Janet Lawson

Janet Lawson (born Janet Ann Polun; November 13, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland) is a jazz singer and educator. Her primary influences as a singer were saxophonists such as Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Sonny Rollins. Her voice was described by jazz critic John S. Wilson in a 1977 New York Times article entitled Janet Lawson: The Dream Jazz Voice writing that she "has the kind of voice that most jazz singers probably wish they had. It is a full, well‐developed, remarkably pliant voice with a lower range whose dark sonorities compare favorably with the deep power of Sarah Vaughan, and a high register in which she does not have to strain to project very fast, often complex, lines."