Sarah Vaughan. (credit: © Herb Snitzer)
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Sarah Lois Vaughan |
For more information on Sarah Lois Vaughan, visit Britannica.com.
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Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia:
Sarah (Lois) Vaughan |
(b Newark, nj, 27 March 1924; d Hidden Hills, ca, 3 April 1990). American jazz and popular singer. She established a lasting reputation as a jazz singer in the mid-1940s when she worked with such bop musicians as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Most of her career was involved with commercial popular music to which she brought high artistry.
Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:
Sarah Lois Vaughan |
Sarah Lois Vaughan (1924-1990) was one of jazz's greatest singers for almost half a century. Her rich voice and distinctive style, often applied to popular songs, brought her fame beyond the confines of the jazz world.
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. 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.
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, 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.
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.
Further Reading
There are countless articles on Sarah Vaughan but no full-length study as yet. The best short piece is in Gary Giddins' Riding on a Blue Note (1981). By far the most rounded portrayal is to be found in the excellent one-hour documentary film "Sarah Vaughan: The Divine One" (1991), a joint U.S.-Japanese-German production. Additional information is available at the Sarah Vaughan Site athttp://www.geocities.com/vienna/8244.
Gale Contemporary Black Biography:
Sarah Vaughan |
singer; pianist
Personal Information
Born Sarah Lois Vaughan on March 27, 1924, in Newark, NJ; died of lung cancer, April 4, 1990; daughter of Asbury (a carpenter) and Ada (a laundress) Vaughan; married George (a musician) Treadwell, 1946, (divorced 1958); married Clyde B. (former professional athlete) Atkins, 1958, (divorced 1968); married Wymon Reed (musician), 1978.
Career
Won talent contest at Apollo Theatre in October 1943; joined the band of Earl Hines in April 1943; became member of the Billy Eckstine Orchestra in 1944; performed with the sextet of John Kirby 1945-46; from 1946 onward performed as a solo act; signed a five- year contract with Columbia, 1949; recorded on Mercury label 1954-59; scored first million-selling hit with "Broken-Hearted Melody" in 1958; recorded on Roulette, Mercury, and Columbia labels 1960-67; recorded for the Pablo label in 1980s; recorded a album of Latin songs, 1987.
Life's Work
In the 1940s, when most women singers adorned big bands as stage attractions rather than legitimate members of jazz ensembles, Sarah Vaughan, along with her predecessor Ella Fitzgerald, helped elevate the vocalist's role as equal to that of the jazz instrumentalist. A woman known for her many vicissitudes, Vaughan's outspoken personality and artistic eloquence brought her the sobriquets "Sassy" and "The Divine One"--the latter a name coined by Chicago disc jockey Dave Garroway. A talented pianist, she joined the ranks of the 1940s bebop movement and became, as a member of the Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine bands, one of its most celebrated vocalists. Her dynamic vocal range, sophisticated harmonic sense, and horn-like phrasing brought Vaughan million-selling numbers and a stage and recording career that spanned half a decade.
Sarah Lois Vaughan was born the daughter of Asbury and Ada Vaughan on March 27, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey. As a youth Vaughan took piano lessons and attended the Mount Zion Baptist Church, where she served as a church keyboardist. Though a religious man, Vaughan's father, known by the family as Jake, spent evenings playing simple blues-style numbers on guitar. At home Vaughan played the family's upright piano and listened to the recordings of jazz artists Count Basie and Erskine Hawkins. After discovering Newark's numerous theaters and movie houses, she skipped school and left home at night to watch dances and stage shows. By age 15, she performed at local clubs, playing piano and singing. Slight in figure and sloppily dressed, she nevertheless made a favorable impression on the night crowd.
Not long after, Vaughan took the train across the river to Harlem to frequent the Savoy Ballroom and the Apollo Theatre. One evening, in 1943, she sat in at the Apollo amateur show, a fiercely competitive contest that often exposed lesser talents to the harsh criticism of the theater's audience. Vaughan's moving performance of "Body and Soul" not only brought a fever of applause from the crowd, it astounded singer Billy Eckstine who told Max Jones in Talking Jazz, "I couldn't believe ... what I was listening to." He further related, "Right afterwards I went backstage, and grabbed her, [and] said: Look here, I want to talk to you.' She was just as naive and scared as she could be: right away she figured somebody was giving her a big deal."
Eckstine informed his bandleader Earl "Fatha" Hines about the young singer. Hines then allowed Vaughan to attend the band's uptown band rehearsal. At the rehearsal, Vaughan's singing won immediate praise from Hines and his musicians. (Though Vaughan upheld Eckstine's account, Hines later claimed that he discovered the young singer and brought her into the band).
One of the premiere modern big bands of the era, Hines's ensemble included such talents as trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, saxophonist Charlie Parker, and trombonist J. J. Johnson. As the only female bandmember, Vaughan shared the vocal spotlight with Eckstine and played piano, often in duet settings with Hines. Vaughan debuted at the Apollo with Hines's band on April 23, 1943. In Profiles in Jazz, Vaughan recounted her stint with Hines: "How lucky I was. That's the best experience I'll ever have.... Everything was new to me. I never had so much fun." Commenting on the educational value of the Hines band she added, in To Be, or Not to Bop that "I really didn't have to go to Julliard [music school], I was right there in it."
Not long after, most of Hines's modernist sidemen, including Gillespie, Parker, and Eckstine, gradually left the band. Vaughan remained briefly with Hines's band until she accepted an invitation to join Eckstine's newly-formed bebop big band in 1944. In December of that year, she cut her first side "I'll Wait and Pray," backed by the Eckstine band, which included Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons, and pianist John Malachi. Years later, in To Be, Or Not to Bop, Vaughan recalled the high caliber of musicianship and demanding expectations of the Eckstine band, commenting "It was a very rough band. They kept me in order. I'm telling you they used to beat me to death if I got out of line."
Through the intercession of jazz writer and pianist Leonard Feather, Vaughan recorded her first date as a leader for the small Continental label. Under the production of Feather, Vaughan and Her All-Stars attended their session on New Year's Eve 1944. Acting as the session's producer and pianist, Feather assembled such sidemen as Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist Georgie Auld to cut four sides: "Signing Off," Feather's "No Smoke Blues," Gillespie's "Interlude" (a vocal version of "Night in Tunisia"), and "East of the Sun," on which Gillespie replaced Feather on keyboard.
On a second session, Feather relinquished the piano duties to Nat Jaffe, and brought together Gillespie and Charlie Parker. As Feather recalled in The Jazz Years, "We had a strong rhythm section with Bill De Arango, Curly Russell, and Max Roach. Sarah already was offering proof that ballads were her forte: Peggy Lee's song `What More Can a Woman Do?' seemed made for her."
After a nearly year-long stay with the Eckstine band, Vaughan left the band. With the exception of a job with the sextet of bassist and trombonist John Kirby in the winter of 1945, she performed as a solo act. On May 11, 1945 she recorded "Lover Man" with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. In October of 1945 Vaughan signed with Musicraft label, and, in the same month, recorded for the label with jazz violinist Stuff Smith's group. Her Musicraft 1946 recording of Tadd Dameron's "If You Could See Me Now" is considered a modern classic. She also recorded with the bands of Dickie Wells and Georgie Auld.
Throughout this time, Vaughan worked at the Cafe Society Downtown in Greenwich Village, where she met a handsome trumpeter, George Treadwell, who had performed in the bands of drummer J. C. Heard, Lucky Millinder, and Cootie Williams. Married to Treadwell in September of 1946, Vaughan entered into a period that, as Barry Ulanov described in A History of Jazz, "seemed balanced, burgeoning, brightly burdened," as Vaughan's manager Treadwell set out to improve his wife's image and on-stage appearance. Though the couple began the marriage in well financial stead, over the next decade Treadwell's management of Vaughan's bookings and personal accounts nearly devastated her career.
Hailed by Metronome magazine as the "Influence of the Year" in 1948, Vaughan rose to jazz stardom. In the following year, she signed a five-year contract with Columbia and recorded her classic "Black Coffee" with the Joe Lippman Orchestra--a number that climbed to number 13 on Billboard's pop charts. For Columbia she recorded in various settings and attended two sessions that emerged as the albums Summertime, with the Jimmy Jones band, and Sarah Vaughan in Hi-Fi, both of which featured trumpeter Miles Davis. As Leslie Gourse observed in Sassy, "[Vaughan] was now presenting herself as a pop singer who could do popular ballads in a straightforward style, the soft, sultry sound of her voice unfurling with hypnotic effect, moving with ease between her soprano and contralto registers." During the next year, Vaughan made her first trip to Europe. During her stay in England she sang to enthusiastic audience at Royal Albert Hall.
In 1954, Vaughan signed a contract with the Mercury label and recorded numerous sides primarily in orchestral settings. In December of the same year, her trio--pianist Jimmy Jones, bassist Joe Benjamin, and drummer Roy Haynes--joined 24-year-old trumpet talent Clifford Brown, saxophonist Paul Quinichette, and flutist Herbie Mann to record the LP Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown. Surrounded by first-rate musicians sensitive to her vocal talent, Vaughan produced an album that, as the author to the original LP's notes wrote, "It is doubtful whether anyone, including Sarah herself, is likely to be able to find any more completely satisfying representation of her work, or any more appropriate musical setting than are offered in this LP. These sides are sure to rank among the foremost achievements of her decade as a recording artist."
During a stint at Chicago's Mr. Kelly's nightclub in August of 1957, Vaughan recorded a live album with her trio: pianist Jimmy Jones, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Roy Haynes. In the following year, she and pianist Ronnell Bright recorded with the Count Basie Band and took part in a session in Paris under the direction of orchestra leader and conductor Quincy Jones, issued as the Mercury LP, Vaughan and Violins.
In 1958, Vaughan divorced George Treadwell and entered into a stormy marriage with former professional football player and taxicab company owner, Clyde B. Atkins. Without experience in the music field, Atkins briefly, and unsuccessfully, served as her manager. Despite the ultimate setbacks experienced through her marriage with Atkins, Vaughan began her marriage with a yearly income of $230,000. In July of the following year, she scored her first million-selling hit, "Broken Hearted Melody," with the Ray Ellis Orchestra. A hit with both black and white audiences, "Broken Hearted Melody," which was nominated for a Grammy Award, reached number five on the pop R&B charts.
"The vocal range Sarah had developed by this time," observed Bruce Crowther in The Jazz Singers, "was making her difficult to categorize, and also possibly a mite daunting to her accompanists. The dexterity with which she uses her voice--which many an opera singer envies for its range, power and superb texture--is quite remarkable and sometimes appears to demand a full orchestral backing. Yet, when accompanied by musicians as tastefully inventive as herself, she can turn in delightful and thoughtful jazz performances with just a handful of kindred spirits."
When Vaughan's contract with Mercury ended in the fall of 1959, she signed with Roulette Records and became, over the next few years, one the label's biggest stars. Her 1960 sessions for Roulette included The Divine One, arranged by Jimmy Jones and a session with Count Basie Band featuring such talents as trumpeters Thad Jones and Joe Newman and saxophonists Frank Foster and Billy Mitchell. Featured in duet numbers with singer Joe Williams, the Basie Band session produced the sides, "If I Were a Bell" and "Teach Me Tonight."
In the film documentary Masters of American Music, Williams described Vaughan's vocal talent: "What a fresh, and really fresh sound, nothing like Ella [Fitzgerald], and nothing like Billie Holiday. She had tone, and a pitch, and musicianship that was always different from anybody else." The duets recorded with Williams, along with several arrangements recorded with the Basie Band in January of 1961, were complied as the album Sarah Vaughan and Count Basie. In the LP's liner notes James Gavin noted, "Certainly few albums contain greater proof that Vaughan was an instrumentalist at heart."
Vaughan signed with Mercury again in 1963. Her recorded work in the sixties featured the ensembles of Benny Carter, Quincy Jones, and Gerald Wilson. Her trio accompanists included noted pianists Roland Hanna and Bob James. Vaughan debuted on the Mainstream record label with the 1971 LP A Time in Life--a work arranged and conducted by Ernie Wilkins. On her 1977 live recording at Ronnie Scott's in the Soho section of London, Vaughan produced a classic with her rendition of "Send in the Clowns."
At age 54, Vaughan married 38-year-old Waymon Reed whom she appointed musical director and road manager of her group. That same year, she recorded an album backed by pianist Oscar Peterson, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Louie Bellson. Recorded with an-star line up, she devoted two albums, in 1979, to the music of Duke Ellington, Duke Ellington Songbook One and Duke Ellington Songbook Two. Though she had been nominated for Grammy Awards several times, including a nomination for her 1979 effort I Love Brazil, Vaughan did not win her first Grammy until 1982 for Gershwin Live!.
Throughout the 1980s Vaughan recorded on the Pablo label, often with the label's featured artists Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and Dizzy Gillespie. As she told Max Jones in Talking Jazz. "Now that I've been in so long, you know, I can work with whom I want to. I have more say-so now over what jobs I do and how I want to do them." During a trip to Brazil in 1987, she recorded the CBS album Brazilian Romance and afterward appeared at a festival in Rio de Janeiro. On her last recording--Quincy Jones's all-star 1989 album Back on the Block--she sang with Ella Fitzgerald on the introduction of "Birdland." In February, of the same year, she received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.
A tireless live performer who still maintained a fine voice, Vaughan showed little signs of artistic diminution. Offstage, however, band members began to notice the slowed pace of her walk and her shortness of breath. Diagnosed with lung cancer she underwent chemotherapy treatment. Sadly, she died on April 4, 1990.
Jazz artists and critics have described Sarah Vaughan as a musical innovator whose voice reached the level of the finest jazz instrumentalists. In Talking Jazz, singer Betty Carter told how "Sarah Vaughan took those melodies and did something with them. She opened the door to do anything you wanted with a melody." From her first appearances on the jazz scene in the early 1940s until her death, Vaughan's voice became a model of excellence and an inspiration of those venturing to strive beyond the role of popular vocal entertainer and into the higher realm of musical artistry.
Awards
Emmy Award, for individual achievement, 1981; Grammy Award for best jazz vocalist, 1982; Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, 1985; Grammy Award, for lifetime achievement, 1989.
Works
Selective Discography
Further Reading
Books
— John Cohassey
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Sarah Vaughan |
Bibliography
See biographies by L. Gourse (1993) and M. Ruuth (1994); discography by D. Brown (1991).
AMG AllMovie Guide:
Sarah Vaughan |
Filmography:
Sarah Vaughan |
Gale Musician Profiles:
Sarah Vaughan |
| For The Record... |
| Full name Sarah Lois Vaughan; born March 27, 1924, in Newark, N.J.; daughter of Asbury (a carpenter) and Ada (a laundress; maiden name Baylor) Vaughan; married George Treadwell (a trumpeter), 1947 (divorced, 1956); married Clyde B. Atkins (a businessman), 1959 (divorced, 1968); married Marshall Fisher (a restaurant owner), 1971 (divorced, 1977); married Waymon Reed, 1978; children: Deborah (adopted). Education: Graduate of Arts High School, Newark, N.J. Singer, 1942—. Signed with the Earl Hines Orchestra, 1942, made debut with Hines, April 23, 1943, singing and playing piano; joined Billy Eckstine Band, 1944, and John Kirby Orchestra, 1945; solo performer and recording artist, 1945—. Cut first solo album for Continental Records, 1945; signed with Columbia Records, 1949, switched to Mercury Records, 1953, and Mainstream Records, 1972. Released hit singles “C’est la Vie,” “The Banana Boat Song,” “Smooth Operator,” and “Broken-Hearted Melody,” among others, 1953–59; appeared in feature films Murder, Inc., 1950, Disc Jockey, 1951, and Harlem Follies, 1955. Has made guest appearances with numerous bands and orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Count Basie Orchestra. Recipient of numerous awards and honors, including an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, 1983, and induction into down beat magazine’s Hall of Fame, 1985. Addresses: Agent—Triad Artists, Inc., 10100 Santa Monica Blvd., 16th Floor, Los Angeles, Calif. 90067; Other— 24921 Kit Carson, Hidden Hills, Calif. 91302. |
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
Sarah Vaughan |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Sarah Vaughan |
| Sarah Vaughan | |
|---|---|
Sarah Vaughan, c. 1946 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Sarah Lois Vaughan |
| Also known as | "Sassy" "The Divine One" "Sailor" |
| Born | March 27, 1924 Newark, New Jersey, United States |
| Died | April 3, 1990 (aged 66) Hidden Hills, California |
| Genres | Vocal jazz, bebop, cool jazz, traditional pop |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Years active | 1942–1989 |
| Labels | Columbia, Mercury, Roulette, Pablo |
Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."[1]
Nicknamed "Sailor" (for her salty speech),[2] "Sassy" and "The Divine One", Sarah Vaughan was a Grammy Award winner.[3] The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its "highest honor in jazz", the NEA Jazz Masters Award, in 1989.[4]
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Contents
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Sarah Vaughan's father, Asbury "Jake" Vaughan, was a carpenter by trade and played guitar and piano. Her mother, Ada Vaughan, was a laundress and sang in the church choir.[5] Jake and Ada Vaughan had migrated to Newark from Virginia during the First World War. Sarah was their only natural child, although in the 1960s they adopted Donna, the child of a woman who traveled on the road with Sarah Vaughan.[6]
The Vaughans lived in a house on Brunswick Street, in Newark, New Jersey, for Sarah's entire childhood.[6] Jake Vaughan was deeply religious and the family was very active in the New Mount Zion Baptist Church on 186 Thomas Street. Sarah began piano lessons at the age of seven, sang in the church choir and occasionally played piano for rehearsals and services.
Vaughan developed an early love for popular music on records and the radio. In the 1930s, Newark had a very active live music scene and Vaughan frequently saw local and touring bands that played in the city at venues like the Montgomery Street Skating Rink.[6] By her mid-teens, Vaughan began venturing (illegally) into Newark's night clubs and performing as a pianist and, occasionally, singer, most notably at the Piccadilly Club and the Newark Airport USO.
Vaughan initially attended Newark's East Side High School, later transferring to Newark Arts High School,[6] which had opened in 1931 as the United States' first arts "magnet" high school. However, her nocturnal adventures as a performer began to overwhelm her academic pursuits and Vaughan dropped out of high school during her junior year to concentrate more fully on music. Around this time, Vaughan and her friends also began venturing across the Hudson River into New York City to hear big bands at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
Biographies of Vaughan frequently stated that she was immediately thrust into stardom after a winning Amateur Night performance at Harlem's Apollo Theater. In fact, the story that biographer Leslie Gourse relates seems to be a bit more complex. Vaughan was frequently accompanied by a friend, Doris Robinson, on her trips into New York City. Sometime in the fall of 1942 (when Sarah was 18 years old), Vaughan suggested that Robinson enter the Apollo Amateur Night contest. Vaughan played piano accompaniment for Robinson, who won second prize. Vaughan later decided to go back and compete herself as a singer. Vaughan sang "Body and Soul" and won, although the exact date of her victorious Apollo performance is uncertain. The prize, as Vaughan recalled later to Marian McPartland, was US$10 and the promise of a week's engagement at the Apollo. After a considerable delay, Vaughan was contacted by the Apollo in the spring of 1943 to open for Ella Fitzgerald.
Sometime during her week of performances at the Apollo, Vaughan was introduced to bandleader and pianist Earl Hines, although the exact details of that introduction are disputed. Billy Eckstine, Hines' singer at the time, has been credited by Vaughan and others with hearing her at the Apollo and recommending her to Hines. Hines also claimed to have discovered her himself and offered her a job on the spot. Regardless, after a brief tryout at the Apollo, Hines officially replaced his existing female singer with Vaughan on April 4, 1943.
Vaughan spent the remainder of 1943 and part of 1944 touring the country with the Earl Hines big band that also featured baritone Billy Eckstine. Vaughan was hired as a pianist, reputedly so Hines could hire her under the jurisdiction of the musicians' union (American Federation of Musicians) rather than the singers union (American Guild of Variety Artists), but after Cliff Smalls joined the band as a trombonist and pianist, Sarah's duties became limited exclusively to singing. This Earl Hines band is best remembered today as an incubator of bebop, as it included trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonist Charlie Parker (playing tenor saxophone rather than the alto saxophone that he would become famous with later) and trombonist Bennie Green. Gillespie also arranged for the band, although a recording ban by the musicians union prevented the band from recording and preserving its sound and style for posterity.
Eckstine left the Hines band in late 1943 and formed his own big band with Gillespie, leaving Hines to become the new band's musical director. Parker came along too, and the Eckstine band over the next few years would host a startling cast of jazz talent: Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Art Blakey, Lucky Thompson, Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon, among others.
Vaughan accepted Eckstine's invitation to join his new band in 1944, giving her an opportunity to develop her musicianship with the seminal figures in this era of jazz. Eckstine's band also afforded her first recording opportunity, a December 5, 1944 date that yielded the song "I'll Wait and Pray" for the Deluxe label. That date led to critic and producer Leonard Feather to ask her to cut four sides under her own name later that month for the Continental label, backed by a septet that included Dizzy Gillespie and Georgie Auld.
Band pianist John Malachi is credited with giving Vaughan the moniker "Sassy", a nickname that matched her personality. Vaughan liked it and the name (and its shortened variant "Sass") stuck with colleagues and, eventually, the press. In written communications, Vaughan often spelled it "Sassie".
Vaughan officially left the Eckstine band in late 1944 to pursue a solo career, although she remained very close to Eckstine personally and recorded with him frequently throughout her life.
Vaughan began her solo career in 1945 by freelancing in clubs on New York's 52nd Street like the Three Deuces, the Famous Door, the Downbeat and the Onyx Club. Vaughan also hung around the Braddock Grill, next door to the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. On May 11, 1945, Vaughan recorded "Lover Man" for the Guild label with a quintet featuring Gillespie and Parker with Al Haig on piano, Curly Russell on double bass and Sid Catlett on drums. Later that month she went into the studio with a slightly different and larger Gillespie/Parker aggregation and recorded three more sides.
After being invited by violinist Stuff Smith to record the song "Time and Again" in October, Vaughan was offered a contract to record for the Musicraft label by owner Albert Marx, although she would not begin recording as a leader for Musicraft until May 7, 1946. In the intervening time, Vaughan made a handful of recordings for the Crown and Gotham labels and began performing regularly at Cafe Society Downtown, an integrated club in New York's Sheridan Square.
While at Cafe Society, Vaughan became friends with trumpeter George Treadwell. Treadwell became Vaughan's manager and she ultimately delegated to him most of the musical director responsibilities for her recording sessions, leaving her free to focus almost entirely on singing. Over the next few years, Treadwell also made significant positive changes in Vaughan's stage appearance. Aside from an improved wardrobe and hair style, Vaughan had her teeth capped, eliminating an unsightly gap between her two front teeth.
Many of Vaughan's 1946 Musicraft recordings became quite well known among jazz aficionados and critics, including "If You Could See Me Now" (written and arranged by Tadd Dameron), "Don't Blame Me", "I've Got a Crush on You", "Everything I Have Is Yours" and "Body and Soul". With Vaughan and Treadwell's professional relationship on solid footing, the couple married on September 16, 1946.
Vaughan's recording success for Musicraft continued through 1947 and 1948. Her recording of "Tenderly" became an unexpected pop hit in late 1947. Her December 27, 1947, recording of "It's Magic" (from the Doris Day film Romance on the High Seas) found chart success in early 1948. Her recording of "Nature Boy" from April 8, 1948, became a hit around the same time as the release of the famous Nat King Cole recording of the same song. Because of yet another recording ban by the musicians union, "Nature Boy" was recorded with an a cappella choir as the only accompaniment, adding an ethereal air to a song with a vaguely mystical lyric and melody.
The musicians union ban pushed Musicraft to the brink of bankruptcy and Vaughan used the missed royalty payments as an opportunity to sign with the larger Columbia record label. Following the settling of the legal issues, her chart successes continued with the charting of "Black Coffee" in the summer of 1949. During her tenure at Columbia through 1953, Vaughan was steered almost exclusively to commercial pop ballads, a number of which had chart success: "That Lucky Old Sun", "Make Believe (You Are Glad When You're Sorry)", "I'm Crazy to Love You", "Our Very Own", "I Love the Guy", "Thinking of You" (with pianist Bud Powell), "I Cried for You", "These Things I Offer You", "Vanity", "I Ran All the Way Home", "Saint or Sinner", "My Tormented Heart", and "Time", among others.
Vaughan also achieved substantial critical acclaim. She won Esquire magazine's New Star Award for 1947 as well as awards from Down Beat magazine continuously from 1947 through 1952, and from Metronome magazine from 1948 through 1953. A handful of critics disliked her singing as being "over-stylized", reflecting the heated controversies of the time over the new musical trends of the late 40s. However, the critical reception to the young singer was generally positive.
Recording and critical success led to numerous performing opportunities, packing clubs around the country almost continuously throughout the years of the late 1940s and early 1950s. In the summer of 1949, Vaughan made her first appearance with a symphony orchestra in a benefit for the Philadelphia Orchestra entitled "100 Men and a Girl." Around this time, Chicago disk jockey Dave Garroway coined a second nickname for her, "The Divine One", that would follow her throughout her career. One of her early television appearances was on DuMont's variety show Stars on Parade (1953–54) in which she sang "My Funny Valentine" and "Linger Awhile".
With improving finances, in 1949 Vaughan and Treadwell purchased a three-story house on 21 Avon Avenue in Newark, occupying the top floor during their increasingly rare off-hours at home and relocating Vaughan's parents to the lower two floors. However, the business pressures and personality conflicts led to a cooling in the personal relationship between Treadwell and Vaughan. Treadwell hired a road manager to handle Vaughan's touring needs and opened a management office in Manhattan so he could work with clients in addition to Vaughan.
Vaughan's relationship with Columbia Records also soured as she became dissatisfied with the commercial material she was required to record and lackluster financial success of her records. A set of small group sides recorded in 1950 with Miles Davis and Bennie Green are among the best of her career, but they were atypical of her Columbia output.
In 1953, Treadwell negotiated a unique contract for Vaughan with Mercury Records. She would record commercial material for the Mercury label and more jazz-oriented material for its subsidiary EmArcy. Vaughan was paired with producer Bob Shad and their excellent working relationship yielded strong commercial and artistic success. Her debut Mercury recording session took place in February 1954 and she stayed with the label through 1959. After a stint at Roulette Records (1960 to 1963), Vaughan returned to Mercury from 1964 to 1967.
Vaughan's commercial success at Mercury began with the 1954 hit, "Make Yourself Comfortable", recorded in the fall of 1954, and continued with a succession of hits, including: "How Important Can It Be" (with Count Basie), "Whatever Lola Wants", "The Banana Boat Song", "You Ought to Have A Wife" and "Misty". Her commercial success peaked in 1959 with "Broken Hearted Melody", a song she considered to be "corny", but, nonetheless, became her first gold record and a regular part of her concert repertoire for years to come. Vaughan was reunited with Billy Eckstine for a series of duet recordings in 1957 that yielded the hit "Passing Strangers". Vaughan's commercial recordings were handled by a number of different arrangers and conductors, primarily Hugo Peretti and Hal Mooney.
The jazz "track" of her recording career also proceeded apace, backed either by her working trio or various combinations of stellar jazz players. One of her own favorite albums was a 1954 sextet date that included Clifford Brown.
In the latter half of the 1950s she followed a schedule of almost non-stop touring, with many famous jazz musicians. She was featured at the first Newport Jazz Festival in the summer of 1954 and starred in subsequent editions of that festival at Newport and in New York City for the remainder of her life. In the fall of 1954, she performed at Carnegie Hall with the Count Basie Orchestra on a bill that also included Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Lester Young and the Modern Jazz Quartet. That fall, she again toured Europe successfully before embarking on a "Big Show" U. S. tour, a grueling succession of start-studded one-nighters that included Count Basie, George Shearing, Erroll Garner and Jimmy Rushing. At the 1955 New York Jazz Festival on Randalls Island, Vaughan shared the bill with the Dave Brubeck quartet, Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, and the Johnny Richards Orchestra
Although the professional relationship between Vaughan and Treadwell was quite successful through the 1950s, their personal relationship finally reached a breaking point and she filed for a divorce in 1958. Vaughan had entirely delegated financial matters to Treadwell, and despite stunning income figures reported through the 1950s, at the settlement Treadwell said that only $16,000 remained. The couple evenly divided that amount and their personal assets, terminating their business relationship.
The exit of Treadwell from Sarah Vaughan's life was also precipitated by the entry of Clyde "C.B." Atkins, a man of uncertain background whom she had met in Chicago and married on September 4, 1959. Although Atkins had no experience in artist management or music, Vaughan wished to have a mixed professional/personal relationship like the one she had with Treadwell. She made Atkins her personal manager, although she was still feeling the sting of the problems she had with Treadwell, and initially kept a slightly closer eye on Atkins. Vaughan and Atkins moved into a house in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.[7]
When Vaughan's contract with Mercury Records ended in late 1959, she immediately signed on with Roulette Records, a small label owned by Morris Levy, who was one of the backers of New York's Birdland, where she frequently appeared. Roulette's roster also included Count Basie, Joe Williams, Dinah Washington, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross and Maynard Ferguson.
Vaughan began recording for Roulette in April 1960, making a string of strong large ensemble albums arranged and/or conducted by Billy May, Jimmy Jones, Joe Reisman, Quincy Jones, Benny Carter, Lalo Schifrin, and Gerald Wilson. Surprisingly, she also had some pop chart success in 1960 with "Serenata" on Roulette and a couple of residual tracks from her Mercury contract, "Eternally" and "You're My Baby". She also made a pair of intimate vocal/guitar/double bass albums of jazz standards: After Hours (1961) with guitarist Mundell Lowe and double bassist George Duvivier and Sarah + 2 (1962) with guitarist Barney Kessell and double bassist Joe Comfort.
Vaughan was incapable of having children, so, in 1961, she and Atkins adopted a daughter, Debra Lois. However, the relationship with Atkins proved difficult and violent so, following a series of strange incidents, she filed for divorce in November 1963. She turned to two friends to help sort out the financial wreckage of the marriage: club owner John "Preacher" Wells, a childhood acquaintance, and Clyde "Pumpkin" Golden, Jr. Wells and Golden found that Atkins' gambling and profligate spending had put Vaughan around $150,000 in debt. The Englewood Cliffs house was ultimately seized by the IRS for nonpayment of taxes. Vaughan retained custody of their child and Golden essentially took Atkins place as Vaughan's manager and lover for the remainder of the decade.
Around the time of her second divorce, she also became disenchanted with Roulette Records. Roulette' finances were even more deceptive and opaque than usual in the record business and its recording artists often had little to show for their efforts other than some excellent records. When her contract with Roulette ended in 1963, Vaughan returned to the more familiar confines of Mercury Records. In the summer of 1963, Vaughan went to Denmark with producer Quincy Jones to record four days of live performances with her trio, Sassy Swings the Tivoli, an excellent example of her live show from this period. The following year, she made her first appearance at the White House, for President Johnson.
Unfortunately, the Tivoli recording would be the brightest moment of her second stint with Mercury. Changing demographics and tastes in the 1960s left jazz artists with shrinking audiences and inappropriate material. While Vaughan retained a following large and loyal enough to maintain her performing career, the quality and quantity of her recorded output dwindled even as her voice darkened and her skill remained undiminished. At the conclusion of her Mercury deal in 1967, she was left without a recording contract for the remainder of the decade.
In 1969, Vaughan terminated her professional relationship with Golden and relocated to the West Coast, settling first into a house near Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles and then into what would end up being her final home in Hidden Hills.
Vaughan met Marshall Fisher after a 1970 performance at a casino in Las Vegas and Fisher soon fell into the familiar dual role as Vaughan's lover and manager. Fisher was another man of uncertain background with no musical or entertainment business experience, but—unlike some of her earlier associates—he was a genuine fan devoted to furthering her career.
The seventies also heralded a rebirth in Vaughan's recording activity. In 1971, Bob Shad, who had worked with her as producer at Mercury Records, asked her to record for his new record label, Mainstream Records. Basie veteran Ernie Wilkins arranged and conducted her first Mainstream album, A Time In My Life in November 1971. In April 1972, Vaughan recorded a collection of ballads written, arranged and conducted by Michel Legrand. Arrangers Legrand, Peter Matz, Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson teamed up for Vaughan's third Mainstream album, Feelin' Good. Vaughan also recorded Live in Japan, a live album in Tokyo with her trio in September 1973.
During her sessions with Legrand, Bob Shad presented "Send In The Clowns", a Stephen Sondheim song from the Broadway musical A Little Night Music, to Vaughan for consideration. The song would become her signature, replacing the chestnut "Tenderly" that had been with her from the beginning of her solo career.
Unfortunately, Vaughan's relationship with Mainstream soured in 1974, allegedly in a conflict precipitated by Fisher over an album cover photograph and/or unpaid royalties[citation needed]. This left Vaughan again without a recording contract for three years.
In December 1974, Vaughan played a private concert for the United States President Gerald Ford and French president Giscard d'Estaing during their summit on Martinique.
Also in 1974, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas asked Vaughan to participate in an all-Gershwin show he was planning for a guest appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. The arrangements were by Marty Paich and the orchestra would be augmented by established jazz artists Dave Grusin on piano, Ray Brown on double bass, drummer Shelly Manne and saxophonists Bill Perkins and Pete Christlieb. The concert was a success and Thomas and Vaughan repeated the performance with Thomas' home orchestra in Buffalo, New York, followed by appearances in 1975 and 1976 with symphony orchestras around the country. These performances fulfilled a long-held interest by Vaughan in working with symphonies and she made orchestra performances without Thomas for the remainder of the decade.
In 1977, Vaughan terminated her personal and professional relationship with Marshall Fisher. Although Fisher is occasionally referenced as Vaughan's third husband, they were never legally married. Vaughan began a relationship with Waymond Reed, a trumpet player 16 years her junior who was playing with the Count Basie band. Reed joined her working trio as a musical director and trumpet player and became her third husband in 1978.
In 1977, Tom Guy, a young filmmaker and public TV producer, followed Vaughan around on tour, interviewing numerous artists speaking about her and capturing both concert and behind-the-scenes footage. The resulting sixteen hours of footage was pared down into an hour-and-a-half documentary, Listen To The Sun, that aired on September 21, 1978, on New Jersey Public Television, but was never commercially released.
In 1977, Norman Granz, who was also Ella Fitzgerald's manager, signed Vaughan to his Pablo Records label. Vaughan had not had a recording contract for three years, although she had recorded a 1977 album of Beatles songs with contemporary pop arrangements for Atlantic Records that was eventually released in 1981. Vaughan's first Pablo release was I Love Brazil, recorded with an all-star cast of Brazilian musicians in Rio de Janeiro in the fall of 1977. It garnered a Grammy nomination.
1977 also saw the release of the Godley & Creme album "Consequences", on which Vaughan sang one of the few tracks to achieve popularity outside of the album: "Lost Weekend".
The Pablo contract resulted in a total of seven albums: a second and equally wondrous Brazilian record, "Copacabana", again recorded in Rio (1979), How Long Has This Been Going On? (1978) with a quartet that included pianist Oscar Peterson, guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Louis Bellson; two Duke Ellington Songbook albums (1979); Send In The Clowns (1981) with the Count Basie orchestra playing arrangements primarily by Sammy Nestico; and Crazy and Mixed Up (1982), another quartet album featuring Sir Roland Hanna, piano, Joe Pass, guitar, Andy Simpkins, bass, and Harold Jones, drums.
Vaughan and Waymond Reed divorced in 1981.
Vaughan remained quite active as a performer during the 1980s and began receiving awards recognizing her contribution to American music and status as an important elder stateswoman of jazz. In the summer of 1980, Vaughan received a plaque on 52nd Street outside the CBS Building (Black Rock) commemorating the jazz clubs she had once frequented on "Swing Street" and which had long since been demolished and replaced with office buildings.
A performance of her symphonic Gershwin program with the New Jersey Symphony in 1980 was broadcast on PBS and won her an Emmy Award in 1981 for "Individual Achievement - Special Class". She was reunited with Michael Tilson Thomas for slightly modified version of the Gershwin program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the CBS Records recording, Gershwin Live! won Vaughan the Grammy award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female. In 1985, Vaughan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1988, Vaughan was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame.
After the conclusion of her Pablo contract in 1982, Vaughan did only a limited amount of studio recording. She made a guest appearance in 1984 on Barry Manilow's 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe, an album of original pastiche compositions that featured a number of established jazz artists. In 1984, Vaughan participated in one of the more unusual projects of her career, The Planet is Alive, Let It Live a symphonic piece composed by Tito Fontana and Sante Palumbo on Italian translations of Polish poems by Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II. The recording was made in Germany with an English translation by writer Gene Lees and was released by Lees on his own private label after the recording was turned down by the major labels. In 1986, Vaughan sang two songs, "Happy Talk" and "Bali Ha'i", in the role of Bloody Mary on an otherwise stiff studio recording by opera stars Kiri Te Kanawa and José Carreras of the score of the Broadway musical South Pacific, while sitting on the studio floor.
Vaughan's final complete album was Brazilian Romance, produced and composed by Sérgio Mendes and recorded primarily in the early part of 1987 in New York and Detroit. In 1988, Vaughan contributed vocals to an album of Christmas carols recorded by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with the Utah Symphony Orchestra and sold in Hallmark Cards stores. In 1989, Quincy Jones' album Back on the Block featured Vaughan in a brief scatting duet with Ella Fitzgerald. This was Vaughan's final studio recording and, fittingly, it was Vaughan's only formal studio recording with Fitzgerald in a career that had begun 46 years earlier opening for Fitzgerald at the Apollo.
Vaughan is featured in a number of video recordings from the 1980s. Sarah Vaughan Live from Monterey was taped in 1983 or 1984 and featured her working trio with guest soloists. Sass and Brass was taped in 1986 in New Orleans and also features her working trio with guest soloists, including Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson. Sarah Vaughan: The Divine One was featured in the American Masters series on PBS.
She was given the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing.[8]
In 1989, Vaughan's health began to decline, although she rarely revealed any hints in her performances. She canceled a series of engagements in Europe in 1989 citing the need to seek treatment for arthritis in the hand, although she was able to complete a later series of performances in Japan. During a run at New York's Blue Note jazz club in 1989, Vaughan received a diagnosis of lung cancer and was too ill to finish the final day of what would turn out to be her final series of public performances.
Vaughan returned to her home in California to begin chemotherapy and spent her final months alternating stays in the hospital and at home. Vaughan grew weary of the struggle and demanded to be taken home, where she died on the evening of April 3, 1990, while watching a television movie featuring her daughter, a week after her 66th birthday.
Vaughan's funeral was held at Mount Zion Baptist Church at 208 Broadway in Newark, New Jersey, which was the same congregation she grew up in, although relocated to a new building. Following the ceremony, a horse-drawn carriage transported her body to its final resting place in Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield, New Jersey.[9][10]
Recordings of Sarah Vaughan were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
| Grammy Hall of Fame[11] | ||||
| Year Recorded | Title | Genre | Label | Year Inducted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Sarah Vaughan With Clifford Brown | Jazz (Album) | Mercury | 1999 |
| 1946 | "If You Could See Me Now" | Jazz (Single) | Musicraft | 1998 |
|
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Although Vaughan is usually considered a "Jazz Singer", she avoided classifying herself as such. Indeed, her approach to her "Jazz" work and her commercial "Pop" material was not radically different. Vaughan stuck throughout her career to the jazz-infused style of music that she came of age with, only rarely dabbling in rock-era styles that usually did not suit her unique vocal talents. Vaughan discussed the label in an 1982 interview for Down Beat:
"I don't know why people call me a jazz singer, though I guess people associate me with jazz because I was raised in it, from way back. I'm not putting jazz down, but I'm not a jazz singer. Betty Bebop (Carter) is a jazz singer, because that's all she does. I've even been called a blues singer. I've recorded all kinds of music, but (to them) I'm either a jazz singer or a blues singer. I can't sing a blues - just a right-out blues - but I can put the blues in whatever I sing. I might sing 'Send In the Clowns' and I might stick a little bluesy part in it, or any song. What I want to do, music-wise, is all kinds of music that I like, and I like all kinds of music."
Vaughan was an accomplished pianist with a fine ear for bebop harmonies, but her most obvious gift was always her powerful voice. Her vocal range was vast in her youth, stretching from true female baritone lows to mezzo-soprano highs; as she aged, her lower register became stronger and her forays into her (still-strong) mezzo register became rare. Musicologist Henry Pleasants notes: "Sarah Vaughan who sings easily down to a contralto low D, ascends to a pure and accurate [soprano] high C."[12] The dynamic range, tonal quality and sheer beauty of her voice were near-operatic, while she attended. Vaughan was proficient at scatting, the improvisatory aspect of her art was focused more on ornamentation, phrasing and variation on melodies, which were almost always jazz standards. Perhaps her most noticeable musical mannerism was the creative use of often widely "swooping" glissandi through her wide entire vocal range, which was most sonorous in a dark chest register that grew deeper as she aged. Vaughan approached her voice more as a melodic instrument than a vehicle for dramatic interpretation of lyrics, although the expressive qualities of her style did accentuate lyrical meaning and she would often find unique and memorable ways of articulating and coloring individual key words in a lyric. She mainly performed in the contralto range.[13]
During her childhood in the 30s, Vaughan was strongly attracted to the popular music of the day, much to the consternation of her deeply religious father. She was certainly influenced by the gospel traditions that she grew up with in a Baptist church, but the more radically melismatic elements of those influences are less obvious than they would be in later generations of singers in the R&B and hip-hop genres. That Vaughan was also influenced by (and an influence on) her friend and mentor, Billy Eckstine, is obvious in the numerous duet recordings they made together. However, since no recordings exist of Vaughan prior to her joining Eckstine in the Earl Hines band (nor with the Hines band) it is difficult to know with any certainty what stylistic nuances she absorbed during the critical first years of her performing career.
Perhaps because of the individuality of her style, Vaughan has rarely been overtly imitated by subsequent generations of singers, unlike such contemporaries of hers as Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra or, later, Aretha Franklin. Many modern artists, however, have claimed Sarah Vaughan as a major influence, chief among them Teena Marie, Anita Baker, Chaka Khan, Chrisette Michele, Amy Winehouse and Alison Goldfrapp. Even in death she retains a loyal following and attracts new fans through her recorded legacy, most of which remains in commercial release.
While Vaughan frequently performed and recorded with large ensembles, her live performances usually featured trio accompaniments. Aside from economy, there was an inherent advantage in working with musicians who knew her style and could anticipate her improvisational side trips.
Two albums have been recorded in tribute to Vaughan following her death, Carmen McRae's Sarah: Dedicated to You (1991) and Dianne Reeves' The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan (2001).
Vaughan was married three times: George Treadwell (1946–1958), Clyde Atkins (1958–1961) and Waymon Reed (1978–1981). Unable to bear children, Vaughan adopted a baby girl (Debra Lois) in 1961. Debra worked in the 1980s and 1990s as an actress under the name Paris Vaughan.
Sarah Vaughan's personal life was a jumble of paradoxes. She had a mercurial personality and could be extremely difficult to work with (especially in areas outside of music), but numerous fellow musicians recounted their experiences with her to be some of the best of their careers. None of her marriages were successful, yet she maintained close long-running friendships with a number of male colleagues in the business and was devoted to her parents and adopted daughter. Despite effusive public acclaim, Vaughan was insecure and suffered from stage fright that was, at times, almost incapacitating[citation needed]. While shy and often aloof with strangers, she was quite gregarious and generous with friends.[citation needed]
Sarah Vaughan was a member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority.[14]
In 2004-2006, New Jersey Transit paid tribute to Miss Vaughan in the design of its new Newark Light Rail stations. Passengers stopping at any station on this line can read the lyrics to one of her signature songs, "Send in the Clowns", along the edge of the station platform.
On March 27, 2003, initiated by Susie M. Butler, the cities of San Francisco and Berkeley, California, signed a proclamation making March 27 "Sarah Lois Vaughan Day" in their respective cities.
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