody)-appropriate and exactly the point.
There's kind of a challenge here to him: Okay, you are parodying some soulless genres -- let's see you do something real as the ultimate critique.
Last Edited by TetonJohn on Nov 16, 2013 9:25 AM
|
Frank
3294 posts
Nov 16, 2013
9:45 AM
|
Maybe it would best to just describe him as just "The Greatest" ...and leave out at what exactly... "it " aka greatness- is...
We can all agree that he IS (the greatest) can we not.
Many are getting caught up in the illusion of the phenomenon that >Greatness< has boundries beyound those of brain waves and fertile, tangible spirituality...
Don't play that game - the odds are stacked in favor of deciet and all things criminal when certain science has favor over facts.
Stay true to the classic meaning of the word...GREATEST , and you too can become the fantasy.
Let that dream/fantasy translate into non-fiction, and only the nay-sayers who wallow in shamefull decadence will dare critique the excellence beholden them.
They simply refuse to let the lamp-lighter shine the emminence of their very own soul to those viewers who lack self understanding.
This then limits the vast majority of fellow human beings who can partake in the brillience of nothing more or less then sheer greatness, untethered by opinions, or skewed by vainity and intellectual ignorance.
Last Edited by Frank on Nov 16, 2013 10:00 AM
|
timeistight
1419 posts
Nov 16, 2013
10:08 AM
|
Ylvis is a duo: brothers Bård (the blonde one) and Vegard (brown hair) Ylvisåker. Both brothers sing. I guess that makes Ylvis twice as good other singers.
|
stokeblues
59 posts
Nov 16, 2013
11:42 AM
|
if you talking about great singers then the legend that is Eric Burdon of the animals is truly far better than most mentioned on this thread,his voice was so dark and deep it smoldered blues and he was the first white guy to front a black band ie War,truly magic in his hey day! Then Long John Baldry yet again another 60's british blues invasion singer who's voice mastered all the genuine emotion of the time and now timeless! Then of course the Big O ,he moved among the octave range so swiftly and so beautifully with lyrics to touch the soul and more!
|
kudzurunner
4377 posts
Nov 16, 2013
2:23 PM
|
I'm capable of being convinced by the first 45 seconds of the following video that Julie London is the greatest ballad singer in the world. Hearing her this time, I can hear where Diana Krall--another of my favorites--gets most of her thing.
London't sort of talent isn't bravura riffing or belting. It's the vocal equivalent to a certain kind of jazz sax playing a ballad, breathily.
|
davew
5 posts
Nov 16, 2013
8:08 PM
|
Once again kudzu is right on (Julie London) I prefer my vocals without a lot of gymnastics.
For the blues fans, check out the brother-brother-sister band "Trampled under foot", this gal can sing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5GC1ufe6Pw
Last Edited by davew on Nov 16, 2013 9:02 PM
|
wolfkristiansen
231 posts
Nov 16, 2013
10:09 PM
|
BigSteveNJ-- thank you for pointing us to Rosetta Tharpe, one of my favorite singers of all time. For those who haven't heard her, listen to this beautiful duet-- Rosetta Tharpe and her spiritual soulmate, Marie Knight.
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
|
wolfkristiansen
232 posts
Nov 17, 2013
2:21 AM
|
This thread will be killed eventually, but not by my hand. I love good singers. Here's another for you-- Johnny Adams, the "Tan Nightingale" from New Orleans. Listen to his 1969 rendition of the country song "Reconsider Me". My beautiful Tahltan wife told me she got goose bumps when she first heard it.
Turn your computer speakers up, close the door, and hit play:
Cheers
wolf kristiansen
Last Edited by wolfkristiansen on Nov 17, 2013 4:38 AM
|
wolfkristiansen
233 posts
Nov 17, 2013
3:32 AM
|
Stop me... before I post again. Here's another great singer. Candice, don't ever lose the soul you showed in this competition.
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
|
kudzurunner
4379 posts
Nov 17, 2013
4:49 AM
|
I've never heard Johnny Adams's early stuff. But this clip you've posted: Yes indeed, that is some epic performance! I heard his stuff on the radio on a NY-area jazz/blues station in the late 80s/early 90s and saw him live only once. He's a small man with a huge voice. Perfect enunciation, wide range. Actually, what strikes me about the video you've posted is the rare combination of complete relaxation and ability to absolutely blast away into the stratosphere. Many singers with that kind of instrument can't restrain themselves. They blast away too early, or too frequently, or both, and they destroy the overall aesthetics of the song. He knows how to let the song breathe. A stunning recording. Thanks for posting.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Nov 17, 2013 4:50 AM
|
GamblersHand
472 posts
Nov 17, 2013
1:10 PM
|
Some really nice choices on this thread.
Here's one - not the best singer in the world but the best singer I'm listening to a lot of right now. Alynda Lee Segarra from Hurray for the Riff Raff
Some harp in the mix, sort of an folk/americana version of a 12 bar blues
|
atty1chgo
743 posts
Nov 19, 2013
5:30 AM
|
A very, very fine voice that has clarity and feeling. Mary Chapin Carpenter can deliver the goods. I like this clip also because it shows what precision of playing can often be found in a studio session.
|
The Iceman
1276 posts
Nov 19, 2013
7:09 AM
|
I wholeheartedly agree w/Karen Carpenter and Eva Cassidy as "best singers".
To those that only see the parody in Ylvis, they also can sing with feeling and soul...however, they can't help but throw in something silly...
----------
The Iceman
|
Frank
3309 posts
Nov 19, 2013
7:10 AM
|
People in the States should get a laugh at of this parody :)
|
The Iceman
1277 posts
Nov 19, 2013
7:16 AM
|
Here is pure fun from Ylvis...don't forget to hit the subtitle feature on the video.
----------
The Iceman
|
atty1chgo
744 posts
Nov 19, 2013
12:25 PM
|
Tough to ignore Celine Dion.
|
rbeetsme
1426 posts
Nov 19, 2013
6:42 PM
|
Adam, Tricia Walker is terrific, here's my favorite version:
|
atty1chgo
783 posts
Dec 07, 2013
6:40 AM
|
I agree with kudzurunner on this one.
I know, old post and off topic, but I came across this clip of Karen Carpenter playing drums and singing. There are snippets of this clip on other video clips, but this is the full performance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1973. No lip sync here, totally live. A very good band, but unfortunately the miking of the instruments was spotty. This clip is notable for the joy that Karen Carpenter exhibited behind a drum set. It is rather exhilarating and quite sad to watch at the same time. Behind the drums was obviously her favorite place to be:
Last Edited by atty1chgo on Dec 07, 2013 6:47 AM
|
Moon Cat
301 posts
Dec 07, 2013
1:30 PM
|
|
Rick Davis
2753 posts
Dec 07, 2013
2:19 PM
|
blind opera singer Andrea Bocelli
----------
-Little Rick Davis
The Memphis Mini harp amp
The Blues Harp Amps Blog
The Mile High Blues Society
|
Rick Davis
2754 posts
Dec 07, 2013
2:24 PM
|
Tom Waits
----------
-Little Rick Davis
The Memphis Mini harp amp
The Blues Harp Amps Blog
The Mile High Blues Society
|
wolfkristiansen
251 posts
Dec 08, 2013
2:55 AM
|
In order: Mahalia Jackson, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, Frank Sinatra. My opinion only, of course. I'm looking only at the 20th century; I'll let the younger ones weigh in on the 21st.
Speaking of 20th Century singers-- and remembering "20th Century Fox"-- Jim Morrison was a beautiful pure voiced singer until his voice coarsened (alcohol? drugs? both?). Listen to "The Crystal Ship" to get an idea of his pure singing voice.
Back to my top five. Here's Ray:
Moon Cat-- I love, and am amazed by, what Bobby McFerrin is doing.
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
Last Edited by wolfkristiansen on Dec 08, 2013 2:56 AM
|
wolfkristiansen
252 posts
Dec 08, 2013
3:13 AM
|
Here's Elvis
Cheers, wolf k
|
wolfkristiansen
253 posts
Dec 08, 2013
3:31 AM
|
Here's John Lee Hooker
I love his voice. Black coffee. Dark chocolate.
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
|
Frank
3455 posts
Dec 08, 2013
4:03 AM
|
|
