Sarah Vaughan's years on Mercury (and its subsidiary EmArcy) feature inspired jazz performances, commercial recordings with string orchestras, and big-band sides that fall in between jazz and middle-of-the-road pop music. All of her recordings for Mercury are on four impressive box sets that add up to 23 CDs. The first set (six CDs) is the best overall of the four for it has a full set with her trio, the famous session with trumpeter
Clifford Brown, a date with the
Ernie Wilkins orchestra (featuring altoist
Cannonball Adderley), and a variety of orchestral sides. As with all of these sets, there are many previously unissued performances included too. More selective fans may want to get some of Sassy's individual packages instead (particularly the
Clifford Brown date), but completists and true
Sarah Vaughan fanatics will consider these four perfectly done sets to be essential. ~ Scott Yanow