[.ca] Sarah Vaughan W/Clifford Brown

Un Essentiel amazon.fr:
La découpe parfaite et la déclamation jusqu'à l'incantation sont les traits communs de ces deux géniales étoiles du jazz bebop que sont Sarah Vaughan au chant et le trompettiste Clifford Brown. Leur association fut plus que constructive, elle participait d'une entente dans tous les domaines du jeu jazz de l'époque, de la considération du feeling à l'exposition d'un rythme suranné. C'est la rencontre de deux âmes fragilisées, troublées de sentiments et évoquant tantôt la même tristesse tantôt la même joie communicative de jouer cette musique. Toutes les interprétations présentes sur ce disque sont empreintes d'exactitude, de profondeur et de sensibilité contenue. Sur les ballades comme sur les thèmes rapides, le silence de l'un expose l'éclat de l'autre et réciproquement. La technique toujours époustouflante de Clifford Brown restitue avec plus d'ampleur encore les possibilités vocales de la chanteuse. De même, la présence de Herbie Mann à la flûte confère à cet enregistrement une atmosphère de légèreté aérienne. Les notes parfaitement ciselées de Clifford Brown dansent sur toute l'étendue de la tessiture qu'embrasse, pour mieux l'accompagner, la voix parfois chatte parfois moqueuse de l'excellente interprète de standards que fut Sarah Vaughan, ici dans la splendeur de sa jeunesse. --Jean-Michel Schlosser

Like a gifted actress, Sarah Vaughan always makes lyrics come alive, whether on poignant ballads or buoyant pop novelties. Vaughan "plays" her voice as if it is a "real" instrument, and on this 1955 marvel, she is matched with musicians of an equally high caliber. On "Lullaby of Birdland," she trades harmonically advanced scat lines with Herbie Mann, Paul Quinichette, and Clifford Brown. Vaughan is hauntingly romantic and Brown is at his most lyrical on "September Song." She shows her unbelievable bop-influenced creativity on "You're Not the Kind"; Brown's hard-swinging solo and Quinichette's Lester Young-styled softness set up an incredible ending cascade from Vaughan. Pianist Jimmy Jones's beautiful chords on the infectious "He's My Guy" show why he was one of the most sought-after vocal accompanists, while Vaughan's phrasing, deliberately behind the time, adds perfectly to the relaxed feel. "April in Paris" reveals her operatic quality as Brown's tingling riffs fill in the space behind her. Throughout, Sassy combines exquisite elegance, impressive range, and an effortless delivery. --Marc Greilsamer

From Amazon.co.uk:
The liner note writer uses the word "masterpiece" and he is not wrong to do so. Sarah Vaughan rarely sang better than she does here, and her version of "Embraceable You" is a lesson in jazz invention. Sarah Vaughan's complete works for Mercury filled up 23 CDs. The bit on this CD is undoubtedly the cream of the set. There is a good selection of numbers, including superb versions of "April In Paris" and "September Song", and there doesn't seem to be a single moment when the music drops below the inspired level. Vaughan was accompanied by a disparate group of horn players--trumpeter Clifford Brown, flautist Herbie Mann and tenor saxist Paul Quinichette. Brown's genius just dazzles and Mann and Quinichette lifted their game to a level that they never reached again. The rhythm section of Jimmy Jones, Joe Benjamin and Roy Haynes was Vaughan's normal trio of the times. Inspired? Faultless? A masterpiece? I think so. Oh, and in case you were wondering, it's beautifully recorded, too. --Steve Voce

Sarah Vaughan at Her Best:
I've had this CD over a year now and every time and every time I listen to Sarah, I swear she sounds better each time. This is one hell of a recording. Clifford Brown stands out for all eternity on trumpet. You have to wonder what a star he would have been. Herbie Mann on flute is decent too. This is great CD during a wonderful time in the 50's before music met effects processing and over production!

One of the best vocal jazz albums ever:
It is hard to find information about Jazz in today's world, so it is hard to know what is good, what is bad and what is... well, you know. THIS is better than good. This is Sarah Vaughn, one of the best voices in the history of singing, backed by the best band she ever worked with, featuring trumpeter Clifford Brown. I'd pay the purchase price just for "Lullaby of Birdland", but fortunately there are 8 other awesome tracks here. This is one of those albums you can play all the way through over and over again. No jazz record collection should be without it.

Come to Mama, come to Mama, do:
From the opening intro you know you are in for something accesible and new at the same time with this one. I have listened sporadically to jazz since I was fifteen, I saw aging Gillespie and Basie live, and Ella and Joe Pass. I got hooked on a label that focused on Ella, and never listened to much Sarah Vaughan. I just have to say that this early stuff rocks(or Jazzes, I guess). The aforementioned first cut just cruises along is such a heartstoppingly beautiful way...for me, no music does this to me like Jazz. I listen to a lot of stuff(though I hate when people blow their own horn about how eclectic their musical tastes are...yeah yeah, get over yourself) I can think of no other music that creates these time stopping moments for me like jazz does. The first cut, lullaby of Birdland does this several times...it creates absloutely breathtaking moments, the opening intro, the absolutely spare backup, allowing total support for master vocals....the scatting, and then this great point where Sarah sings in front of a rythmic arrangement...it is magical for me. Oh yes, there is the rest of the music, which wails and ballads it's way into every nook and cranny of ones romantic soul. When Sarah sings Embraceable You, you want to come to mama(that is a lyric..) (oh that great moment is coming up..........don't you love it) Gotta figure it out for yourself...but chances are you will want to embrace someone yourself when you listen to it... or want to go to birdland, or experience Paris it's an emotional travelogue of the map of the jazzy heart.

Classy small-group music from Vaughan:
At this stage of her career Vaughan was often put in front of larger bands; here, however, she's working just with Jimmy Jones's trio plus three horns: tenor saxophonist Paul Quinichette, flautist Herbie Mann & the great trumpeter Clifford Brown. The arrangements are by Ernie Wilkins, though the tracks aren't in fact highly "arranged" in feel. Sarah Vaughan's voice was of course at its freshest & loveliest at this point, & it's truly mesmerizing no matter what the material. Or perhaps I should say "despite the material": there's an odd mix of classic songs like "September Song", "April in Paris" & "Embraceable You" with material that hardly was up to that calibre. "Lullaby of Birdland" is a great tune, but it's an instrumental: the lyrics superadded to Shearing's melody are truly atrocious, & Vaughan's near-operatic voice can't do much with rhymes like "birdland" and "word-land", or phrases like "magic music we make with our lips when we kiss". "Jim"'s lyrics mine the same kind of helpless pathos one associates with some of Billie Holiday's setpieces, & Vaughan's reading has some noticeable Holiday inflections, but it's not exactly a great tune, with a wretchedly clumsy B section lyric (rhyming "call it quits" with "breaking my heart in bits"....ouch!). -- All that said, Vaughan's superb on the material which actually can sustain some interpretive weight. "April in Paris" & "Embraceable You" are both done at dead-slow tempos & are very lovely; "Lullaby of Birdland", despite the rotten lyrics, also has an excellent bit of scatting on it. The band is rather mixed. Herbie Mann is pretty undistinguished, tooting away rather vaguely & not showing much ability here as an improvisor. Quinichette was one of the most faithful of Lester Young's imitators--he was often dubbed "the Vice-Prez"--& while he doesn't set a foot wrong here, on the other hand does nothing especially distinctive, with a softness & blandness that compare poorly with the wonderful foggy, misterioso inwardness of his role model's playing. The unquestioned star on the disc is Clifford Brown, whose perfectly focussed & poised solos completely outshine the efforts of his companions except, of course, Vaughan herself. A very good album, despite its imperfections. It's a pity that the relationship between Vaughan & Brown wasn't sustained beyond this one album. Listeners who want to hear more of Brown's work with singers are directed to his work with Helen Merrill.

An must for your jazz collection:
If you want one album that shows the young Sarah Vaughn at her best, this would be definitely be it. Couple that with Clifford Brown and you have an album you cannot do without. They are both top notch from beginning to end. The only reason I couldn't dish out that fifth star is simply that I cannot stand Herbie Mann and his distracting tootling. I don't like jazz flute much in the first place, and Mann's performance on this album is hardly calculated to convert anyone. There are a few tracks where his presence comes close to derailing the whole song, but fortunately the rest of the ensemble is able to keep the musical energy flowing. Aside from Herbie, how can one not love this album? It shows why jazz fans consider Sarah Vaughn to be one of the immortals; it also shows what a tragic loss Clifford Brown's premature death was for the music world.

	Custom Search