Sassy PB

By Leslie Gourse

Book Overview

"A deeply felt portrait of an artist whose influence on a generation of vocalists was profound." -- New York Times Book Review

Sarah Vaughan possessed the most spectacular voice in jazz history. In Sassy, Leslie Gourse, the acclaimed biographer of Nat King Cole and Joe Williams, defines and celebrates Vaughan's vital musical legacy and offers a detailed portrait of the woman as well as the singer. Revealed here is "The Divine One" as only her closest friends and musical associates knew her.

By her early twenties Sarah Vaughan was singining with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Billy Eckstine, helping them invent bebop. For forty-five years thereafter, she reigned supreme in both pop and jazz, with several million-selling hits (among them "Broken Hearted Melody," "Make Yourself Comfortable," and "Misty").

But life offstage was never smooth for Sarah Vaughan. Her voluptuous voice was matched by her exuberant appetite for excess: three failed marriages, financial difficulties through many changes in management, late-night jam sessions, liquor, and cocaine. In Sassy, though, we also see the feisty and unpretentious woman who worked hard all her life to support her parents and adopted daughter, and who came to savor the hard-won independence and worldwide acclaim she achieved as the greatest jazz singer of her generation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306805782
• ISBN13: 9780306805783
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Da Capo
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Sassy Sarah Vaughan!

I hope Sarah Vaughan will be inducted in the inaugural New Jersey Hall of Fame for her services to Arts and Entertainment. It might be a few years but I think Sassy Sarah is well worth the wait. The biography is detailed but not enough in my opinion. Sassy Sarah had an amazing life as a singer and entertainer. Even though she smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, it never affected her voice. Her love of music kept her going until her dying day. I would have liked to learn more about the professional relationship between Quincy Jones and Sassy Sarah. Her personal life was typical of successful artists who don't know how to handle their money or finances. In the end, Sassy Sarah left an amazing legacy. She is the pride of Newark, New Jersey. I hoped that my students would have enjoyed her music or experienced her greatness but sadly Sarah Vaughan's legacy seems all but forgotten in her hometown. There is a street named after her but it's very small. She is buried nearby in Bloomfield, New Jersey. I would love to see somebody like Queen Latifah bring Sassy Sarah Vaughan to life on stage, in a television special, or film. I bet this fellow New Jerseyan would have a mantelful of awards for her performance. Sarah Vaughan was one of the great singers of the last century and everybody in Newark should know the voice and the name.