Dream
Jimmy Scott is 69, but he still possesses one of the most unusual vocal instruments in pop music. Due to a hormonal abnormality called Kallmann's Syndrome, Scott never lost his boy soprano, which has mellowed with the years into something resembling Lena Horne's alto but not exactly like anything else in the world. Combined with that peculiar timbre is a style of phrasing which is forever holding back the beat but never quite losing it. Scott has lost some of the bell-like purity of his voice, but his grainier singing onDreamstill sounds sensational.--Geoffrey Himes