- Superb nearly White Hot Stamper sound on side one – big, rich and spacious
- Side two earned a Super Hot grade for its full-bodied brass and Sarah’s breathy vocals
- A great selection of Jazz, Pop and Blues standards for her last Mercury release from 1967
- Allmusic 4 Stars “…[an] essential session from that most divine of jazz chanteuses.”
If we could find them quieter with this kind of sound we would love to. Not many we played in our shootout had better surfaces and practically none sounded as good this one.
Side One
Note how far back in the mix Sarah’s voice is. This is her in a big group setting with lots of horns and that group needs to be right in the thick of the action along with her for this music to work.
One of the warmest, richest, smoothest sides we played all day, hence the very high grade. Excellent space and dynamics as well.
Side Two
Lots of bass on that second track, check it out. This side was quite rich with breathy vocals and excellent energy.
The Players
For Jazz Giants it’s hard to argue with this group. Many of them are leaders in their own right.
Phil Woods – Reeds (Multiple), alto saxophone
Benny Golson – Reeds (Multiple), saxophone
Kai Winding – trombone
Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
Joe Newman
Charlie Shavers
Clark Terry
(That’s four top trumpet players if you’re counting.)
Side One
Sweet Georgia Brown
Take The ‘A’ Train
(I Left My Heart) In San Francisco
S’posin’
Everyday I Have The Blues
Side Two
I Want To Be Happy
All Alone
The Sweetest Sounds
On The Other Side Of The Tracks
I Had A Ball
AMG Review
Vaughan ended her longstanding and career-defining tenure at Mercury with this fine set from 1967. Entering her autumnal prime, Vaughan effortlessly ignites such chestnuts as “Take the ‘A’ Train” (one of the best interpretations of the Billy Strayhorn classic), “I Want to Be Happy,” and “Sweet Georgia Brown.” She also dips into some rarely heard gems like Richard Rodgers’ “The Sweetest Sounds” and Cy Coleman’s “On the Other Side of the Tracks”… An often overlooked but essential session from that most divine of jazz chanteuses.
Sarah and Her Remarkable Pipes
Vaughan’s New York Times obituary described her as a “singer who brought an operatic splendour to her performances of popular standards and jazz.”
Fellow jazz singer Mel Tormé said that Vaughan had “…the single best vocal instrument of any singer working in the popular field.”
Her ability was envied by Frank Sinatra who said that “Sassy is so good now that when I listen to her I want to cut my wrists with a dull razor.”
The New York Times critic John S. Wilson said in 1957 that Vaughan possessed “what may well be the finest voice ever applied to jazz.”
Age hardly affected Vaughan’s voice. Her voice was still close to its peak before her death at the age of 66. Late in life Vaughan retained a “youthful suppleness and remarkably luscious timbre”, she was also still capable of the projection of coloratura passages described as “delicate and ringingly high”.
Vaughan had a large vocal range of soprano through a female baritone, exceptional body, volume, a variety of vocal textures, and superb and highly personal vocal control. Her ear and sense of pitch were just about perfect, and there were no difficult intervals.
Vaughan’s vibrato was described as “an ornament of uniquely flexible size, shape and duration,” a vibrato also described as “voluptuous” and “heavy.”
Vaughan was also accomplished in her ability to “fray” or “bend” notes at the extremities of her vocal range. It was noted in a 1972 performance of Leslie Bricusse and Lionel Bart’s “Where Is Love?” that “In mid-tune she began twisting the song, swinging from the incredible cello tones of her bottom register, skyrocketing to the wispy pianissimos of her top.”
Vaughan would frequently use the song “Send in the Clowns” to demonstrate her vocal abilities in live performance, it was described as a “three-octave tour de force of semi-improvisational pyrotechnics in which the jazz, pop and operatic sides of her musical personality came together and found complete expression” by the New York Times.
Though usually considered a “jazz singer”, Vaughan avoided classifying herself as one. Vaughan discussed the term 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…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.