Sarah Vaughan Biography
Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990) holds a prominent place in the pantheon of great female jazz vocalists. Known as “Sassy” to her friends and fans, Vaughan was a deeply expressive singer who possessed a remarkable technical range that could stretch from baritone to mezzo-soprano. She was also one of the first singers to incorporate bop phrasing into her singing—and one of the few with the dexterity to pull off that feat. She was also a masterful scat singer whose abilities were rivaled only by her contemporary Ella Fitzgerald.
As a child, the Newark, New Jersey-born Vaughan sang in church as a child and had substantial training in piano. By her teens, she was playing and sometimes singing in Newark’s active nightclub scene, and venturing into New York City to see big bands perform at the Harlem Ballroom and the Apollo Theater. She attended Arts High, the United States’ first arts-oriented high school, but dropped out after her musical pursuits overshadowed her academic interests. She won on amateur night at the Apollo, the prize being a chance to open for Ella Fitzgerald on a week-long Apollo engagement. That gig led to Vaughan being hired as pianist and singer by Earl Hines’ big band in April 1943. When Hines’ male singer Billy Eckstine left to form his own orchestra, Vaughan followed him. Vaughan made her first recordings with Eckstine’s group, which also included fellow ex-Hines band members Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, as well as Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Gene Ammons and Dexter Gordon.
By 1945, Vaughan had gone solo, although she and Eckstine would remain close friends and frequent recording partners. Vaughan quickly began scoring solo hits, and her popularity grew after she signed with Columbia Records in 1949. She recorded a wide variety of material for the label, from middle-of-the-road pop songs to more demanding jazz numbers with such musicians as Miles Davis and Benny Green. Vaughan’s first husband, trumpeter George Treadwell, became her manager, and played a major role in honing her presentation for mainstream audiences.
Vaughan continued to record a mix of pop and jazz sessions for a variety of labels through the ’50s and ’60s, performing frequently at the Newport Jazz Festival and touring with a variety of all-star jazz bills. She experienced something of resurgence in the ’70s, with a string of well-received albums followed by a series of successful concerts with a symphony orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Vaughan recorded only sporadically in the ’80s, but remained active as a live performer through most of that decade.
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