Sarah Vaughan in Concert (1981)
Spurred on in the 70s by Mary Lou Williams and Erroll Garner, jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan began to play the piano again during her 80s concerts. Such as during her interpretation of “Once In A While,” a 1937 song by American composer/violinist/organist Michel Edwards (1893-1962) and the Austrian born lyricist Mozes David “Bud” Green (1897-1981) who grew up in Harlem.
Sarah Vaughan and Her Trio at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, The Netherlands, on July 12, 1981. The sublime vocalist was accompanied by pianist George Gaffney, bass player Andy Simpkins and drummer Harold Jones.
Her concert started three quarters of an hour later than planned that evening, making the 2,000 people strong audience in the Prince Willem Alexander Hall, anxiously awaiting her appearance, restless and nervous. The reason for the delay was that Miss Vaughan had requested a box of tissues to dap her heated face before getting on stage. And such a box wasn’t available. When after 45 minutes the tissue box arrived the concert could finally begin.
Sarah Vaughan’s charming personality and her interpretation of old and new songs rapidly made her audience forget the delay and made them asked for an encore at the end of the concert. Her voice control allowed her anything she felt like doing. Sarah Vaughan replaces her pianist George Gaffney for that encore and took her own place at the piano, adjusted her microphone and started singing “Once In A While.” Technically for the Divine Miss Sarah Vaughan there was no mountain high enough for her as she proved once again that vocalists can be just as exceptionally astonishing in improvising as instrumentalists.
