Less for Bastardous Bassist, more for others who are into torch singers generally and modern ladies that evoke Ella, Billie and Nina in particular, I recommend
Tierney Sutton and
Madeleine Peyroux. I think I mentioned both years ago, probably in another of Bassist's jazz threads, and they remain among my favorite female jazz vocalists past or present. Sutton is cool, detached and deeply ironic, but her vocal skills are impressive. Peyroux sounds freakishly like Billie Holiday and brings an extraordinary intimacy to her songs. You will be pouring yourself a martini and reclining with the back of your hand on your forehead even if you're 16 and living in your mom's basement.
But neither of them are pushing forward the boundaries of modern jazz, you understand, they are just awesome to listen to if you are into that sort of thing.
Among instrumentalists, I happen to be a fan of the whole bunch of Marsalises, Ellis, Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason all included. There are Marsalis family recordings with the 5 of them together that I strongly recommend. Seeing the family play at Massey Hall remains one of my best jazz experiences to date. Wynton is of course controversial not least because of his comments discounting a huge swathe of jazz history, but in person is electrifying in a way I haven't frequently experienced in a jazz concert.
Others of my favorites include
Kevin Dean, the McGill music prof who made me love the Hammond organ as a jazz instrument, and
Paul Motian, definitely the best jazz drummer I've ever heard play. And yeah, Chris Potter is awesome -- I may be misremembering but I think I heard him once at the Vanguard and another time at the Jazz Standard. For all the historical significance of the Vanguard, I miss the Standard most of all -- less train noise and better ribs.
Anyway, I will upload v0 mp3s of examples of the above over the next few days, although I can provide FLACs for most of them if anyone wants. I'll edit this commend and post the Mediaf!re thread.