Sarah Vaughan

Among the most remarkable vocalists of the twentieth century, Sarah Vaughan stood alongside Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at the pinnacle of female jazz singers. Her expansive range, meticulously governed vibrato, and vast expressive capacity frequently conveyed the sense that she could shape her instrument in any manner she chose. While many of her numerous recordings fall short of essential status, since a lesser composition might prompt her to overwhelm it entirely, her stature as both a live performer and a studio artist will prove nearly impossible to equal going forward.

As a youngster Vaughan performed in church and received thorough piano instruction from 1931 to 1939, emerging as a skilled pianist. Following victory in an amateur competition at the Apollo Theater, she joined the Earl Hines orchestra as vocalist and second piano player. The musicians’ recording ban of 1943-44 prevented her from committing any material to disc during that interval. When longtime associate Billy Eckstine departed to establish his own ensemble, Vaughan followed, thereby launching her recording career. She thrived in Eckstine’s band, absorbing influences from sidemen Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, both of whom had previously worked with Hines during her own tenure. Vaughan ranked among the earliest singers to integrate full bop phrasing into her delivery and possessed the technical facility to execute it at the caliber of Parker and Gillespie themselves.

Apart from a brief stint with John Kirby spanning late 1945 into 1946, Sarah Vaughan pursued the balance of her career as a featured solo attraction. Though she appeared somewhat ungainly in 1945, her first husband George Treadwell would later refine her stage presentation, no one could overlook the sheer power of her voice. Early dates for Continental included a December 31, 1944 session featuring her vocal adaptation of “A Night in Tunisia,” issued as “Interlude,” and a May 25, 1945 date that enlisted Gillespie and Parker as accompanists. Yet it was her 1946-48 Musicraft sides, among them “If You Could See Me Now,” “Tenderly,” and “It’s Magic,” that revealed her swift artistic growth and the grafting of bop-inflected phrasing onto standard material. Under contract to Columbia from 1949 to 1953, “Sassy” steadily broadened her audience; although certain dates leaned heavily commercial, eight standout performances recorded with Jimmy Jones’s octet on May 18-19, 1950, and featuring Miles Davis, confirmed her ability to deliver jazz at the highest level.

Throughout the 1950s Vaughan cut middle-of-the-road pop sessions with large orchestras for Mercury while simultaneously producing jazz dates for the label’s EmArcy subsidiary, including the memorable collaboration Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown. Subsequent affiliations encompassed Roulette from 1960 to 1964, a return to Mercury from 1963 to 1967, and, following a four-year recording hiatus, Mainstream from 1971 to 1974. Over time her timbre gained depth without sacrificing power, suppleness, or compass. A supreme scat artist, she could out-swing nearly any rival save Ella. Vaughan remained with Norman Granz’s Pablo label from 1977 to 1982; only in her final years did her studio output weaken, limited to two negligible releases after 1982. Until shortly before her death she continued an international itinerary, performing and socializing into the small hours while her extraordinary voice stayed in peak condition. The bulk of her catalogue remains in print today, encompassing comprehensive editions of the Mercury and EmArcy years, and Sarah Vaughan commands the same renown she enjoyed during her most prolific period.