Comparable to\u00a0Ernestine Anderson,\u00a0Marlena Shaw, and\u00a0Dee Dee Bridgewater,\u00a0Renee Manning\u00a0is a gutsy, soulful, jazz vocalist who has blues and R&B leanings. On up-tempo material and jazz blues numbers, the native New Yorker can be brassy, aggressive, gritty and hard-swinging. But she has no problem being sensitive and introspective on ballads. In fact, those who listen closely to\u00a0Manning’s ballad performances may, at times, hear traces of\u00a0Billie Holiday\u00a0in her phrasing. But\u00a0Manning\u00a0definitely has a bigger voice, and overall, she is a much more robust type of singer than\u00a0Lady Day\u00a0\u2013 if\u00a0Manning\u00a0was a tenor saxophonist, she would be closer to\u00a0Houston Person\u00a0or\u00a0Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis\u00a0than\u00a0Stan Getz. And were she a male vocalist,\u00a0Manning\u00a0would be compared to\u00a0Joe Williams\u00a0or\u00a0Kevin Mahogany\u00a0more than\u00a0Chet Baker. Although she is bop-oriented and has been influenced by\u00a0Carmen McRae\u00a0and\u00a0Ella Fitzgerald, not all of her influences are bop influences.\u00a0Holiday, of course, came out of jazz’s pre-bop era, and\u00a0Manning\u00a0occasionally shows an awareness of jazz-influenced classic blues singers like\u00a0Bessie Smith,\u00a0Ida Cox, and\u00a0Ma Rainey.<\/p>\n