Make your own jazz band?

[Beach]

I was fortunate enough, at least from around 1988 until around 1993, to have sang in a band called Tony Barnard's All Hat Jazz with some of the finest jazz players that Australia had to offer at the time.
A CD was recorded in Sydney back in 1990, but never saw the light of day until it was finally released on Peter Ind's WAVE Records in the U.K. in January 1999.
Tony Barnard himself is now married and been living in London since late-1995 and plays with the Ronnie Scott's Big Band.

I agree with Tiggi about Oscar Peterson, but preferred the trio that featured Joe Pass (guitar) and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (bass). With those blokes you just didn't need a drummer.
As to a vocalist, I would go for Ella Fitzgerald or Annie Ross among the women with either Mel Tormé or Jon Hendricks among the blokes. ::