Jazz, blues and nostalgia. Today Sarah Vaughan.
She was referred to as ‘The Divine One’. Her voice was compared to ‘liquid honey’: a pure tone, a way of phrasing as if her voice was a musical instrument and had the flexibility of a young partner. Sarah Vaughan, also known as ‘Sassy’, although she thanked her nickname to her strong language. She was leading a turbulent life with lots of parties, alcohol, especially brandy, and chain smoking. And yet, her voice remained beautiful until the bitter end. Especially loved in jazz, although she has put some crossovers on the record. Though not to everyone’s liking and Dutch jazz expert Michiel de Ruyter called some of her commercial recordings ‘highly worthless, yes even vulgar’. But the timeless beautiful recordings with musicians such as Miles David, Clifford Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker are in large majority.
Colleague Betty Carter once said that with proper training Sarah Vaughan could have gone very far in opera. ‘But’, she continued, ‘I am very glad she didn’t.’ Admirer Simon Carmiggelt wrote that whenever he put on her records ‘hot wind blows into the room’.
In Palace of Nostalgia we focus particularly on the young Sarah Vaughan, but as a contrast also the extraordinary Gotan Project Remix where her song ‘Whatever Lola wants’ had been catapulted into the sound mix of the 21st century.
