'Tis the season for all kinds of ailments. For the past two weeks I've been under the weather. Hence I've been resting and getting frustrated at my inability to go outside and enjoy the fine Ontario fall weather we've been having. Thank God for my Senniheiser headphones and my CD collection.
About three years ago I was listening to a gent on "Public Radio" who sounded like he had some sort of grand pooh-bah credentials in music. The topic was the "greatest jazz albums" that have ever been recorded. The announcer was head over wheels in in love with Sarah Vaughan and some live album that she had cut in 1973. I didn't pay much attention to the name of the album and since it was from 1973, I knew that our humble little music store in rural Ontario wouldn't stock it anyway.
This summer I walked into a book store near London,Ontario and lo and behold: The Sarah Vaughan "Live in Tokyo" album from 1973 had been re-mastered on the "Jazz Lips" label. I purchased it and believe me it was the best $34.99 I've spent in a long time.
At the risk of sounding like I'm fawning, Vaughan is the only person in the world who can sing "My Funny Valentine" and get you so hot that she makes Barry White look like a 13 year old schoolboy (I had an Elvis Costello version on a bootlegged album,and he sounded like a dick). If your significant other listens to Sarah sing "Round Midnight" and they don't want to make love to you, kick them out of your life because they have no pulse and/or crappy taste in music. Seriously, Sarah's music is powerful stuff.
After this album Vaughan continued to record, but sadly she passed away in 1990 from lung cancer. At her funeral she was eulogized by a close friend who said "She had one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century".
The friend was only half right. She had one of the most wondrous voices in all of music.
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