Sarah Vaughan Biography, Photos and Posters

Sarah Vaughan

Biography

Born: March 27, 1924
Hometown: Newark, New Jersey
Instrument: Jazz Vocalist
Music Training: Mount Zion Baptist Church Choir; both of her parents were musicians; extensive piano lessons from age 7
Bands and Orchestras: Billy Eckstine Orchestra,
Signature Song: "Broken Hearted Melody"
Sarah Vaughan biography: Sarah was born to parents who both were musicians. Her father was a carpenter who played the guitar and sang folk songs and her mother a laundress who played piano and sang in the Mount Zion Baptist Church. Sarah started singing in the church choir at age 7 and became the organist by the age of 12. She quit school at an early age and sang in talent shows finally winning the Apollo Theater Amateur Night competition in 1942. This opened many opportunities for the young songstress. Billy Eckstine then a vocalist for the Earl Hines Orchestra recommended her for second piano in the group. When Eckstine broke away and formed his own group he took Sarah with him. The group included Jazz notables like Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon and Art Blakely all of whom were instrumental as pioneers in the new Bebop movement. It was with the group that she made her first recordings, but it wasn't until she signed with the Musicraft label that her recording career began in earnest with recordings like "If You Could See Me Now," "Tenderly" and "It's Magic." Her 1945 recording of "Lover" with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker established her reputation as a leading Jazz singer. She recorded about 60 tracks with Columbia Records 1949-53. Although her voice deepened a bit as she aged she still remained one of the world's leading female Jazz vocalists.
Died: April 3, 1990

Links to sites of interest about Sarah Vaughan:
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_vaughan_sarah.htm
http://www.duke.edu/~omn/
http://parsec-santa.com/celebrity/celeb_pages/SarahVaughan.html

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