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Posts tagged as “#JazzAppreciationMonth”

Celebrating Jazz Architect, Genius and Legend Louis Armstrong to Close Out #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

Celebrating Jazz Architect, Genius and Legend Louis Armstrong to Close Out #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 30, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

We end our celebration of #JazzAppreciationMonth today with a short tribute to a seminal architect of the sound, the legendary New Orleans son, Louis Armstrong.

To read about Armstrong, read on. To hear about him, press PLAY:

[You can subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or listen every day here on the main page. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Saturday, April 30th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Today, we’d like to close out #JazzAppreciationMonth, with a short tribute to a primary architect of the sound, the legendary New Orleans son, Louis Armstrong:

[“St. Louis Blues” by Louis Armstrong]

“No him, no me,” is how jazz innovator Dizzy Gillespie described the impact of musician Louis Armstrong.

Widely believed to be the first great jazz soloist, Armstrong’s improvisations on the cornet and trumpet influenced every jazz musician after him and elevated the musical style to a new, exciting standard.

Born in August of 1901, during one of the more challenging times of his childhood, Armstrong was sent to a home for boys in 1912 after firing his stepfather’s gun in the air during a New Year’s Eve celebration.

While at the “Colored Waifs Home for Boys” as it was called, Armstrong learned how to play the cornet. When Armstrong was released, as he worked odd jobs he was mentored on his horn by one of the best players in town — Joe “King” Oliver – and eventually replaced Oliver on cornet in Kid Ory’s band.

Armstrong soon reunited with Oliver when Oliver formed his own band in Chicago, which lead to Armstrong’s first recorded solo on record, 1923’s “Chimes Blues.”

[Excerpt of “Chimes Blues”]

Armstrong soon left his mentor to join Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, the top  Black big band in New York. But the big city lifestyle and creative restraints Armstrong encountered lead him back to New Orleans to play with his wife Lil Armstrong’s band at the Dreamland Café.

Armstrong also began recording with his studio band – first the Hot Five and then Hot Sevens – even though they weren’t who he played with for live performances.

These recordings with smaller groups of musicians were an early influence on what would that become the norm after the swing band/orchestra’s hey day in the 1930s that ushered in the bebop era in the 1940s.

Armstrong’s stop-time solos on numbers like “Cornet Chop Suey” and “Potato Head Blues” changed jazz history, featuring daring rhythmic choices, swinging phrasing and incredible high notes.

[Excerpt “Potato Head Blues”]

Armstrong also innovated with his vocals, and his riff-style “scat” singing was emulated by popular singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

[Excerpt of “Heebie Jeebies”]

Armstrong’s influence on other musicians was impactful and immediate. A young pianist from Pittsburgh, Earl Hines, assimilated Armstrong’s ideas into his piano playing, and together, they made some of the greatest recordings in jazz history in 1928, including their duet on “West End Blues”:

[Excerpt of “West End Blues”]

“West End Blues” proved without a doubt that popular dance music like jazz music was also capable of producing high art.

As Armstrong’s reputation grew, he toured in Europe, began recording hit songs of the day and appeared in Hollywood movies such as Pennies From Heaven and High Society with Bing Crosby, The Glenn Miller Story with Jimmy Stewart and New Orleans with Billie Holiday. Armstrong also recorded with a smaller six-piece combo, the All Stars.

The personnel of this combo would frequently change, but Armstrong would perform live with his All Stars until the end of his career. Members, at one time or another, included Jack Teagarden, Earl Hines, Sid Catlett, Barney Bigard, Trummy Young, Edmond Hall, Billy Kyle and Tyree Glenn, among other jazz legends.

During this time in the 1940s and 1950s, Armstrong had hits with his versions of songs such as “That Lucky Old Sun,” “A Kiss to Build a Dream On,” “Blueberry Hill” “La Vie En Rose” and one of the biggest hits of his career, his version of “Mack The Knife”:

[Excerpt from “Mack The Knife”]

As times advanced and changed, Armstrong’s style was seen as outmoded and outdated. He received criticism for remaining silent on politics and not lending his voice to the fight against racism and for civil rights.

Even when Armstrong did speak up, as in 1957 when he called out President Eisenhower for allowing Governor Orval Faubus to use the National Guard to prevent the Little Rock Nine from integrating Little Rock Central High School, he was met with criticism from whites and Blacks alike – the former for saying anything and the latter for seeming to speak out too late.

Yet and still, Armstrong kept on with doing what he wanted to do musically and defying all odds and at the height of the British invasion of the rock and roll era, he scored a #1 Billboard pop hit in 1964 at the age of 63 with his version of “Hello, Dolly”:

[Excerpt of “Hello, Dolly”]

In 1965, Armstrong started performing the Fats Waller tune “Black and Blue” live again a decade after removing it from his repertoire. He changed a lyric from being “I’m white inside” to “I’m right inside” and turned it into a protest that he would continue to play for the rest of his life:

[1965 version of “Black and Blue” from East Germany]

Three years later however, Armstrong’s version of “What A Wonderful World” did not get the same reception in the United States. But it was a number one hit overseas in England and South Africa in 1967, and after its appearance almost two decades later in the 1986 movie Good Morning, Vietnam, “What a Wonderful World” became a signature tune and perennial favorite of Armstrong’s, known the world over to this day.

[Excerpt of “What a Wonderful World”]

Armstrong’s home in Corona, Queens, which he shared with his fourth wife Lillian from 1943 until his passing in 1971, was declared a National Historic Landmark in in 1977. Today, the house is home to the Louis Armstrong House Museum, which annually receives thousands of visitors from all over the world.

Even though his most famous nickname was “Satchmo” for his “satchel mouth,” New Orleans native Armstrong was more lovingly known among musicians as “Pops,” as he was the father of it all.

[excerpt from “When The Saints Go Marching In”]

To learn more about Louis Armstrong, check out his 1936 autobiography, Swing That Music, his 1954 autobiography Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans, 1999’s Louis Armstrong in His Own Words, and other written offerings such as Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong by Gary Giddins from 2001, Pops: The Life of Louis Armstrong from 2009 by Terry Teachout, and All of Me: The Complete Discography of Louis Armstrong by Jos Willems from 2006. And of course, buy or stream his music.

You can also watch the 1957 documentary Satchmo the Great which is currently posted on YouTube, Ken Burn’s Jazz miniseries on PBS, and be on the lookout for what Apple Original Films announced last year would be the definitive Louis Armstrong documentary produced by Imagine Entertainment where the story will be told entirely through Armstrong’s own words titled Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong.

And speaking of Louis Armstrong’s words, let’s hear a bit of him speaking about love and life from an audio clip posted on louisarmstronghouse.org:

[Clip of Louis Armstrong speaking]

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

Excerpts from Louis Armstrong’s music are included under fair use.

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon,Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(amazon links are paid links)

Black Lexicon: The Origins of “Bop” (LISTEN)

Black Lexicon: The Origins of “Bop” (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 26, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

For #JazzAppreciationMonth, we explore the term “bop” — a word often used today to describe a song with a good groove. I

ts musical reference origins however, are rooted in the early 1940s when “bop” was used to describe an new and exciting intricate form of jazz. To read about it, read on. To hear about it, press PLAY:

[You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Tuesday, April 26th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

It’s in the category we call “Lemme Break It Down,” where we explore the origins and meanings of words and phrases rooted in the Black Lexicon and Black culture. Today’s phrase is another one in honor of #JazzAppreciationMonth… “Bop.”

[Excerpt from “Be-Bop” by Dizzy Gillespie]

“Bop” is a slang term most currently used to mean a really good song, but originally used to reference the jazz genre “bebop,” “rebop” or “hard bop.”

Invented in the 1940s and 1950s by musicians like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Christian, Max Roach, Miles Davis, Mary Lou Williams and Thelonious Monk – right now you’re listening to the song called “Be-Bop” by Dizzy Gillespie, originally written, recorded and released by him in 1945.

The “bop” style of playing consisted of intricate phrasings and harmonic improvisations over chord melodies of standards as well as original compositions. Dizzy Gillespie even titled his 1979 autobiography To Be or Not to Bop.

To learn more about the term “bop,” links to sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

The excerpt from “Be Bop” by Dizzy Gillespie is included under Fair Use.

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(amazon links are paid links)

MUSIC MONDAY: Born #OnThisDay in 1917 — “First Lady of Song” Ella Fitzgerald (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: Born #OnThisDay in 1917 — “First Lady of Song” Ella Fitzgerald (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2022

[Photo: Ella Fitzgerald via ellafitzgerald.com]

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

GBN is pulling a trifecta today — celebrating #MusicMonday, #JazzAppreciationMonth, and dropping in on absolutely one of the best singers past, present — or ever — Ella Fitzgerald!

Born 105 years ago #OnThisDay, through her stunningly timeless gifts (and vast catalog), Ella Fitzgerald is still surprising and delighting music lovers and casual fans alike.

To read about her, read on. To hear about her, press PLAY:

[You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Monday, April 25th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Today, we offer a quote from the “First Lady of Song” born 105 years ago on this date, the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald.

“The only thing better than singing is more singing.”

Born in 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, Ella Fitzgerald’s earliest artistic ambitions were to become a dancer.

When the loss of her mother when she was 15 lead to a relocation to Harlem to live with her aunt and stints in an orphanage and a state reformatory school for girls, Fitzgerald hustled to get by on the streets and at 17 took her terpsichorean talents to Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater.

But when she saw two sisters with a dance act go on before her and wow the crowd, Ella didn’t think she could compete so she switched up her talent from dancing to singing and took to the stage to sing “Judy” and “The Object of My Affection” and won first prize in 1934.

Although she didn’t record either at the time, in 1968 Ella gave “The Object of My Affection” another onstage go when she sang it for her Live At Chautauqua, Volume 1 LP:

[Excerpt from “The Object of My Affection”]

Ella’s Amateur night win lead to an audition with Chick Webb to become the girl singer in his orchestra, and one of the best collaborations between bandleader and singer in the swing era.

Webb and Ella had hits with “Love and Kisses,” “(If You Can’t Sing It) You’ll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)” and the classic turn on a nursery rhyme co-written by Ella that become of the best-selling songs in it’s decade, “A Tisket, A Tasket”:

[Excerpt from “A Tisket, A Tasket”]

Even as Chick Webb took the young Ella under his wing, his serious health challenges ended his life way too soon in 1939.

Ella stepped up and lead and toured with the orchestra for a few more years until she went solo as jazz turned increasingly towards the newer sounds of bebop.

It was around this time, while working with Dizzy Gillespie and his band, Ella developed her scat singing style, lauded on songs such as “Oh, Lady Be Good” and “Flying Home”:

[Excerpt from “Flying Home”]

Ella not only navigated and interpreted jazz standards with dazzling dexterity and clarity, during her heyday, she, like her quote implied, sang and sang and sang some more.

Ella took on several of America’s most popular composers with her unparalleled series of “songbooks,” where she devoted entire albums to covering the songs of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hart, Johnny Mercer, Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin.

You can’t go wrong with any of these incredible recordings, so I’ll share a personal favorite from Ella Sings Gershwin – Ella’s plaintively tender version of “Someone to Watch Over Me”:

[Excerpt of “Someone to Watch Over Me”]

Ella also paired up with jazz royalty, recording an album with Count Basie, three with Louis Armstrong, four with guitarist Joe Pass and four with Duke Ellington, one which included her version of – I can’t think of any better word than “banging” because Ella just goes so hard in “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”:

[Excerpt of “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”]

From big band to bebop to Broadway, standards, pop and R&B, throughout her career, Ella Fitzgerald recorded over 200 albums and 2,000 songs.

Because frankly, with a voice like hers, the only thing better than Ella singing was more Ella singing. I’m going to put a link to a much longer Ella playlist in the show notes, but let’s hear from her one more time, in 1977, when one of her biggest fans, Stevie Wonder, lovingly sings her praises right before she helps him sing his song:

[Excerpt of “You Are the Sunshine Of My Life”]

To learn more about Ella Fitzgerald, watch the 2019 documentary Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things now streaming on Netflix, the 1999 American Masters biography on Ella called Something To Live For currently posted on YouTube, read ELLA: A Biography of the Legendary Ella Fitzgerald by Geoffrey Mark from 2018, Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz by Stuart Nicholson from 1994.Watch incredible clips of her on YouTube performing with Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra and Count Basie.

And of course, buy or stream as much of her music as you can. Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episodes full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

All excerpts of Ella Fitzgerald’s music are included under Fair Use.

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

#JazzAppreciationMonth: The Savoy Ballroom – Harlem’s “Home of Happy Feet” (LISTEN)

#JazzAppreciationMonth: The Savoy Ballroom – Harlem’s “Home of Happy Feet” (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 24, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

As #JazzAppreciationMonth nears its end, today GBN celebrates the “Home of Happy Feet” that was one of the first integrated public entertainment spaces in the U.S., Harlem’s once famous  Savoy Ballroom.

To read about the Savoy, read on. To hear about it, press PLAY:

[You can subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or listen every day here on the main page. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Sunday, April 24th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

It’s in the category for Black Museums and Landmarks we call “Get The Knowledge”:

Located in Harlem, New York, the Savoy Ballroom was known as “The World’s Finest Ballroom” and the “Home of Happy Feet” from its 1926 opening to its 1958 close.

Unlike other ballrooms of the era, the Savoy always had a no-discrimination policy and showcased the finest swing music in the city.

The Savoy offered non-stop music from two bandstands that attracted dancing pros like Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers as well as everyday people looking to have a good time.

Chick Webb, of the prominent house band leaders at the Savoy, had a top 10 hit in 1934 with the song composed by his saxophonist Edgar Sampson that you are hearing now, called – what else – “Stompin’ At The Savoy.”

In 2022, Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, members of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, unveiled a commemorative plaque for the Savoy Ballroom on Lenox Avenue:

To learn more about the Savoy Ballroom, check out welcometothesavoy.com, a site that’s restoring the Savoy with a VR experience, and they have a great collection of photos from the Savoy’s heyday on view now, watch the 1992 television movie Stompin’ At The Savoy directed by Debbie Allen, available on Amazon Prime Video or Roku.

Watch clips about the history of the Savoy on YouTube, or read Swinging At The Savoy: The Memoir of a Jazz Dancer by Norma Miller. Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org

This has been a bonus daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by me, Lori Lakin Hutcherson.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

“Stompin’ At The Savoy” by Chick Webb’s Orchestra is included under fair use.

If you like these Daily Drops, follow us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

MUSIC MONDAY: “A Love Supreme” – The Best of Sacred Jazz (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “A Love Supreme” – The Best of Sacred Jazz (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 18, 2022

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

It’s Music Monday! In celebration of Easter and #JazzAppreciationMonth, here is a collection of Sacred Jazz.

When jazz emerged in the first half of the 20th century as music of liberation, entertainment and modernism, it provoked a backlash among cultural and religious-establishment figures.

Many of them went so far as to call it “the music of the devil.” By the middle 1950s, jazz had found its way into the church, sometimes employed in the ritualistic proceedings of liturgies and other traditional ceremonies, or presented in other thematic ways in overt religious homage.

Religion, in some respects, was there from the jump. Many African-American musicians grew up attending and performing in church services, and the imprint of that experience can be found in albums ranging from John Coltrane‘s landmark 1965 LP A Love Supreme to Miles Davis‘ Kind Of Blue.

It was inspired in part, in the words of Davis, “some other kind of sound I remembered from being back in Arkansas, when we were walking home from church and playing these bad gospels.”

This collection features Mahalia Jackson and Rosetta Tharpe contributions to gospel and sacred jazz, along with pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams, known for her Jazz Masses in the 1950s.

Duke Ellington, Kamasi Washington, Pharaoh Sanders, The Free Nationals and many others are on hand too.

Do enjoy.  As always, stay safe, sane, and kind.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
Celebrating Legendary Jazz Vocalist Sarah Vaughan for #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

Celebrating Legendary Jazz Vocalist Sarah Vaughan for #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 13, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

In continued celebration of #JazzAppreciationMonth, today we drop in on virtuoso vocalist Sarah Vaughan, who hailed from Newark, New Jersey, and was dubbed “Sassy” for her salty conversation and “The Divine One” for the heavenly and serene singing feats she accomplished with her three octave range.

To read about Vaughan, read on. To hear about her, press PLAY:

[You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website. Full transcript below]:

Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, April 13th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Today, we offer a quote from one of the finest vocalists and musicians ever to do it, she’s known as “Sassy,” “The Divine One,” she’s Ms. Sarah Vaughan:

“When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don’t even notice.”

Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1924, Sarah Lois Vaughan’s musical talent first revealed itself in church when she would clamor to sit with the organist instead of her mother.

As a teenager Vaughan snuck into local nightclubs to play piano, sing and perform. In 1942, she entered the famed Apollo Theater Amateur Night contest in New York and captivated the audience with her stunning performance of “Body and Soul.”

Here’s a version Vaughan later recorded of the song that was her calling card to her career:=

[Excerpt of “Body and Soul”]

Vaughan’s Apollo contest win lead quickly to a stint singing with the Earl Hines Orchestra before she joined fellow singer Billy Eckstine’s orchestra when he quit Hines to form his own big band.

In Mr. B’s outfit, Vaughan played, sang and improvised with burgeoning bebop innovators Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker before eventually going solo herself.

Vaughan carried the bebop style into her vocals, as can be heard in her version of “Lover Man” with Gillespie’s Septet from 1946:

[Excerpt of “Lover Man” 1946]

From the 1940s through the 1960s, Vaughan recorded with various labels, big and small, including Columbia, Roulette, Mercury, and Mercury’s jazz subsidiary, EmArcy.

Whether singing sweet pop or hot jazz, Vaughan’s vocals remained innovative, impressive and unparalleled. In 1947 she was the first singer to record and release “Tenderly,” establishing the standard for the standard:

[Excerpt of “Tenderly”]

Vaughan literally could sing anything – and did. She scored her first gold record with pop and R&B hit “Broken Hearted Melody”:

[Excerpt of “Broken Hearted Melody”]

And kept her jazz chops tight with her renditions of songs like “Nice Work If You Can Get It”:

[Excerpt of “Nice Work If You Can Get It”]

“Black Coffee”:

[Excerpt of “Black Coffee”]

And turned tunes like Erroll Garner’s “Misty,” which she recorded for her 1959 Vaughan and Violins album orchestrated and arranged by Quincy Jones, into something altogether ethereal:

[Excerpt of “Misty”]

In the 1960s and 1970s however, Vaughan experienced differing troubles with different record labels that didn’t know how to present or frankly even respect Vaughan in the changing musical times.

Just take one look at the clown with an afro photo on the cover of her 1974 Send in The Clowns album on Mainstream Records and you’ll get it.

But if you can’t do that right now, take a listen to the ‘70s vanilla pop/light disco production of the title track to get the point:

[Excerpt of “Send in the Clowns” – 1974]

After Vaughan sued Mainstream over the album cover and other issues, she signed with Norman Granz’s Pablo label and released albums of jazz standards and bossa nova inflected music, two of which were nominated for Grammys.

She also re-arranged and re-recorded “Send in the Clowns,” which went from being lawsuit-worthy to another of her signature songs:

[Excerpt of “Send in the Clowns” 1981]

Vaughan continued to lean into bossa nova-style music in the 1980s, and recorded her last full album, 1987’s A Brazilian Romance, with Sergio Mendes producing. A personal favorite of mine from that LP is the languidly stunning “So Many Stars”:

[Excerpt of “So Many Stars”]

In her lifetime, Vaughan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame and received the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award in 1989. Vaughan passed in 1990 and in 1998, her recording of “If You Could See Me Now,”composed specifically for her by Tad Dameron four decades earlier, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

[Excerpt of “If You Could See Me Now”]

In 2002, Sarah Vaughan’s “Whatever Lola Wants” was a standout on the Verve Remixed2 compilation, introducing her timeless voice to a whole new generation:

[Excerpt of “Whatever Lola Wants – Gotan Project Remix”]

In 2012, Vaughan was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, and for over a decade, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center has held an annual International Jazz Vocal Competition, nicknamed “The SASSY Awards” in honor of the one and only, the incomparable Sarah Vaughan.

To learn about Sarah Vaughan, read the 2017 biography Queen of BeBop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan by Elaine M. Hayes, 1992’s Sassy: The Life of Sarah Vaughan by Leslie Gourse.

Stream or buy on DVD the music documentary of her performing live 1958 and 1964 called Sarah Vaughan: The Divine One in 1958, watch the 1991 biographical American Masters documentary Sarah Vaughan “The Divine One” currently available on YouTube, watch clips of her live performances on YouTube and of course, buy or stream as much Sarah Vaughan music as you can online.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

And let’s hear Sarah Vaughan’s voice one more time – her speaking voice – from her 1964 live performance in Sweden of “Misty”:

“Thank you very very much ladies and gentlemen. I’m very nervous up here I got a cold today. The day I got to do TV I got a cold. That’s fine. But anyway I do you want to enjoy our show and right now I like to do a little tune that I recorded while I was over here and not in Stockholm but while I was in Paris in ’58. A tune that was written by Erroll Garner. I do hope you enjoy “Misty.”

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

All excerpts of Sarah Vaughan’s music included are permitted under Fair Use.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com,Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

MUSIC MONDAY: “Ear Food” – A New Jazz Playlist (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Ear Food” – A New Jazz Playlist (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 11, 2022

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy #JazzAppreciationMonth, good people! For most the word “Jazz” conjures up images of the giants like Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, and Louis Armstrong.

Though this collection, “Ear Food: A New Jazz Playlist“ features a new school of Jazz artists re-imagining and reinventing Jazz for today:

They are staying true to the game while infusing a spectrum of R&B, Hip-Hop and other influences.

Many will recognize names like Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, Meshell Ndegeocello, Esperanza Spalding, and the late Roy Hargrove, but this collection features some new talents that are not as well-known.

I hope you’ll dig artists like: Ezra Collective, Al Strong, Steam Down, Somi, Nubya Garcia, Tom Misch, and Moses Boyd, too.

It’s great to see and hear a new generation adopt and reinvent the sound of a timeless genre, proving that Jazz not only still lives, but thrives.

While I’ve generally moved to monthly offerings, I’ll be back during this month devoted to Jazz appreciation with another collection next week.

Stay sane, safe, and kind!

Marlon

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)