Celebrating Sarah Vaughan at 99

Today is the 99th anniversary of Sarah Vaughan's birth—March 27, 1924. She was the first major post-war female vocalist shaped by the bebop movement of the mid-1940s, not the swing era of the 1930s and early 1940s. And her stylistic phrasing probably had a greater influence on female vocalists who followed her than any other singer. She also left behind a vast catalog of studio and live recordings, as well as film of her in performance. Sarah Vaughan died in 1990.

Her first recording was I'll Wait and Pray, with Billy Eckstine's orchestra in 1944, at age 19. Here she is singing the song...

To celebrate the importance, excellence and joy of Vaughan, here are 10 videos that recently went up on YouTube...

Here's a colorized video of Vaughan singing The Nearness of You in 1951 for Snader Telescriptions, a company in operation between 1950 and '52 that captured performances that could later be edited into TV shows and films...

Here's Vaughan singing The Awakening and Fan My Brow in the film Murder, Inc. (1960)...

Here's Vaughan singing Polka Dots and Moonbeams in 1963 at the Antibes Jazz Festival in France, with Kirk Stuart on piano, Buster Williams on bass and George Hughes on drums...

Here she is singing Misty during the same performance...

Here she is singing The More I See You during the same performance...

Here's 26-plus minutes with Vaughan performing in Paris in October 1969 with Johnny Veiht (p), Gus Mancuso (b) and Eddy Pucci d)...

Here's Vaughan singing Day In, Day Out in November 1969 backed by the Berlin Philharmonic in November 1969, with Johnny Veiht (p), Gus Mancuso (b) and Eddy Pucci d)...

Here's Serenata from the same performance...

Here's Vaughan in November 1973 singing A Foggy Day, On a Clear Day and 'Round Midnight with Carl Schroeder (p), John Gianelli (b) and Jimmy Cobb (d), with Freddie Hubbard squeezed in on trumpet. Then the director seems to have flipped and the rest is a frenzy of montages...

And here's Vaughan in Italy in 1975 singing What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?

Bonus: Here's 40 minutes of Vaughan at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy in 1976 with Carl Schroeder (p), Walter Booker (b) and Jimmy Cobb (d)...