The Jazz Planet Programme on Sunday, 15^th February, starting at 18.00, proposes an incursion into the career of the brilliant singer Sarah Vaughan.

She was dubbed "The Divine One" and was adored by the public, appraised by the critics and respected by her work fellows. Ella Fitzgerald simply designated her ʻthe greatest singing talentʼ. In Mel Tormé's opinion, no other singer was capable to use his voice as an instrument the way Vaughan did. Furthermore, Betty Carter went the length of comparing her to the great soprano Leontyne Price.

The Start - a competition for amateurs

In the first part of her career, Sarah Vaughan followed a path similar to that of many Afro-American singers. She began by singing gospel, in the church, and the ventured to the jazz clubs. The same as Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald, the very young Sarah won a competition for amateurs, organized at the Apollo theatre, in Harlem, New York.

In 1943, at nineteen years old, Vaughan became the soloist of the orchestra of Earl Hines and then joined Billy Eckstine's big band. During the two years that she spent with Hines and Eckstine, the singer had Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker as colleagues. The two were to influence her very much and the be-bop type of phrazing became one of the key-elements of Vaughan's style.

The first recordings bearing her own name

From the beginning of the forties, Sarah Vaughan did her first recordigs under her own name, thus coming to the fore as one of the great stars of vocal jazz. Her unique timbre, her particular feeling, the force and flexibility of her voice made Vaughan irrevocably enter the pantheon of the genre. For decades on end, until her departure in 1990, the one who was called Sassy filled up the concert halls all over the world.

At Planet Jazz we will observe three different periods of the singer'a career. We will listen to recordings made from 1949 to 1953 for Columbia Records, with Miles Davis, Jimmy Jones or Tony Scott among the accompanists. We will then look to the middle of the fifties to enjoy a series of performances after George Gershwin. In the final part of the programme we will discover a fully mature Sarah Vaughan, with excerpts from the Sarah Sings Soulfully LP (1963). We hope that our selection will be appreciated by the audience of Radio Romania Music.