black history music month: the female singer

[Reginald Hudlin]

different styles, but all jamming.  check out the main page then come back and post here!

[Curtis Metcalf]

So a few observations/reactions:

• Man, we're getting old...
• Cassandra Wilson appears on both this list and the singer/songwriter list as the only woman there. Feels like there ought to be other candidates but no one has come to mind yet.
• Whitney doesn't rate that highly for me but I appear to be on a lonely island on that.
• Sarah Vaughn anyone?
• Is there anybody younger than Cassandra Wilson (and still alive) in the honorable mentions who might one day move into the pantheon?

[Reginald Hudlin]

the black female singer/songwriter is a tricky proposition.  I can name many white ones, from Bjork to Carole King to Joni Mitchell.  But I could think of their black equivalents that could be on the same list as Stevie Wonder, Prince and Smokey Robinson.  But there are a lot of artists whose process I don't know.  Please enlighten me! 

[Reginald Hudlin]

And yes, I"m a huge Cassandra Wilson fan, but when it comes to female singers are are so many greats I left off the list.  I could do another ten names without breaking a sweat.

I have, over time, been convinced that I have been too hard on Whitney.  Jamie Foxx in particular gave a very persuasive argument one day.  He told me basically every great female singer I love is a fan of Whitney.