Search - Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie :: Send in the Clowns

10 Fabulous Songs

Jim Holtz | Madison, Wi United States | 07/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The correct song list is:
1.I've Gotta Right To Sing The Blues
2.Just Friends
3.If You Could See Me Now
4.Ill Wind
5.When Your Lover Has Gone
6.Send In The Clowns
7.I Hadn't Any One Till You
8.All The Things Are You
9.Indian Summer
10.From This Monment On
I've asked Amazon to list the tracks correctly. Now, to the cd review. Sarah out did herself. She was the perfect jazz singer. Pitch, lucidity, range, & "improvisation"! Pablo Records released 4 ***** albums by Sarah Vaughan: How Long Has This Been Going On, Duke Ellington Songbook v.2, Crazy & Mixed Up, & this one. V.1 of Ellington was only ****. This set of mainly older & lesser known songs were perfect for Sarah. She 1st grabbed us by doing the best jazz version of Send In The Clowns & then lavished us with jewels such as the swingers,(I Hadn't Anyone Till You & Just Friends) & laments (Indian Summer & If You Could See Me Now). With all 10 tracks, Sassy show her divinity by getting to the essence of every song. Sarah somehow puts all other jazz female singers to shame. They were all great in their own way! But, didn't Sarah only & truly make her voice an isntrument? Here, that voice is truly intergrated with the band. It's too bad that she was held back & unable to go whole hog. Pablo probably wanted to sell more copies. "Keep that Divine Sassiness in check" was probably thought. Although she complied, Sarah showed us all what the perfect jazz singer can do to 10 perfect songs. If I get to Heaven, may I greeted by the Divine One & The Count."

There are irreplacable cuts on this one.

Richard Meyer | Woodbridge,VA | 08/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Starts out with "Ive Gotta Right To Sing The Blues" where Sarah sings to be ship wrecked in a disaster area. Sarah had recorded "If You Could See Me Now" 35 years earlier when she didn't have the technique to do it;this song is a trip."Ill Wind was done previously on Roulette with very little backing & Sarah absolutley revamps it with full orchestra with moaing & groaning with those high notes;sounds like Sarah is singing in a disaster area, just superb.Sarah does up tempo versions of Roulette's"When Your Lover Has Gone,I Hadn't Anyone Till You,& All These Things Yor Are" is very good but listen to the last one "Sarah Sings Boradway" which is superb balad version on Mercury."Send In the Clowns" is excellent but also listen to it,a slighty rock version on the Fantstic Legacy CD."Indian Summer" never recorded before is absolutley beautiful & absolutley fits ... to my life & maybe yours."From This Monent On" Sarah sings an updeat song. Sassy sings the title and then "no more blues songs, only hoop de do songs from this moment on".All Sarah's albums with the Count Basie Orchestra seem to stop time;a voice & orchestra no longer combined or around."Little Man You've Had A Busy Day" is sung in slow motion, beatifull on Roulette,"Stardust" there is the most excellent version I have ever head on Mercury and all SV & CB. SV & CB on Roulette is sitll available on Roulette & "Stardust" is on "SV At Her Finest" on Mercury. Don't miss this one on Pablo; it's a work of art to have in your collection.This particular cut is going out of print;get new or used but the only difference in the high priced import is the price."

Divine

Jazzcat | Genoa, Italy Italy | 08/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have owned this record for more than fifteen years now. It is the perfect album to testify my philosofy that consists in the believing that when you spend your money in pure art, those are the money best spent, because you will enjoy them for all your lifetime. Albums like this one are so deep and wonderful that they stuck in your head immediatly and never get out of it! You find yourself coming back to them very often and everytime it is a fantastic experience. I don't know how many times I have listened to this album on my knees and with tears in my eyes in the past fifteen years. Unbelievable. With a very big collection like mine and with precious and rare beautiful recordings from the golden era coming in rapid sequence, often the older cds in the collection tend to be forgotten for some time to time no matter how fantastic they are. This one instead it's impossible to forget. It's a fantastic recording like ALL the Sassy's Pablo .... Pablo is not a company I particularly admire but Norman did it big with these Sarah albums. They are all masterpieces. Sarah Vaughan, I believe she's the first jazz artist I really fell in love with when I started to study jazz guitar more than twenty years ago (even before my Charlie Parker folgoration). I still think no singers in the world will ever catch her. It's simply impossible to compare. I love few other singers (Anita O'Day, Irene Kral, etc ...) but nobody like Sassy. In these Pablo albums her voice has matured and her technique and understanding of the music and of the repertoire reached the impossible. There is not a single "average" moment in this album it's like Beethoven's 9th in jazz. The opener, Just friends, an immense Send in the clowns, each tune is a gem. Sarah sings and soars, takes off and flies like a bird over these wonderful compositions and arrangements by the great Count Basie Orchestra. She owns the songs she sings in a way no other singers can do. She had an incredible array of effects she could use to colour a song and to share her emotions ... and her instrument was truly a unique gift from mother Nature. She was at her command explosive, tender, sophisticated, elegant, flashy, sensual, ethereal, earthy, hard, always with supreme taste..... She was really DIVINE and while I'm writing this review listening to this album for the thousand time in my life, I feel a shiver going down my spine. Thanks for such a divine beauty Sarah. There are not enough stars for a star like you."