Jazz critic Leonard Feather called her “the most important singer to emerge from the bop era.” Ella Fitzgerald called her the world’s “greatest singing talent.” During the course of a career that spanned nearly fifty years, she was the singer’s singer, influencing everyone from Mel Torme to Anita Baker. She was among the musical elite identified by their first names. She was Sarah, Sassy — the incomparable Sarah Vaughan.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1924, Vaughan was immediately surrounded by music: her carpenter father was an amateur guitarist and her laundress mother was a church vocalist. Young Sarah studied piano from the age of seven, and before entering her teens had become an organist and choir soloist at the Mount Zion Baptist Church. When she was eighteen, friends dared her to enter the famed Wednesday Night Amateur Contest at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. She gave a sizzling rendition of “Body and Soul,” and won first prize. In the audience that night was the singer Billy Eckstine. Six months later, she had joined Eckstine in Earl Hines’s big band along with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
When Eckstine formed his own band soon after, Vaughan went with him. Others including Miles Davis and Art Blakey, were eventually to join the band as well. Within a year, however, Vaughan wanted to give a solo career a try. By late 1947, she had topped the charts with “Tenderly,” and as the 1940s gave way to the 1950s, Vaughan expanded her jazz repertoire to include pop music. As a result, she enlarged her audience, gained increased attention for her formidable talent, and compiled additional hits, including the Broadway show tunes “Whatever Lola Wants” and “Mr. Wonderful.” While jazz purists balked at these efforts, no one could deny that in any genre, Vaughan had one of the greatest voices in the business.
In the late 1960s, Vaughan returned to jazz music, performing and making regular recordings. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s she recorded with such jazz notables as Oscar Peterson, Louie Bellson, Zoot Sims, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Don Cherry, and J.J. Johnson. Her recordings of the “Duke Ellington Song Book (1 and 2)” are considered some of the finest recordings of the time. While for many years her signature song had been “Misty,” by the mid-70’s, she was closing every show with Sondheim’s “Bring In The Clowns.” In 1982, while in her late fifties, Vaughan won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocalist for her album, “Gershwin Live”!
While she continued to work without the massive commercial success enjoyed by colleagues such as Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney, and Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan consistently retained a special place in the hearts of fellow musicians and audiences alike. She continually performed at top venues, playing to adoring sell-out crowds well into her sixties. Remarkably, unlike many singers, she lost none of her extraordinary talent as time went on. Her multi-octave range, with its swooping highs and sensual lows, and the youthful suppleness of her voice shaded by a luscious timbre and executed with fierce control, all remained intact. In 1990, at the age sixty-six, Sarah Vaughan passed away. Shortly after her death, Mel Torme summed up the feelings of all who had seen her, saying “She had the single best vocal instrument of any singer working in the popular field.”
The album Sarah Vaughan accompanied by Clifford Brown is perhaps her finest work. Misty with the saxophone of Zoot Sims is a great song.
very talented
i am helping my fourth grader on a project due monday on her for black history month. The hard part is trying to summerize everything down to two or three pargraphs. This i the first i have heard of her but not the first time hearing her music. Looks like we both will be learning something new. :-)
Shes cool
A brokenhearted MELODY.
Her theme song became “Send in the Clowns,” not “Bring in the Clowns.” Get it right, you clowns!
Go on to youtube and listen to her singing The Shadow of Your Smile live…stunning, absolutely magnificent. Brings tears to my eyes. What a gift, what a magnificent gift that woman had. I have adored her, worshipped her voice for many years and to know that she’s been gone for 20 years still saddens me. Her version of My Man is brilliant!
Love you Sassy!!
shes great
Sarah, Dave Garaway was right — you ARE devine! Miss you greatly. Thanks to my Sarah Vaughan vynal & cd collection, we can visit anytime.
I had never heard of Sarah Vaughn but happily, my partner Wayne, loved her so much so on March 11, 1973 I gave him a great gift as a surprise when I took him to the Copacabana on 59th Street to have dinner. After dinner I told him that there was a band with a singer. Wayne was shocked when he saw her. After the show, I got an autograph for Wayne. Since then, I fell in love with Sassy also and had seen her several times on Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Beacon theater. We still listen to her a lot of time.
LIKE MRS. DOWE MENTIONED HERE (march 5,2010), IT IS EXTREMELY HARD TO NARROW DOWN IN THREE PARAGRAPHS ALL OF THE THINGS YOU WANT TO SAY ABOUT SARAH. I AM ALSO CURRENTLY WORKING ON A COLLEGE ENGLISH PAPER ABOUT “THE DEVINE ONE”, AND I FEEL THE WAY VIRTUALLY EVERYONE ON THIS BLOG FEELS ABOUT HER. I CAN’T BEGIN TO SUM UP MY APPRECIATION FOR HER EXTRAORDINARY TALENT. MY PAPER WAS ORIGINALLY ON HOW SARAH, BILLIE HOLLIDAY, AND ELLA FITZGERALD CONTRIBUTED TO JAZZ AND MUSIC IN GENERAL, BUT I HAD TO CHANGE IT BY ELIMINATING THE OTHER TWO, (though I love their work just as much), BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP READING INFO ON SARAH. AND SINCE I FOUND OUT WE WERE BORN AND RAISED IN THE SAME CITY,( & that my bday is 3 days b4 hers), I AM THAT MUCH MORE ASTONISHED BY AND APPRECIATIVE OF HER WORK. I DISCOVERED HER MUSIC ABOUT 3 YEARS AGO AT AGE 27 BY RENTING RANDOM CD’s AT A LOCAL LIBRARY. I HAVE SINCE THEN, NOT ONLY ‘BURNED’ THAT CD I BORROWED TO MY COMPUTER, BUT HAVE ALSO STARTED COLLECTING HER MUSIC EVER SINCE. I EVEN CREATED A PANDORA STATION FOR HER SO I CAN HEAR HER EVERYDAY, EVERYWHERE. GOD REALLY HAS SMILED ON US WHEN HE MADE HER MARIO ALBERICO! (march 27,2010).
I saw her at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL in 1985 at THE PLAYBOY JAZZ FESTIVAL.
I’m doing a project on her and I’m in 5 grade I want to become a famous singer and I like her
Listening to the Complete Mercury recording songbook volume 1. Her beautiful voice always helps to lighten my mood and mellow me out. Thank you Sarah.
Sarah . . . Are ya’ list’ning? When you died, I cried hysterically. I mean I couldn’t stop. Know why?
You taught me to sing Jazz. Didn’t know that, did’ja.
It’s simple:
After listening to you for years, I couldn’t imagine how you could leave a note . . . play around the heavens with it
and know exactly how to return to the right chord. So you know what I did? I memorized your “lics.”
Now, don’t get angry. I was only trying to learn. And an amazing thing happened. Singing your “lics” opened up Jazz Channels in my own head, so that I was able to sing my own.
Yes my Darling Sarah, you taught me to sing jazz. Thank you and GodBlessYou as your music blesses us for all time.
Respectfully,
Lilyan
Great comments.
Mine: After listening to Jazz for many, many years, and being a musician myself, I can say without any reservation that Sarah Vaughan was the greatest Jazz singer, period. Popularity and money are not indicators of greatness – they never were – particularly in art. Neither were flashy but meaningless and misdirected scat singing, or trivial but funny interpretations of songs. Those who mistakenly compare Sarah Vaughan to more financially successful stars or stars that do one thing better or worse, etc. do so at the cost of the art’s dignity. Sarah knew what “good music” (as she called it) was and let its inherent qualities guide her to ever greater pressence and expressiveness. This is evidenced not only by the incredible record of her music that she has so graceously left us, but also by the musicians she associated with for a carreer that spanned some 50 years and was still going strong when she sadly left us all behind.
Godspeed Woman.
Tom
I fell in love with Sassy when I was about 12. I first saw her in person 9 years later at the Black Orchid in Atlantic City. After the show she stood about 3 feet from me but I was too spellbound to say anything to her. Have seen her many times since. She is indeed incomparable. I use present tense ’cause she still lives in my heart.
She was the greatest. I always liked her and started buying her music in the 80’s. I miss her and all the singers of that era. It’s good to see comments from other fans.
Her recording in the fifties “Saint or Sinner [Sinner or Saint"] was the first time I became aware of Sarah.
I was aBritish National Serviceman serving in Cyprus with 35 Field Engineer Regiment near Limassol.
BFBS broadcast the record most nights and the entire camp went silent when it was played
I would love to hear one more time before I die.
I am 75 years old and a drummer who has been working the clubs in Chicago since I was a teenager. Sarah Vaughn was a tremendous influence on me as a youngster. I would,and still listen to all her music. Would go see her whenever she was in Chicago and always blew me away. Musicians wanted to play the way she sang. Had the pleasure of working with a few piano players who worked with her,and said she was “THE BEST”. The young singers of today should listen to Sarah. Miss her very much,but gratefull for having her voice in my life.