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Posts tagged as “Sarah Vaughan”

MUSIC MONDAY: “Summer Breeze” – Summer Songs Playlist for 2023 (LISTEN)

by Jeff Meier (FB: Jeff.Meier.90)

This July, as we endure the latest triple digit temperature heatwave, or navigate flight cancellations in our attempts at a vacation, we can always count on summer music to lighten the mood and keep our heads cool in the comfort of our own backyard.

So, with that in mind, we’re back again this holiday week with the latest update to our popular playlist entitled Summer Breeze – Soulful Summer Songs.” We introduced this playlist a few years ago and have been updating it annually with both new and old musical finds uncovered deep in the recesses of Spotify.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1xgE7qFwobhbEshljcxyPs?si=f9ead573a45d4295″]

The goal of the playlist is simple – find music by Black artists (or, in a few cases, soul-influenced artists of various ethnic backgrounds) that have the word “summer” in their song title – these songs are literally written about summer.

Some are big BBQ standards, like “Summer Breeze” by the Isley Brothers, Will Smith‘s “Summertime”, Sly & The Family Stone‘s “Hot Fun in the Summertime” and “Summer” by War.

But many are lesser known from across the decades, from artists ranging from Nat King Cole and Nancy Wilson to Anderson.Paak and Aloe Blacc – all unified by their seasonal theme.

This year we’ve added 35 new songs, sprinkled throughout the list. Some are fresh out of the oven, like Chris Brown‘s “Summer Too Hot” and “Summer Renaissance” by Beyoncé. Others include older songs we found anew on Spotify since our last update, from name artists like Uncle Charlie Wilson (“Just Like Summertime”), Rick James (“Summer Love”), Tony! Toni! Toné! (“Til Last Summer”), reggae group Big Mountain (“Reggae Inna Summertime”) and Kelly Rowland (“Summer Dreaming”).

For this OG soul music fan, the most fun, perhaps, is uncovering via the magic of Spotify all sorts of artists new to my ears. Many are already successful with millions of monthly Spotify listeners, such as SiR (“Summer in November”), Fana Hues (a lovely cover of Stevie’s “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer”), girl group FLO (“Summertime”), Khruangbin (a cool new take on “Summer Madness”) and KYLE (“SummertimeSoul”). 

We’ve also got songs from newcomers like Kenya Vaun (“Summer”), Tay Iwar with Juls (“Summer Breeze”), and NoMBe (“Summer’s Gone” remix with Sonny Alven and Thutmose).

Spotify has opened up American ears to artists from all over the globe that we may never have heard before the internet. South Africa’s Soweto-born DJ Kent brings us the hypnotic “Summer Heartbreak.” Suriname-born Jeangu Macrooy (“Summer Moon”) has represented Netherlands in Eurovision. Pheelz (“Pheelz Like Summer”) is a prolific Nigerian producer/artist with a following in both his home country and throughout Europe. And from the UK comes newcomer Debbie, with her tune “Summer in December.”

Of course, we also had to dig for a few more deep classics. Those include the Chic-like British soul tune “Summer Grooves” by Mirage, doo-wop classics from Ruby & The Romantics (“My Summer Love”), The Danleers (“One Summer Night”), and The Tymes (“Summer Day”), and some newly found standards, including a lovely version of “The Summer Knows” from Leslie Uggams and Sarah Vaughan‘s “The Green Leaves of Summer.” And, love it or hate it, you simply must check out LGBT icon Sylvester‘s version of the Porgy & Bess standard “Summertime” in which the disco star merges Gershwin with Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love.”

If you’ve enjoyed this playlist in the past, here’s the annual reminder to check in with it again for some fresh additions. And if you are new to it, check out all the above and more on what is now a full day’s worth of summer songs with a soulful sensibility to explore. Feel free to let us know in the comments your favorite “summer” songs, including any we’ve missed!

Enjoy!

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

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:

Celebrating Vocalist Nancy Wilson for #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

In continued celebration of #JazzAppreciationMonth, today we drop in on the underappreciated yet cherished and deeply talented song stylist Nancy Wilson, who was at one time in the 1960s the second most popular act on Capitol Records behind only the Beatles.

To read about Wilson, 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 Tuesday, April 12, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Ohio native Nancy Wilson claimed her gift early, knowing by age four she was meant to be a singer. Encouraged by jazz saxophonist and bandleader Julius “Cannonball” Adderley, Wilson moved to New York in 1959 and landed a contract with Capitol Records.

The success of Nancy’s debut single “Guess Who I Saw Today,” led to a rush of album recordings, and to that tune becoming one of the signature songs of her career:

[Excerpt of “Guess Who I Saw Today”]

Wilson’s classic 1962 album recorded with Cannonball Adderley [Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley] contained her first Billboard R&B chart hit, the gorgeous ballad “Save Your Love for Me”:

[Excerpt of “Save Your Love for Me”]

From her 1964 album of the same title, Wilson scored her first pop hit, reaching number 11 on the Hot 100 chart with “How Glad I Am”:

[Excerpt of “How Glad I Am”]

Wilson won her first Grammy for that song and had four top 10 albums on the Billboard charts between 1964 and 1965, becoming during that period Capitol Records’ second-biggest selling act behind only the Beatles.

Wilson released more than 70 albums in her five-decade recording career, and won two more Grammys 40 years after her first win, both for Best Jazz Vocal Album, in 2005 for R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) and 2007 for Turned to Blue.

[Excerpt of “That’s All” from R.S.V.P.]

In 2004, Nancy Wilson was honored as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, and for her work as an advocate of civil rights, which included participating in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama.

She received an award from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in 1993 and also in 1998 she won an N.A.A.C.P. Hall of Fame Image Award.

Although Wilson was lauded as a jazz vocalist, she preferred to think of herself a song stylist, as she drew from a variety of influences, which she spoke about in detail during an interview on grammys.com:

“So, consequently, I was exposed to male influences. From early on, I heard Nat Cole I heard [?????] Jackson and Louis Jordan – loved Louis Jordan. I heard Billy Billy, Mr. B. I mean, he was just, I mean, my father thought Billy Eckstine was like, couldn’t – he walked on water. He loved B. And I heard Little Jimmy Scott with Lionel Hampton‘s big band. I would imagine that was when I was around 10. So basically, it was all male. And, and not gospel. I heard Jimmy Cleveland, James Cleveland, and C.L. Franklin, and his choir from my mom used to play that. So, I got to hear it all. And I enjoyed all of it. And then of course, I became a teenager. I mean, I was allowed to go out.

And there was a jukebox where I heard Little Esther, and I heard Little Miss Cornshucks. I heard LaVern Baker. I definitely heard Dinah and I heard Ruth Brown – I used to love Ruth Brown. That was where I got the exposure to R&B females. Was a quite a while – I think I was pretty much almost grown like 15 when I became exposed to – Sarah had some hit pop songs and I heard Sarah Vaughan and that I loved. “I Ran All the Way Home” was my big song. Also one of my big numbers was the Ravens tune called “You Saw Me Crying in the Chapel.”

So I sang these songs in variety shows and I’m like ninth grade, 10th grade, so, these were the things that really made things happen for me. The fact that I did not I had no idea that you were supposed to be afraid, or that you needed to be nervous. Because to me that had no part of what I did. I was not nervous about it at all. Loved to sing – loved the lyrics to songs always. Yeah.”

 

To learn more about Nancy Wilson, check out the Jazz Profiles series she hosted on National Public Radio, read her 2007 interview on the National Endowment for the Arts website, watch her 1994 interview on Detroit Black Journal on YouTube, her 1962 appearance on Jazz Scene USA currently on YouTube, an 80-song Nancy Wilson playlist curated by yours truly on Apple Music or Spotify, and of course, buy or stream as much Nancy Wilson music as you can online.

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

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 Nancy Wilson’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:

[Photo: David Redfern/Redferns]

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

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 Boydtoo.

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)

Welcome to Jazz Appreciation Month 2022 (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

No fooling, in the U.S. April 1st denotes the start of Jazz Appreciation Month (aka “JAM”), where the art form born out of Congo Square in New Orleans became a unique and true African American and American musical expression that continues to evolve across the decades and centuries.

Started by the Smithsonian Museum of American History in 2001, “JAM is intended to stimulate and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz – to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz, and more.”

To hear our Drop 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 Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, April 1st, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

No fooling, April 1st in the United States also kicks off Jazz Appreciation Month. It’s a time to savor the musical gumbo first cooked up in early 20th century New Orleans by master chefs including Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, and Louis “Pops” Armstrong.

During the 1930s and ‘40s, bandleaders such as Lionel Hampton, Chick Webb, Count Basie and Duke Ellington swung the nation and defined the sound­–as did singers Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine.

Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and John Coltrane were the vanguard through the 1950s and 60s, leading to the free jazz of Ornette Coleman, Taj Mahal, the Jazz Messengers and today’s pot stirrers Kamasi Washington, Esperanza Spalding and MacArthur “genius” Cecile McLorin Salvant.

To quote Wynton Marsalis, the most famous trumpet player in modern times and the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center:

“Jazz is the nobility of the race put into sound; it is the sensuousness of romance in our dialect; it is the picture of the people in all their glory.”

To learn more about Jazz music and its history, read Jazz: A History of America’s Music by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, which is the companion book to the 10-part documentary miniseries Jazz on PBS, read Downbeat Magazine’s The Great Jazz Interviews – A 75 Year Anthology edited by Frank Alkyer, check out jazzinamerica.org’s timeline on the development and evolution of jazz, the 1987 album from Smithsonian Folkways entitled The History of Jazz by Mary Lou Williams.

And if you are feeling hands-on and adventurous, check out Herbie Hancock’s MasterClass in Jazz online.

Links to these sources and more 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, 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.

Dippermouth Blues” by King Oliver’s Jazz Band and composed by Oliver and Louis Armstrong is used with permission under Public Domain.

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, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Cool Yule” – A Jazzy Christmas Collection (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

With Thanksgiving firmly in our rearview, it is officially time to bring on the peppermint, egg nog and, best of all (at least in my mind), Christmas music playlists!

This season Good Black News is starting off with a playlist chestnut we dropped last Christmas Eve, perhaps missed by anyone who was traveling, already out and about or otherwise engaged in the spirit. So one more again, I am happy to bring to you “Cool Yule”: A Jazzy Christmas Collection:

From Take 6 to Duke Ellington to Geri Allen to Oscar Peterson, this playlist includes vocal and instrumental jazz renditions of traditional and modern Christmas and end-of-year classics for all to enjoy.

Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Betty Carter, Dianne Reeves, Etta James, Dinah Washington, Esperanza Spalding and Billie Holiday are among the female jazz vocalists represented on “Cool Yule,” with Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Leslie Odom, Jr. and Louis Armstrong lending their deeper pipes to the playlist.

Also represented are jazz titans Miles Davis, John Coltrane, the Count Basie Orchestra, Benny Carter, Kenny Burrell, Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, the McCoy Tyner Trio, Jimmy Smith, the Elvin Jones Quintet and the Ramsey Lewis Trio.

Wishing you all the best as we warm into the winter season, and in the coming new year. Enjoy!

MUSIC: “Cool Yule” – GBN’s Jazzy Christmas Playlist (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Whether you are among those celebrating the Christmas holiday with loved ones (via Zoom or in the same room) or doing it solo, you may want some mellow-yet-festive holiday music playing as you spend the day.

Earlier this month, Good Black News offered the comprehensive, 465-song Ultimate Soul of the Season Christmas Soundtrack on Spotify as well as Silver Bells: An Afroclectic Christmastime Playlist for 2020. Today, on Christmas Eve we offer Cool Yule: A Jazzy Christmas Collection.

From Take 6 to Duke Ellington to Geri Allen to Oscar Peterson, this playlist includes vocal and instrumental jazz renditions of traditional and modern Christmas and end-of-year classics for all to enjoy.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:2rCXw95SjIgNZllitaQ8Fb”]

Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Betty Carter, Dianne Reeves, Etta James, Dinah Washington, Esperanza Spalding and Billie Holiday are among the female jazz vocalists represented on “Cool Yule,” with Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Leslie Odom, Jr. and Louis Armstrong lending their deeper pipes to the playlist.

Also represented are jazz titans Miles Davis, John Coltrane, the Count Basie Orchestra, Benny Carter, Kenny Burrell, Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, the McCoy Tyner Trio, Jimmy Smith, the Elvin Jones Quintet and the Ramsey Lewis Trio.

Wishing you all the best tomorrow and in the coming new year. Enjoy!

A Remembrance of Jazz Legend Ella Fitzgerald on Her Birthday and Playlist (LISTEN)

Ella Fitzgerald receiving her Honorary Doctorate in Music at Harvard University in 1990 (photo: Charles Krupa)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Although I’m typically calm-if-a-bit-nerdy when I meet artists I admire, there is one time in my life I fully lost my natural mind for someone. That someone was the woman and musical legend Good Black News is celebrating today, April 25, on what would have been her 103rd birthday – Ella Fitzgerald.

To set the scene, it was the day of my college graduation in June of 1990. I was standing in my black cap and gown next to my roommates, as the graduating class formed something akin to a Soul Train line for alumni, professors and distinguished guests to walk through on the way to taking the stage for the ceremony. I’d spent four long, great years earning a bachelor’s degree at Harvard in American History and Literature with a minor in African-American Studies. I also DJ’d at the college radio station 92.3FM WHRB all four of those years.

In addition to being all about hip-hop, house, R&B and dance music, I fell in love with jazz at WHRB, too. So much so that I got up several mornings a week to jock the 6-8am “Jazz Spectrum” program at WHRB, and even found a way to incorporate jazz into my senior thesis by comparing jazz autobiography to the slave narrative. Not exactly everyone’s idea of a page-turner, I know, but it was nice and egghead-y, earned me high honors from my department, and was a sneaky way to earn credit while spending time deepening my nascent love of jazz and jazz history.

So when I heard Ella Fitzgerald – the singer whose interpretation of “Lullaby of Birdland” took my heart and mind to heights of joy so unexpected that I immediately began to consume her versions of every standard as if they were musical narcotics – was on the list of people receiving honorary degrees from Harvard that year, I was beyond thrilled. Ella, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Nancy Wilson were my personal Mt. Rushmore of jazz singers, and having her name indelibly connected to my class was momentous.

But I also knew she’d had some recent health issues (she was 73 at the time) and did not expect her to accept her doctorate in person. In fact, I was saying pretty much that to my roommate Susan as several of the distinguished graduation guests filed past us. And then I turned. And saw her. Elegant. Beautiful. Smiling. Ella.

There was a consistent smattering of applause accompanying every step she took. When I finally caught my breath, all that came roaring out of my mouth was the primal scream – “ELLLLLLLAAAAA!!!!  ELLLLLLLAAAAA!!!” I couldn’t stop. I was hopping up and down and cheering and – as I said before – losing my natural mind.

I saw on my roommate’s face and other faces around me that amused “Damn, what exactly is happening to her right now?” look, but that was all in slow motion and I did not care because a national treasure was walking towards me. The architect of vocal improvisation and scatting and so much pure jazz singing greatness was in my sights, and I could not contain myself.

I think Ella heard me before she saw me, because I saw her glance my way, smile, then veer close enough to lay her hand on my forearm. Yes, that’s right, I can now and forever brag that the one and only Ella Fitzgerald touched me.

As I observed her small but mighty hand on my forearm, it reminded me of my grandmother’s. From it I felt a gentle squeeze – and in that squeeze she communicated her amusement, her thanks, and, if I’m being 💯 about it, encouragement to get a gotdamn grip on myself and attempt some level of decorum. I was at my college graduation ceremony, her hand reminded me, not Showtime at the Apollo. And then she kept going down the line and when no more dignitaries were left to file past us, we collapsed the Soul Train line and headed to our seats.

https://youtu.be/or1kqkeGXrI

I have no idea what else was said or done during the rest of that ceremony – I spent most of it plotting with my wing woman Karen Moody on how to get close enough to the stage so I could ask Ella for her autograph. Moody offered to distract the security guard once the ceremony was over – she turned on her gift of gab and I was able to glide by and up to Miss Fitzgerald with a pen and the only paper I had, my graduation program. Ella graciously signed it and smiled at me once again as security quickly became undistracted and pointed me away.

Thirty years later, when I look back on this moment, I can’t help but ask myself exactly why I went so crazy. The obvious answer is, duh – ELLA FITZGERALD – but it was such lightning bolt of energy that came through me, it was more than that. Back then I didn’t know much about her life, her professional or personal struggles, but something in me knew to honor the totality of who she was, what she’d gone through and what she gave to this world.

Ella Fitzgerald deserved (and got) a full body-and-soul shout out from the younger generation through me that day. To let her know that she was seen, heard, loved and would never be forgotten, particularly by those, like me, who present to the world in the same type of package.

And here I am again, thirty years later, shouting out love and appreciation for the one and only Ella, master of tone, phrasing, intonation, improvisation and interpretation, so the next generation may know her and pass on to the next their appreciation for one of the best to ever do it.

Below is a playlist compiled in her honor, as well as several other resources and links to foster even more awareness of the “First Lady of Song.” Love you always, Ella!

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:0LIoz4OZ7wvTwLWZcrevPt”]

Read more: http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/about/biography or https://www.biography.com/musician/ella-fitzgerald or

 Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz by Stuart Nicholson

To see the trailer for upcoming documentary Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things, watch above.

Legendary Jazz Singer Sarah Vaughan To Be Honored With U.S. Postage Stamp on March 29

Screen Shot 2016-03-02 at 5.37.26 PM
Sarah Vaughan Forever stamp (UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE)

article by Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele via theroot.com
Grammy Award-winning jazz singer Sarah Vaughan is being honored with a Forever stamp by the U.S. Postal Servicethe Amsterdam News reports.
The unveiling will take place March 29 in Newark, New Jersey—where Vaughan was born.  The image on the stamp is an oil painting of Vaughan’s face during a performance. It’s based on a photograph taken by Hugh Bell in 1955, according to the Amsterdam News.