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Sarah Lois Vaughan
was born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 27, 1924. Her father was a
carpenter and an amateur guitarist; her mother was a laundress and a
church vocalist. Possessor of one of the most wondrous voices of the
20th century, Sarah
In 1942 at the Apollo
Theater's weekly Amateur Night Sarah won first prize for a rendition of
"Body and Soul" that so impressed jazz singer Billy Eckstine
that he persuaded his bandleader, Earl Hines, to hire her. In 1944
Eckstine left Hines's band to form his own and took Sarah (as well as
jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker) with him. Vaughan stayed
with the band for a year, and then in late 1945 she began her long solo
career. For the next 45 years
she was to record virtually every jazz and pop standard against
backgrounds that varied from small and big jazz ensembles to large
studio bands and symphonic orchestras. Her earliest hits, "Lover
Man" and "If You Could See Me Now" (1946), and a number
of duets with Billy Eckstine, including "Dedicated to You" and
"I Could Write a Book" (1949), established her as a new jazz
star. She had a comfortable three-octave range, a heavy vibrato, and an
uncanny ear. Possessing perfect (not relative) pitch, she executed with
seeming effortlessness the most challenging and intricate harmonies. Vaughan's early
success was achieved with a mix of jazz originals ("Black
Coffee" and "If You Could See Me Now") and the better Tin
Pan Alley tunes such as "Body and Soul," "I've Got a
Crush on You," and "Tenderly." In the 1950s she waded
into more commercial waters, recording show tunes such as "Whatever
Lola Wants" and "Mr. Wonderful," which consequently
widened her audience. Some of the songs were
throwaways,
unworthy of her great talent, and they seemed to encourage the showman
and showoff in her. Occasionally her work in the 1950s smacks of vocal
pyrotechnics rather than genuine explorations of the material. One
exception was her big hit "Misty" (with some spare but
brilliant backing by tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims). By 1960 Vaughan had
fully returned to her artistic strengths, and for the last 30 years of
her career she sang in jazz clubs, concertized in auditoriums, and
produced a remarkable body of recorded music for the Roulette, Mercury,
Columbia, and Pablo labels. Her output over that period was almost
uniformly excellent, but among her best albums are The Duke Ellington
Songbook, volumes 1 and 2, which, making the most of Ellington's
compositional genius, contains magnificent versions of "All Too
Soon," "Lush Life," "Sophisticated Lady," and
"Day Dreams"; The Explosive Side of Sarah Vaughan, with
arrangements by the great Benny Carter; How Long Has This Been Going
On?; Sarah and Basie; and Gershwin Live!, for which Vaughan won the 1982
Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. Beginning in 1957,
when she first recorded it with Quincy Jones' band, "Misty"
was the song most associated with Vaughan and most often requested by
live audiences, but by the mid-1970s Stephen Sondheim's "Send in
the Clowns" had become her showpiece, the closing musical signature
of her concerts. Vaughan was married
four times: to bandleader George Treadwell, to professional football
player Clyde Atkins, to Las Vegas restaurateur Marshall Fisher, and to
jazz trumpeter Waymon Reed; all ended in divorce. She had one daughter,
Deborah "Paris" Vaughan. Vaughan died of lung cancer in her
Los Angeles suburban home on April 3,
Singer Mel Torme credited Vaughan with having "the best vocal instrument of any singer working in the popular field." New York Times jazz critic John S. Wilson called hers "the finest voice ever applied to jazz." Billy Eckstine said that she was his favorite all-time singer. Alternatively and affectionately known as "Sassy" and "The Divine Sarah" (echoes of Sarah Bernhardt), she commanded respect both as musician and person. Sarah Vaughan's legacy as a performer and a recording artist will be very difficult to match in the future.
ALBUMS 1944 Sarah Vaughan and Her All-Stars (Continental Records) 1949 Sarah Vaughan in Hi-Fi 1954 The Divine Sarah Sings 1954 Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown 1955 In the Land of Hi-Fi 1957 At Mister Kelly's 1957 Swingin' Easy 1957 Passing strangers, duet with Billy Eckstine 1957 Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine: Irving Berlin songbook 1957 Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin 1957 Sarah Vaughan Sings Broadway: Great Songs from Hit Shows 1958 No Count Sarah 1959 After Hours at the London House 1959 Vaughan and Violins 1960 Dreamy 1961 The Divine One 1961 The Explosive Side of Sarah Vaughan 1961 Count Basie/Sarah Vaughan 1961 After Hours 1962 You're Mine You 1962 Sarah + 2 1963 Sarah Sings Soulfully 1963 Snowbound 1963 Lonely Hours 1963 We Three (with Joe Williams and Dinah Washington) 1963 The World of Sarah Vaughan 1963 Sweet 'n' Sassy 1963 Star Eyes 1963 Sarah Slightly Classical 1963 Sassy Swings the Tivoli 1963 Vaughan With Voices 1964 Pop Artistry 1964 Sweet 'N' Sassy 1964 The Lonely Hours 1965 ¡Viva! Vaughan 1965 Sarah Vaughan Sings the Mancini Songbook 1966 The New Scene 1967 Sassy Swings Again 1967 It's A Man's World 1971 A Time in My Life 1972 With Michel Legrand 1972 Feelin' Good 1973 Live in Japan 1974 Send in the Clowns 1977 I Love Brazil 1977 Ronnie Scott's Presents Sarah Vaughan Live 1978 How Long Has This Been Going On? 1979 The Duke Ellington Songbook, Vol. 1 1979 The Duke Ellington Songbook, Vol. 2 1979 Copacabana 1981 Songs of the Beatles 1981 Send in the Clowns 1982 Crazy and Mixed Up 1982 Gershwin Live! 1984 The Mystery of Man (aka Let It Live, Sarah Vaughan Sings the Poetry of Pope John Paul II) 1986 South Pacific (A studio cast recording with Kiri Te Kanawa, Mandy Patinkin, and José Carreras) 1987 Brazilian Romance 1989 Back On The Block 2009 Everything I Have Is Yours, back in print, featuring 1945-47 session recordings via Shout! Factory |
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Vaughan
ranked with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday in the very top echelon
of female jazz singers. She often gave the impression that with her wide
range, perfectly controlled vibrato, and wide expressive abilities, she
could do anything she wanted with her voice.From the age of 7 Sarah
studied piano, and at age 12 became organist and solo vocalist in
Newark's Mount Zion Baptist Church choir. 
1990.
A few months before her death, she had teamed up with producer Qunicy
Jones to record some tracks for his Back on the Block album. On that
album, Vaughan's recording of September would be her last. 
