Ultimate Divas: The Greatest Female Vocalists of Our Time, various artists (Arista):
The trouble with collections such as this is the inevitable quibbling they invite over the inclusion of one artist and the exclusion of another.
Forget such debates and enjoy its outstanding assemblage of 17 women gifted with pipes and panache.
Billie Holiday is a sublime way to start, her version of My Man (Mon Homme) impeccable in its phrasing and depth of feeling.
Lena Horne is both delicate and powerful on Stormy Weather.
Ella Fitzgerald is pure perfection with Someone to Watch Over Me.
Flash forward and we thrill to Gladys Knight’s soulful Midnight Train to Georgia and ache when Diana Ross croons the poignant Touch Me in the Morning.
Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got to Do With It is still fresh after 15 years.
Only time will tell whether Annie Lennox (Why), Mary J. Blige (Not Gon’ Cry) and Toni Braxton (Un-Break My Heart) will have the staying power of uber-diva Aretha Franklin, who closes the collection with neither Respect nor Chain of Fools, but Puccini’s aria Nessun Dorma.
--Heidi Johnson-Wright
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