Black Jazz Singers: 27 Vocalists from Ma Rainey to Samara Joy

These are 27 Black jazz singers, women and men, arranged by era from the 1920s to today. The list starts with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, two of the first stars of recorded blues, and runs through Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan to Samara Joy, who has won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album three times since 2023. Each entry gives dates, what the singer did, and a recording to start with.

The 1920s: Blues Queens and the First Records

Black singers entered the record business in 1920, when Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” for OKeh quickly sold 75,000 copies. Labels rushed to sign Black blues singers, and in 1922 OKeh coined the term “race records” for a segregated market that Billboard only renamed Rhythm & Blues in 1949. Our feature on the voices of the Jazz Age covers the decade more broadly.

Ma Rainey (1886-1939)

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey toured Southern tent shows for years before Paramount signed her in 1923, then made more than 100 recordings in five years as the “Mother of the Blues.” Her “See See Rider Blues” (1924), with Louis Armstrong on cornet, is in the National Recording Registry. August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1982) is based on her, and she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. Start with “See See Rider Blues.”

Bessie Smith (c. 1894-1937)

Smith joined a touring troupe in 1912 that also featured Ma Rainey. Her first Columbia record, “Downhearted Blues” (1923), was a hit, and in 1925 she recorded “St. Louis Blues” with Louis Armstrong. In the 1920s she was the highest-paid Black entertainer of her day, and her contralto influenced blues and jazz singers alike. She died after a car crash in Mississippi in 1937. Start with “St. Louis Blues” (Columbia, 1925).

Ethel Waters (1896-1977)

Waters was the fifth Black woman to make a record (1921), and she worked Broadway and the white vaudeville circuit as well as Black theaters. “Dinah” (1925) and “Am I Blue?” (1929) were hits, and her 1933 “Stormy Weather” is in the National Recording Registry. Her role in Pinky (1949) made her the second African American nominated for an Oscar. Start with “Stormy Weather.”

Alberta Hunter (1895-1984)

Hunter co-wrote “Downhearted Blues,” the song that became Bessie Smith’s first hit, and recorded from 1921. She later left music and worked as a nurse in New York for 20 years, then returned at 82 for a six-year run at the Cookery in Greenwich Village. The National Museum of African American History and Culture has a profile. Start with Amtrak Blues (Columbia, 1980).

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)

Best known as a trumpeter, Armstrong was just as influential as a singer. He was not the first to scat on record, but his Hot Five side “Heebie Jeebies” (Okeh, 1926) made scat singing famous, and his horn-like phrasing shaped Bing Crosby and many after him. In 1964 his “Hello, Dolly!” knocked the Beatles off No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Start with Ella and Louis (Verve, 1956).

The Swing Era: 1930s and 1940s

Radio and the big bands made singers national stars, on segregated terms. When Billie Holiday joined Artie Shaw in 1938 she was among the first Black women to sing full time with a white orchestra. Norman Granz, later Ella Fitzgerald’s manager, made promoters of his Jazz at the Philharmonic tours drop separate seating for Black and white audiences.

Billie Holiday (1915-1959)

Holiday learned from the records of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith and made her best-known early sides with pianist Teddy Wilson from 1935, often with Lester Young, who named her “Lady Day.” When Columbia found “Strange Fruit,” Abel Meeropol’s song about lynching, too sensitive, she recorded it for Commodore in 1939; it became her biggest-selling record and is in the National Recording Registry. Start with “Strange Fruit” and Lady in Satin (Columbia, 1958).

Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996)

Fitzgerald won an Apollo amateur night at 17, joined Chick Webb’s orchestra and had a hit with “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” (1938). For Verve she recorded eight Song Book sets (1956 to 1964), and on Ella in Berlin she forgot the words to “Mack the Knife,” scatted new ones and won a Grammy. In 1959 she became the first African American woman to win a Grammy; she won 13 in all. Her official discography lists the albums. Start with Ella in Berlin (Verve, 1960).

Jimmy Rushing (1901-1972)

Rushing, from Oklahoma City, was Count Basie’s featured singer from 1935 to 1948, nicknamed “Mr. Five by Five” for his build, with a voice that soared over the band’s horns. “Sent for You Yesterday” and “Going to Chicago” are his best-known Basie records. His late album The You and Me That Used to Be (RCA, 1971) was DownBeat’s jazz album of the year. Start there.

Nat King Cole (1919-1965)

Cole, a minister’s son raised in Chicago, first made his name as a pianist: his King Cole Trio was a model for small jazz groups and Capitol’s top-selling act of the 1940s. From 1950 he worked mainly as a singer, with No. 1 hits such as “Mona Lisa,” and his NBC show (1956 to 1957) was one of the first network shows hosted by a Black American. Start with After Midnight (Capitol, 1957).

Billy Eckstine (1914-1993)

Eckstine sang with pianist Earl Hines from 1939 to 1943, then formed what is generally considered the first bebop big band, with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan. His bass-baritone sold millions in 1945 with “A Cottage for Sale” and “Prisoner of Love,” and he inspired Johnny Hartman and Joe Williams. He also features in our ranking of the greatest male jazz singers. Start with No Cover, No Minimum (Roulette, 1960).

Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990)

Vaughan sang in her Newark church choir, won the Apollo amateur night in 1942 and joined Earl Hines in 1943, then Eckstine in 1944. Nicknamed “Sassy” and “The Divine One,” she recorded “Lover Man” with Gillespie and Parker in 1945 and later won a Grammy for Gershwin Live! Her Wikipedia biography covers her recordings. Start with Sarah Vaughan (EmArcy, 1955), her only session with Clifford Brown.

The 1950s and 1960s: Bebop, Ballads and Protest

The leading Black female jazz singers of the 1960s took very different routes: Dinah Washington crossed into R&B and pop, Betty Carter pushed bebop improvisation, and Abbey Lincoln and Nina Simone put the civil rights movement into their songs. The men range from Basie’s blues singer Joe Williams to the ballad singers Johnny Hartman and Jimmy Scott.

Dinah Washington (1924-1963)

Washington directed her Chicago church choir and sang with the Sallie Martin Gospel Singers before joining Lionel Hampton; her first record, “Evil Gal Blues” (1943), was a hit. At Mercury she had 27 R&B top-10 hits between 1948 and 1955 and still made jazz sessions with Clifford Brown. “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” (1959) reached No. 4 pop and won a Grammy. She died at 39. Start with Dinah Jams (1954).

Joe Williams (1918-1999)

Williams sang in Chicago churches with the gospel group the Jubilee Boys and was Count Basie’s singer from 1954 to 1961. His 1955 “Every Day I Have the Blues” with Basie is in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and he won a Grammy for Nothin’ but the Blues (Delos, 1983). Start with Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings (Clef, 1955).

Betty Carter (1929-1998)

Carter sang with Lionel Hampton from 1948 to 1951, where Hampton’s wife gave her the nickname “Betty Bebop.” Refusing to sing pop, she started her own label, Bet-Car, in 1969, and pianists Mulgrew Miller and Benny Green came through her groups. She won a Grammy for Look What I Got! (Verve, 1988) and the National Medal of Arts in 1997. Start with The Audience with Betty Carter (Bet-Car, 1980).

Johnny Hartman (1923-1983)

Hartman sang with Earl Hines and Dizzy Gillespie in the late 1940s. John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (Impulse!, 1963), recorded in one day, is the only album John Coltrane made with a singer; it includes “Lush Life” and “You Are Too Beautiful.” His later album Once in Every Life earned a 1981 Grammy nomination. Start with the Coltrane album.

Abbey Lincoln (1930-2010)

Lincoln, strongly influenced by Billie Holiday, sang on We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (Candid, 1960), which critic Nat Hentoff described as one of the first full-scale protest records in jazz; she was married to drummer Max Roach from 1962 to 1970. From 1990 she made ten albums for Verve, and she was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2003. Start with Straight Ahead (Candid, 1961).

Nina Simone (1933-2003)

Simone trained as a classical pianist and was turned down by the Curtis Institute of Music, a rejection she attributed to racism. Her first single, “I Loves You, Porgy” (1959), reached the Billboard top 20. “Mississippi Goddam,” written after the murder of Medgar Evers and the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, was boycotted in parts of the South. She received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. Start with Nina Simone in Concert (Philips, 1964).

Jimmy Scott (1925-2014)

Scott’s high contralto came from Kallmann syndrome, a genetic condition that kept his voice from changing. He sang lead on Lionel Hampton’s “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” a top-10 R&B hit in 1950, without label credit, and contract disputes later stalled his career until a comeback in the 1990s. His comeback album All the Way (Sire, 1992) was Grammy-nominated, and he became an NEA Jazz Master in 2007. Start with All the Way.

Leon Thomas (1937-1999)

Thomas co-wrote and sang “The Creator Has a Master Plan,” the nearly 33-minute centerpiece of Pharoah Sanders’s Karma (Impulse!, 1969). His yodel-like style, compared by writers to Central African pygmy singing, carried his own albums for Flying Dutchman, starting with Spirits Known and Unknown (1969). Start with Karma.

From the 1990s to Today

The singers in this section have won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album 17 times since 1997. Among Black male jazz singers of the 1990s, the big stories were comebacks: Jimmy Scott’s and Andy Bey’s. For more singers working now, see our guide to contemporary jazz vocalists.

Cassandra Wilson (1955-2026)

Wilson, from Jackson, Mississippi, came up in Steve Coleman’s M-Base collective. Blue Light ’til Dawn (Blue Note, 1993) mixed Robert Johnson and Joni Mitchell songs with jazz and sold far beyond the jazz audience. She won Grammys for New Moon Daughter (1997) and Loverly (2009) and became an NEA Jazz Master in 2022. She died in September 2026, at 70, as WBGO reported. Start with Blue Light ’til Dawn.

Dianne Reeves (born 1956)

Born in Detroit and raised in Denver, Reeves signed to Blue Note in 1987. Her five Grammys for Best Jazz Vocal Album are the most of any singer in that category, among them The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan (2002) and the soundtrack of Good Night, and Good Luck (2006), in which she appears on screen. Start with The Calling (Blue Note, 2001).

Dee Dee Bridgewater (born 1950)

Bridgewater started with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and won a Tony Award in 1975 for The Wiz. Two tribute albums won Best Jazz Vocal Album: Dear Ella (1998) and her Billie Holiday album Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee (2011). She hosted NPR’s JazzSet for 23 years and became an NEA Jazz Master in 2017. Start with Dear Ella.

Andy Bey (1939-2025)

Bey, a Newark singer and pianist with a four-octave baritone, sang with his sisters as a teenager and later with Horace Silver, then spent years out of the spotlight until Ballads, Blues & Bey (Evidence, 1996) brought him back. American Song (Savoy Jazz, 2004) was Grammy-nominated. He died in April 2025. Start with Ballads, Blues & Bey.

Gregory Porter (born 1971)

Porter grew up in Bakersfield, California, where his mother, a minister, had him singing in church. He won Best Jazz Vocal Album for Liquid Spirit (Blue Note, 2013), which reached the UK top 10, and for Take Me to the Alley (2016), and he names Nat King Cole and Donny Hathaway among the singers he hears himself in. Start with Liquid Spirit.

Cécile McLorin Salvant (born 1989)

Born in Miami to a Haitian father and a French mother, Salvant studied classical and baroque voice in France before winning the Thelonious Monk vocal competition in 2010. She won Best Jazz Vocal Album for For One to Love (2016), Dreams and Daggers (2018) and The Window (2019), and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2020. Start with Dreams and Daggers.

Jazzmeia Horn (born 1991)

From Dallas, Horn won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2013 and the Thelonious Monk competition in 2015. Both A Social Call (Prestige, 2017) and Love & Liberation (Concord Jazz, 2019) were nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Start with A Social Call.

Samara Joy (born 1999)

Joy grew up in the Bronx in a gospel family; her grandparents founded the Philadelphia group the Savettes. She won the Sarah Vaughan competition in 2019, then Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Album for Linger Awhile (Verve, 2022) at the 2023 Grammys, and the vocal album award again for A Joyful Holiday (2025) and Portrait (2026). See also our list of the greatest female jazz singers. Start with Linger Awhile.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the most famous Black jazz singer?

Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday are the most widely known. Armstrong made scat singing famous with “Heebie Jeebies” in 1926, Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy Awards and was the first African American woman to win one, and Time magazine named Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” the song of the century in 1999.

Who are the most famous Black female jazz singers?

By era: Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters in the 1920s; Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan from the 1930s; Dinah Washington, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln and Nina Simone in the 1950s and 1960s; and Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Samara Joy since the 1990s.

Who are the best-known Black male jazz singers?

Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine, followed by Count Basie’s singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams and the ballad singers Johnny Hartman and Jimmy Scott. Among singers working today, Gregory Porter has won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album twice.

Which Black jazz singers are making records today?

Samara Joy, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Gregory Porter and Jazzmeia Horn have all released albums since 2023, including Joy’s Portrait, which won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2026, and Salvant’s Oh Snap (2025). Andy Bey died in April 2025 and Cassandra Wilson in September 2026.