This joint venture between Blue Note and Verve captures the sweet and sassy sounds of
Sarah Vaughan at her best as recorded by Emarcy, Mercury, and Roulette. The 16-song compilation is arranged chronologically and kicks off with a duet between
Vaughan and the man who discovered her,
Billy Eckstine, recorded in 1949 before moving to her mid-'50s recordings for Mercury and Emarcy. She was equally at home recording with large orchestras, small jazz ensembles, or piano, bass, and drums. Highlights from this period include her wonderfully swinging album
Swingin' Easy, which she recorded with her trio of
John Malachi on piano,
Crazy Joe Benjamin on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums. The track "Shulie a Bop" is taken from this album and features a great scat solo. At the same time she was cutting some swinging jazz sides with big-name players like
Clifford Brown, she was recording string-filled ballads with orchestral backing like "Tenderly," which was cut in 1954 with Hugo Peritti's orchestra. She would continue this approach all throughout her career, and this CD does a good job of showing both sides of
Vaughan. Other highlights from the compilation include a desperately romantic version of "Lush Life" cut in 1956 with
Hal Mooney's orchestra, a near operatic rendition of "My Man's Gone Now" from 1957 that shows off
Vaughan's powerful vibrato, and a laid-back and swinging take on "The Sweetest Sounds" from 1967 backed by the incredible brass section of
Freddie Hubbard,
Clark Terry,
Charlie Shavers, and
Joe Newman.
The Definitive Sarah Vaughan has a couple of non-fatal flaws: there are only two songs from her five-year tenure at Roulette and an over-reliance on the orchestral ballads. Throw in a couple more swinging tracks and the discs would be really special, but it is still a nice overview and is recommended to anyone who wants to check out the early work of the divine
Sarah Vaughan. ~ Tim Sendra