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(More customer reviews)As fortunate as I've been in catching and even meeting many of the giants (Coltrane, Ellington, etc.), I have several major regrets: never seeing Bird or Lady Day, and never seeing Hank Mobley or Sarah Vaughan during the late 50's/early '60s. Sarah was a pyrotechnical phenomenon in the '70s and '80s capable of impressing the most demanding listeners from any field of music, but she was truly both "Sassy" and "The Divine One" during the period captured on this video. She sang with an intimate, vibrant glow that lightened the listener's heart, producing the most indelible and timeless emotions, whether on ballads or up-tempo material.
It's surprising to learn that the first concert in the sequence, featuring Sarah in a casual, rather drab dress, actually came after the second concert, in which Sarah's radiant singing seems to match her white, glamorous, feminine attire. The third concert, on the other hand, is almost overly "produced," featuring Sarah in a formal context, a lavish coiffure (wig, I suspect), and taking on ambitious tunes lie Bernstein's "Mariah" to show off her operatic soprano. It also exposes the diva's propensity for perspiring heavily, which I noticed the several times I caught live her after 1970. Since Ella had a similar problem (though somewhat less noticeable), especially after donning a wig, I've got to wonder if that single addition wasn't a strong contributer to becoming "over-heated."
Upon a second viewing of the video, I found that the musical upstaged the visual element (as it should), bringing Sarah Vaughan's supremacy into clearer focus than ever, her only challengers for the top spot coming down to Ella and Billie. No one had so rich a sound (especially before the 1970s), so secure a sense of time and pitch, so "musical" an approach to melody, making up her own melodies with the facility and invention of the very best improvisers (which takes her beyond mere "scatting"). And in this early period, she's not so dependent upon "vocal display," making you conscious of that enormous range. Rather than "come at you" with that formidable instrument, she draws you in, cheering and warming that personal, exquisitely private place or realm of desire that each of us carries within us.
Although this DVD is scarcely any more costly than a CD, most of us don't play videos enough to establish an intimate partnership or deep connection with them. For that reason, I'd recommend that a listener first pick up and listen to one of her inexhaustible albums ("Live at Mr. Kelly's" would be my first choice). Once Sarah has taken up residence in your psyche, you'll necessarily want to witness the source of the ineffable emotion. At that point, the DVD's value will be all the more apparent.
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Jazz Icons: Sarah Vaughan features the "Divine One" in her prime, wrapping her sultry voice around jazz standards such as "Lover Man", "Misty" and "I Got Rhythm and soaring on popular showtunes such as "Over The Rainbow" and "Maria". One of the greatest voices of the 20th Century, her renditions of songs by Harold Arlen, Leonard Bernstein, Johnny Burke, the Gershwins and Stephen Sondheim are pure diva magic. These three performances demonstrate why Sarah Vaughan is invariably mentioned in the same breath as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.
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