Customer Reviews

Motor City Soul

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Father Tom Vaughn was not only my parish priest at St. John's Episcopal Church in Midland, Michigan but also the Godfather of my son. The last time I saw him was when he was playing at El Chapultapec in Denver in the early 90's. He was not in great health at that time. Over the years I have lost contact with him and his family. I do hope they put together a recording from his tapes. I have all of his LP's but would love to get cd's that I can put on my iPod. He recorded this LP while still living in Midland, Michigan. He was originally from the Detroit area and graduated from Yale. Favorite memories are of my husband and Tom starting to put together Christmas toys for our children and then his wife, Bev, and myself finishing the job. His music was so upbeat and full of feeling and sent you away humming.

I inadvertently came across Fr. Tom Vaughn's album while looking through the 33 1/3 albums at the iconic Don's Record Shop in Houston. That had to have been at least 25 years ago.

At the time, he was serving as rector of an Episcopal church in California. But he had been in and out of the jazz piano profession since before his college days.

Interestingly, when he retired from the ministry a few years back, he apparently disappeared from public view. Father Tom was born in 1937. The reports are that his grown children are putting together a collection of his performances since his albums are out of print.

For now, buying used Fr. Tom albums is a good decision.

P.S. By the way, he was the officiant of June Christie's funeral...a jazz funeral; however, he didn't play.