Mosaic Releases The Complete Roulette Sarah Vaughan Studio Sessions

By I Jul. 23, 2002

Mosaic has released The Complete Roulette Sarah Vaughan Studio Sessions. This eight-CD set showcases the incomparable “Sassy” in a wide range of environments encompassing duos, small groups, big bands, strings and full-blown orchestras. The 184 tracks cover 13 albums, seven singles sessions and include four tracks issued for the very first time. The enormous scope of material includes music by Ellington, Monk, the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Dizzy Gillespie, Irving
Berlin and many more top jazz and popular composers.

The 1960-’63 recordings that comprise The Complete Roulette Sarah Vaughan Studio Sessions followed shortly on the heels of Vaughan’s pop mega-hit “Broken-Hearted Melody.” And while there’s no doubt that Roulette’s intentions were to replicate that commercial success, there are sufficient treasures contained on these recordings to please even the most cynical of critics.

Two of the albums feature Vaughan in a most intimate environment, ideal for her darkly lustrous horn-like voice. On After Hours, she’s supported only by guitarist Mundell Lowe and bassist George Duvivier. Sarah + 2 offers the same setting with Barney Kessel and Joe Comfort. Two other albums also place her in a relatively stripped-down format. On Sarah Sings Soulfully, she’s accompanied by a sterling West-Coast sextet featuring trumpeter Carmell Jones, tenorman Teddy Edwards and Ernie Freeman on organ. With arrangements by the legendary Gerald Wilson, Sarah takes on jazz classics like “’Round Midnight,” “Sermonette” and “Moanin’” along with some popular tunes; while longtime Vaughan pianist Jimmy Jones provides the arrangements and leads a four-horn octet on “The Divine One,” featuring the superb Harry “Sweets” Edison on trumpet. The remainder of the albums feature large ensembles, from big bands to brass, string and wind sections to full orchestra. The big band sessions feature charts by some of jazz1 most respected arrangers.

Frank Foster, Thad Jones and Ernie Wilkins provide the arrangements for The Count Basie/Sarah Vaughan Sessions, featuring one of Basie’s most popular bands, including such stalwarts as Frank Wess, Joe Newman, Snooky Young, Billy Mitchell, Al Grey, Freddie Green and Marshall Royal, along with Jones and Foster. Vocalist Joe Williams shares the spotlight on two tracks. Benny Carter arranged and conducted a big band filled with top West Coast names like Buddy Collette, Red Callendar, Paul Horn and Lou Levy on The Explosive Side Of Sarah Vaughan; and did the same for string and brass ensembles on Lonely Hours, featuring two of Sarah’s frequent accompanists, Kessel and pianist Jimmy Rowles.

Two other albums feature early work by two major figures in the jazz and popular realm. Quincy Jones provides the big band and orchestral settings on You’re Mine You, and on Sweet ‘N’ Sassy, Argentina’s Lalo Schifrin offers some unusual and unexpected environments to challenge Sarah’s vocal artistry.

Dreamy, her very first album for Roulette, was unabashedly romantic. Featuring a 29-piece orchestra conducted and arranged by Jimmy Jones, Sarah’s sultry voice was clearly intended (as the liner notes promised) to take listeners to “that ethereal place where lovers dwell.” Snowbound, featuring winds, strings and rhythm arranged and conducted by Don Costa, clearly strives for the purely beautiful. And that “mood music” environment is also at the core of the two remaining albums, both arranged and conducted by Marty Manning. “Star Eyes” is a dreamlike ballad-driven set featuring a somewhat unusual repertoire. Sarah Slightly Classical showcases Vaughan in an even more unexpected setting, with adaptations of works by Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Saint Saens among the selections. Various singles sessions, arranged and conducted by Manning, Joe Reismann and Billy May round out this ambitious and often arresting collection.

Mosai