She was not born into an especially musical home environment (although her father who was a carpenter was also an
amateur guitarist and her mother who worked in a laundry was also a church vocalist), the young Sarah Vaughan had
plenty of contact with music-making.
As well as taking piano lessons for nearly 10 years, she sang in her church choir and became the organist at the age of
12. Her talent for singing won her an amateur contest at Harlem's Apollo theatre, and opportunities for a
musical career quickly appeared. Spotted by Billy Eckstine, who was singing in Earl "Fatha" Hines' big
band, she was invited to join Hines' band as a female vocalist and second pianist in 1943.
Billy Eckstine was sufficiently impressed by Vaughan to give her a place in his own band, formed a year later.
It was here that she met Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
After leaving Eckstine, she decided to perform under her own name.
In 1947 she married trumpeter George Treadwell. Recognizing his wife's huge potential, Treadwell became her manager,
and she began ten years of prolific recording and worldwide tours.
She began by recording with Miles Davis in 1950, and then produced albums in either a popular vein for
Mercury Records, or more jazz-orientated material for EmArcy.
On the EmArcy recordings she appeared with Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley and members of the Count Basie band.
By the 1960s, as Sarah Vaughan rose to stardom, her jazz activity decreased slightly, and the emphasis remained on
commercial, orchestra-backed recordings. It was not until the 1970s that she began to perform and record with jazz
musicians again. She performed at the 1974 Monterey Jazz Festival and made an album in 1978 with a
quartet consisting of Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Ray Brown, and Louie Bellson. The following year she recorded the Duke
Ellington Song Book, on which a large number of top jazz players appeared, including Zoot Sims, Frank Foster, Frank
Wess and J.J.Johnson. In 1980 she appeared in a concert at Carnegie Hall, and returned to the Apollo to
sing with Eckstine in a show recorded and broadcast by NBC-TV.
With a rhythm section featuring Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Billy Higgins, as well as Dizzy Gillespie, Don Cherry,
Maynard Ferguson, and Chuck Mangione, she proved herself still a musical force to be reckoned with.
Sarah Vaughan won the Esquire New Star poll in 1945, the DownBeat poll (1947-52) and the
Metronome poll (1948-52). She also sang at the White House as early as 1965.
She ranks as a close second only to Ella Fitzgerald in terms of influence, vocal range and sheer, consistent
brilliance.
Sarah Vaughan died in April 1990 in Los Angeles Cal: USA