As always NPR has done wondrous job of profiling the giants of jazz.. "Music Greats" born of the past twentieth century; one of the greatest musician/singer, the late Ms. Sarah Vaughan.

http://www.npr.org/templa...d=89072975
[Edited 6/16/09 16:50pm]

They have a download function, thats dope.

T4P, I wish there were MORE emphasis on Sarah & Dinah for a change,,,,it seems there's more focus on Lady Day & Ella(rightfully so) but still, there isn't much to look out for as far as Dinah/Sarah's biographies are concerend.

I still cherish this btw...

[Edited 6/16/09 16:56pm]

Harlepolis said:

Yes they do. Girl, I don't let anyone touch my S. Vaughan DVD, I play it once a week. I miss her.

My family and I had a chance to meet a "hang out" with Ms. Vaughan several times over the course of her life. What a funny, gracious, and wonderful women.

I think the reason(s) you don't hear much about Ms. Vaughan or Ms. Washington varies. In the case of Sarah,unfortuanely her husbands (or as Mr, Bill Eckstine called them, damagers ) mismanged her career somthing terrible. I think the other problem was the one "negro" at a time rule in the entertaiment business and Ella was it. I was kinda suprised when Ms. Vaughan died that all the then major networks did nice profiles of her career. PBS MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour closed their show with her singing "Send In the Clowns" at the Waldorf Astoria. (circa 1978) I think Ms. Vaughan would have been suprised and pleased that she was remembered at all in the States.

As far as Dinah Washington, the fact that she died sooo young. Twenty years ago Steve Cushing ( Blues Before Sunrise radio show, then on NPR BEZ 91.5 Chicago) decieded to play everthing Ms. Washington recorded ..from her first record for the Apollo label to her last recordings two weeks befor she death. What a revelation !! I have a couple of stories from my dad and an aunt (they cussed each other out) about her, to say she was a trip was an understatement. A couple years ago they someone did a play about her life that ran here in Chicago for a bit.

Dinah was indeed a trip.

From the few segments I read about her in other people's biographies gave me an idea that the women was NOTHING to cross over in a bad day.

Like that dude who got splashed with gasoline on the tub for doing something(I think hitting her) while she stood over him with a match in her finger BBC made a FABULOUS documentary about her life where they interviewed her son & younger sister among other people, she was def a sight to see.

I've always been fascinated about the way she and Lady Day carried themselves. They had 0 tolerance for bullshit, I loved that about them.

Harlepolis said:

Got DAMN! Hell, she pulled a gun out on Lionel Hampton hence the start of her solo career.

I tell ya the story my father told me: Warning for fellow orgers the langauge is ruff. Anywho

Dinah liked the men.. all types scrubs in all.

My father had this friend who lived in Gary IN. He described this guy as a Stacy Adams with white socks wearing country azz Negro. Anyway, the guy told my father and their friends he was dating Dinah and he was suppose to meet her after her first set at 11:00 pm, they thought he was lying. So, they partied up on down 63rd & Cottage Grove in Chicago well past midnight.

When the finally got to the club where Dinah had finished up for the night, Dinah cussed him out. She said, "Motherfucker, I told you to have your black ass up here at 11:00! Here you come in strolling in like malaises is up your ass after midnight, who do you think you're fuckin with? That's it, it's over.... no more $85.00 silk shirts, silk "draws", take all the shit off I bought right now!" I asked my dad what did he do? He said he took off the watch, shirt, shoes, and socks. Dinah had mentioned the "draws" but he said he wasn't wearing the silk ones she bought but his own BVD's.
[Edited 6/16/09 20:06pm]

NPR comes through as usual.


There's a Sarah Vaughn album (a friend turned me on to) that doesn't get much mention.
Maybe it's because it's not her doing traditional Jazz standards, but that voice does this beautiful music justice.



...Brazilian Romance w/Milton Nascimento


From that album...



...So Many Stars



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

I really dug her "Brazillian Jazz" period. I wouldn't compare to the stuff she did to Murcery or Columbia, its pointless.

Like Duke Ellington in the late 60s/early 70s, she was going through a transitional period,,,,and the music that came outta that are as fresh as the stuff she did with Mr.B's band.

TD3 said:

So you've also noticed that in certain genres (outside of where we're traditionally housed), there always seems to be only room for 1 at the inn?





tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

I know... this was and is ridiculous, still. Many a black artist career was and has been "retared" because of this unique form of "affirmative action".


"The Island"
http://www.youtube.com/wa...ZRT2egPogE


"Brazilin Romance" is a must have.

DINAH WASHINGTON - "All Of Me"

http://www.youtube.com/wa...vRiiKOEAlw

TD3 said:

Ain't right, ain't right AT ALL

If that ain't raising hell, I don't know what is

See, stories like these get me frustrated. Aside from the flamboyant personality, I think she's the single MOST influential force to female soul singers(and some men too, like Stevie Wonder) post-Billie Holiday.

Its just a rotton shame that there's NOTHING out there for us who want to explore the person's life/career behind the "Queenie" name.

I remember there was a big deal about Loretta Divine(who amazingly resembles her) playing her in a biopic in the early 90s, but nothing came out of it. And if I'm not mistaken, the family too wasn't having it.

TD3 said:

I have that DVD too



I'd say her, Mahalia Jackson, Big Maybelle Smith and Monk ruled the show

TD3 said:

You go Dinah!

Here's the Divine One with Ms. Marina McPartland's Piano Jazz on NPR. I miss this show.

http://www.npr.org/templa...m=92624737

Harlepolis said:

On the musical front, Mosaic has a nice box set on both of them.


The Complete Roulette Dinah Washington Recordings



Limited Edition: 5000 copies, 5 CDs - $85


This music, from the final stage of Dinah Washington's short and turbulent life, is a perfect snapshot of all she was in performance - the brash belter, claiming and proclaiming her measure of fun and gaiety; the wry commentator, knowingly chronicling the world's troubles as only she could observe them; and the optimistic dreamer, surrendering to the beauties of life.

Her recordings on Roulette display all of the power and intelligence of her earliest successes with an undisputable maturity that is the sign of a remarkable singer joining the ranks of the greats.

From the start, her Roulette recordings were hits. Numbers range from the sly, knowing "Drinking Again" to the painful lament, "Lord, You Made Us Human." She crashes all known boundaries on familiar tunes such as "Something's Gotta Give," "That Old Feeling," "Do Nothing 'Til You Hear From Me," and "These Foolish Things." And creates her own statement with "Make Someone Happy," and "Call Me Irresponsible."

Eight tracks appear for the first time ever, including one astonishing medley of songs, informally presented with just piano and flute accompaniment, that lasts more than 20 minutes - probably the closest thing on record to what it was like to hear her perform after hours.

It's likely that many people who buy this package will turn immediately to this medley that finishes disc one. It has never appeared anywhere. On this after-session gem, she moves casually through eight songs - "Ill Wind," "For All We Know," "I Could Have Told You So," and others. Contemporaries report Dinah hated to end the evening. Frequently after a gig, she'd hit the town with her piano player, looking for a club where she could sit down and relax. This medley is no doubt the type of treat those club goers enjoyed. Stripped of all opulence, her performance shines for its technical mastery, her trademark phrasing, and her delight in singing to an audience hanging on every word.

The truth is, regardless of the musical context, Dinah made every song she sang her own. She had her own no-nonsense phrasing that tamed every melody and put the lyrics under her spell. Her habit of enunciating every syllable and consonant made you sit up and take notice of the message, sometimes for the first time. And her choice of material was always eye-opening. Standards, R&B struts, pop numbers, show tunes, saloon songs, country music, the blues - as long as there was a story, she could sell it.

http://www.mosaicrecords....=227-MD-CD

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The Complete Roulette Sarah Vaughan Studio Sessions



Limited Edition: 5000 copies, 8 CDs - $128.00


Listening to this music in its entirety, you hear how the simplest tune could become the canvass for a singer's art. And understand why fellow musicians appreciated her talent. Vaughan could hit a note head on and hold it, pure and clean. Or, at her command, add a pretty vibrato. A wide range allowed her to soar in the upper register, and roar down below. All with a luxurious, rich, buttery roundness.
This set contains a huge number of jazz classics and popular standards that everyone will recognize - songs by Monk, Adderley, Ellington and Waller as well as Rodgers and Hart, Gershwin, Van Heusen and Arlen. Her arrangers included the finest the era had to offer - Jimmy Jones, Gera Wilson, Quincy Jones, Lalo Schifrin, Benny Carter and Billy May among them.

Among the 13 albums on only 8 CDs are these three classic releases:
• Count Basie/Sarah Vaughan: It's a delight to hear Basie's band behind her duets with Joe Williams on "If I Were a Bell" and "Teach Me Tonight." Talk about singing your heart out - those two seemed to push each other just a measurement more.
• After Hours and Sarah + 2: For a singer known for adornment and filigree, these two albums were probably her most relaxed and easy-going recordings, backed only by guitar and bass.

You really can't hear what she was doing if you think only about other singers. You have to consider the horns to get a sense of her influences and the way she experienced music. Form take to take or version to version of the same song, Sassy could deliver a completely new and original interpretation. Hearing her with Earl Hines, saxophonist Teddy Edwards said, "She had great feeling, and great facility to execute this sound. She had all the components, man."

http://www.mosaicrecords....=214-MD-CD

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

I have both of these, and they rule my heavy rotations

theAudience said:

I've loved this recording since it came out when I was a very green teenager in high school

My favorite tune hands down is "Photograph":


Looking
at a photograph that's faded
of a boy and girl created
to discover love together...

A summer day,
a secret place I still remember
Now I see our hearts as children then,
so brave and innocent...

...Defying
all the reasons people gave us
couldn't save our dream from coming
to
an
end.....

I was going to start a new thread but maybe one of you could recommend to me a Sarah Vaughan disc? Either one of her best original albums or maybe a 2 disc compilation.

rialb said:

This is a good place to star,,,


But if you want to sink your teeth DEEPER, I suggest you to pick up the one I previously mentioned along with these albums...




ESP Swingin' Easy

Thanks for the tip I'll order a copy of Swingin' Easy and see how I like it.

Other than Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald I am totally clueless when it comes to this kind of music. If there are any other singers you think I should check out let me know. I do prefer recordings from the '50s to the early '60s as the sound quality tends to be much better than recordings from the '30s and '40s.

rialb said:

Here's Mother Washington singing, "This Bitter Earth"


http://www.youtube.com/wa...udyCgN2daA

TD3 said:

I relate to this song...



Recorded shortly before she passed away.

I don't think they have these video of Lady Day with the Count Basie Orchestra on U-Tube s so here's a [i]link[/i] with Ms.Holiday singing "God Bless the Child" & "Now Baby or Never". It's not that clear but it's still special... I think.

http://www.dailymotion.co...day_dating

TD3 said:

They do have it but thanx for posting.

I love that soundie. If that woman didn't mark the "birth of cool", NOBODY did

Harlepolis said:

I love that song, puts a lump in my throat everytime. I gonna have to go back to my Cushing tapes and see all the songs she recorded the last weeks before her death. I think in that session she also recored the "The Good Life". I can't listen to Tony Bennett's version of that song after hearing Washington's.
[Edited 6/21/09 16:45pm]

thanks for the tips...downloading the albums on my zune!