Sarah Vaughan With Count Basie & His Orchestra

Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 2, 1996)
• Original Release Date: 1961
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B000005H33
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,818 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #35 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Swing Jazz
  • #92 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Vocal Jazz

Editorial Reviews

No description available.
Genre: Jazz Music
Rating:
Release Date: 0000-00-00
Media Type: Compact Disk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fine album by Sarah, Joe and that Count Basie Band, June 11, 2008

By 

Matthew G. Sherwin (last seen screaming at Amazon customer service) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sarah Vaughan With Count Basie & His Orchestra (Audio CD)

Count Basie/Sarah Vaughan features great words and music by Count Basie and His Band along with Sarah Vaughan--and there are even two tracks with Joe Williams helping out, too! The quality of the sound is wonderful on this digitally remastered CD of a 1961 record album; and the artwork is very nicely done as well.

"Perdido" has Sarah Vaughan singing at her very best; her voice is very rich, warm and rather vibrant. Sarah swings brightly to make her performance really great; and she scats as well as the best of them ever could! The band plays this with style; the brass is used very well and the music perfectly complements Sarah's vocals. "Perdido" is quite a strong beginning number for this album; and the jazzy arrangement is grand. "Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)" is a fantastic track that showcases Sarah Vaughan's incredible strength as a female vocalist. Sarah sings this with lots of passion and you can tell that she has truly delved into "Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)" to make her rendition of this ballad shine. The brass and piano arrangements are also very good.

"Alone" gets the royal treatment from Sarah who delivers this with panache; I really like "Alone" and Sarah aces this effortlessly. Sarah's excellent diction and her uncanny sense of timing make "Alone" a wonderful number to enjoy. "Mean To Me" places Sarah Vaughan squarely front and center right next to the sublime musical arrangement by Count Basie and His Orchestra. "Mean To Me" is definitely a major highlight of this album; and I think that you'll like it a lot. In addition, "The Gentleman Is A Dope" sparkles when Sarah Vaughan sings this alongside the Count Basie Band. "The Gentleman Is A Dope" really gives us a great sense of just how wonderfully Sarah Vaughan could sing alongside some of the finest musicians of the day--great!

"You Go To My Head" is a classic love song that Sarah and the band members make so very special; Sarah exercises her entire vocal range on this number and this makes the number so full of feeling it's wonderful. That "Count Basie style" enhances "You Go To My Head" even more. "You Turned The Tables On Me" has Sarah swinging gently; and when she goes into the main lyrics of the song this number takes flight! The Count Basie Band uses its incredible sophistication to infuse this number with a somewhat jazzy arrangement that leaves you wanting more.

And there is more! "Teach Me Tonight" has Joe Williams doing a fantastic duet with Sarah Vaughan as the Count Basie Band plays the music to perfection. Joe Williams is in excellent form and he never sings a superfluous note either. Joe also does a duet with Sarah on "If I Were A Bell;" and the album ends so nicely with Sarah Vaughan and The Count Basie Band performing "Until I Met You." "Until I Met You" is quite a love song and this makes the perfect ending for this album.

The only disappointment, as another reviewer correctly notes, is that Count Basie himself only plays on one track, "Mean To Me." I wish he had participated on all the tracks!

Sarah Vaughan, Joe Williams and The Count Basie Band just couldn't be beaten--and this CD proves it. I highly recommend this album.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big-sound swing plus one of the century's great voices, October 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Sarah Vaughan With Count Basie & His Orchestra (Audio CD)

If you bought this record just to hear "I Cried For You"--especially the note she hits at the end of the first line "..now it's your turn to cry over me"-- you would feel it was worth the price of the disc. Half a dozen other great arrangements make this a standout. If you love Count Basie and The Divine Sarah, you have to own it.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!, December 9, 2004

By 

D. J. Zabriskie "zabdart" (Park Ridge, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sarah Vaughan With Count Basie & His Orchestra (Audio CD)

The thing that always seems to get overlooked in any discussion of Basie's music is his extraordinary taste as an accompanyist. What we all recognize as the classic, minimalist "Count Basie style" of piano playing actually evolved from his role as a supporting commentator to his soloists. In "Basie II," where the whole band became an extension of the leader's style, it comes as no surprise that the Basie Band became the premiere big band for accompanying singers. EVERYBODY, from B. B. King to Frank Sinatra, wanted to record with the Basie Band. So, putting Sarah Vaughan out front of the orchestra proves to be a particular stroke of genius.
Sarah was, as everybody knows by now, an "unlimited" vocalist, with complete control over her incredible 3 1/2 octave range. She came up in the same Earl Hines Band that was "the incubator of bebop," producing such talents as Lucky Thompson, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Art Blakey, to name just a few. Dizzy's famous "A Night In Tunisia" was originally written as a vocal feature for Sarah Vaughan. Her chops on all of these songs combine with a rare gift for getting to the emotional and musical core of things that is simply astounding. Even superficial show-tunes, like "The Gentleman Is a Dope," emerge as major revelations the way she sings them. Meanwhile, the Basie Band supports her with just the right mix of drama and tone color throughout. Basie insists on honest JAZZ performance on every number, so that even the more sentimental numbers emerge as standout vocal stylings. There is none of the pop schmaltz which too often invades Sarah's recordings with others. So, what we get here is perhaps the most unlimited jazz singer ever, doing what only she can do, while the Basie Bands supports her with powerful, punchy, TASTEY charts, executed with the usual phenomenal precision.
Give one listen to "You Turned the Tables on Me" and you'll know why this CD belongs in your collection.