MISTY
SARAH
VAUGHAN
SONGWRITER:
ERROLL GARNER & JOHNNY BURKE
LIVE:
FROM SWEDEN
COUNTRY:
U. S. A.
ALBUM:
BROKEN HEARTED MELODY
LABEL:
MERCURY RECORDS
GENRE:
JAZZ
YEAR:
1964
Sarah Lois Vaughan(March
27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer.
Nicknamed
"Sassy" and "The Divine One", she won four Grammy Awards,
including the Lifetime Achievement Award. She was given an NEA Jazz Masters Award
in 1989. Critic Scott Yanow wrote that she had "one of the most wondrous
voices of the 20th century".
Parallels have been drawn
between Vaughan's voice and that of opera singers. Jazz Singer Betty Carter said
that with training Vaughan could have "...gone as far as Leontyne Price."
Bob James, Vaughan's musical director in the 1960s said that "...the
instrument was there. But
the knowledge, the legitimacy of that whole world were not for her ... But
if the aria were in Sarah's range she could bring something to it that a
classically trained singer could not."
In a chapter devoted to
Vaughan in his book Visions of Jazz(2000), critic Gary Giddins described her as
the "...ageless voice of modern jazz – of giddy postwar virtuosity, biting
wit and fearless caprice". He concluded by saying that "No matter how
closely we dissect the particulars of her talent ... we must inevitably end up
contemplating in silent awe the most phenomenal of her attributes, the one she
was handed at birth, the voice that happens once in a lifetime, perhaps once in
several lifetimes."
Her voice had wings: luscious and tensile, disciplined
and nuanced, it was as thick as cognac, yet soared off the beaten path like an
instrumental solo ... that her voice was a four-octave muscle of infinite
flexibility made her disarming shtick all the more ironic." – Gary Giddins
Her obituary in The New
York Times described her as a "singer who brought an operatic splendor to
her performances of popular standards and jazz." Jazz singer Mel Tormé said
that she had "...the single best vocal instrument of any singer working in
the popular field." Her ability was envied by Frank Sinatra who said,
"Sassy is so good now that when I listen to her I want to cut my wrists
with a dull razor." New York Times critic John S. Wilson said in 1957 that
she possessed "what may well be the finest voice ever applied to
jazz." It was close to its peak until shortly before her death at the age
of 66. Late in life she retained a "youthful suppleness and remarkably
luscious timbre" and was 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 almost perfect, and there were no difficult intervals.
In her later years her
voice was described as a "burnished contralto" and as her voice
deepened with age her lower register was described as having "shades from
a gruff baritone into a rich, juicy contralto". Her use of her contralto
register was likened to "dipping into a deep, mysterious well to scoop up
a trove of buried riches." Musicologist Henry Pleasants noted,
"Vaughan who sings easily down to a contralto low D, ascends to a pure and
accurate [soprano] high C."
Vaughan's vibrato was
described as "an ornament of uniquely flexible size, shape and
duration," a vibrato described as "voluptuous" and
"heavy" Vaughan was 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."
She held a microphone in
live performance, using its placement as part of her performance. Her placings
of the microphone allowed her to complement her volume and vocal texture, often
holding the microphone at arm's length and moving it to alter her volume.
She frequently used the
song "Send in the Clowns" to demonstrate her vocal abilities in live
performance. The performance was called 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.
Singers influenced by
Vaughan include Phoebe Snow, Anita Baker, Sade, and Rickie Lee Jones. Singers Carmen
McRae and Dianne Reeves both recorded tribute albums to Vaughan following her
death; Sarah: Dedicated to You(1991) and The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan(2001)
respectively.
Though usually considered a jazz singer, Vaughan avoided
classifying herself as one. She discussed the term in a 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.
Look at me, I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree
And I feel like I'm clingin' to a cloud
I can' t understand
I get misty, just holding your hand
Walk my way
And a thousand violins begin to play
Or it might be the sound of your hello
That music I hear
I get misty, the moment you're near
You can see that you're leading me on
But is just what I want you to do
Don't you notice how hopelessly I'm lost
That's why I'm following you
On my own
When I wander through this wonderland alone
Never knowing my right foot from my left
My hat from my glove
I'm too misty, and too much in love
I'm just too misty
And too much in love.
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