Editing Sarah Vaughan (section)

==Vocal commentary==
Parallels have been drawn between Vaughan's voice and those of [[opera]] singers. Jazz singer [[Betty Carter]] said that with training Vaughan could have "gone as far as [[Leontyne Price]]."<ref name="CarrFairweather2004">{{cite book|author1=Carr, Ian|author-link=Ian Carr|author2=Digby Fairweather|author2-link=Digby Fairweather|author3=Brian Priestley|author3-link=Brian Priestley|title=The Rough Guide to Jazz|url=https://archive.org/details/roughguidetojazz00carr |url-access=registration|access-date=August 6, 2013 |year=2004|publisher=Rough Guides|isbn=978-1-84353-256-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/roughguidetojazz00carr/page/147 147]–}}</ref> [[Bob_James_(musician)|Bob James]], Vaughan's musical director in the 1960s said that "the instrument was there. But the knowledge, the legitimacy of that whole world were not for her ... But if the aria were in Sarah's range she could bring something to it that a classically trained singer could not."<ref>Gourse 2001, p. 246.</ref>

In a chapter devoted to Vaughan in his book ''Visions of Jazz'' (2000), critic [[Gary Giddins]] described her as the "ageless voice of modern jazz – of giddy postwar virtuosity, biting wit and fearless caprice".<ref name="Giddins2000">{{cite book|first=Gary |last=Giddins|title=Visions of Jazz: The First Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MH0btmTBccsC&pg=PA307|access-date=August 6, 2013 |date=May 18, 2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-513241-0|pages=307–}}</ref> He concluded by saying that "No matter how closely we dissect the particulars of her talent ... we must inevitably end up contemplating in silent awe the most phenomenal of her attributes, the one she was handed at birth, the voice that happens once in a lifetime, perhaps once in several lifetimes."<ref name="Giddins2000"/>

{{Quote box|width=320px|align=left|quote=Her voice had wings: luscious and tensile, disciplined and nuanced, it was as thick as cognac, yet soared off the beaten path like an instrumental solo ... that her voice was a four-octave muscle of infinite flexibility made her disarming shtick all the more ironic." – Gary Giddins}}

Her obituary in ''The New York Times'' described her as a "singer who brought an operatic splendor to her performances of popular standards and jazz."<ref name="NYTObit"/> Jazz singer [[Mel Tormé]] said that she had "the single best vocal instrument of any singer working in the popular field." Her ability was envied by Frank Sinatra who said, "Sassy is so good now that when I listen to her I want to cut my wrists with a dull razor."<ref name="Inc1972">{{cite magazine|author=Thompson, Thomas|title=Almost nobody's as classy as Sassy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NVcEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA27 |date=June 16, 1972 |magazine=Life|page=27–|issn=0024-3019}}</ref> ''New York Times'' critic [[John S. Wilson (music critic)|John S. Wilson]] said in 1957 that she possessed "what may well be the finest voice ever applied to jazz."<ref name="NYTObit"/> It was close to its peak until shortly before her death at the age of 66. Late in life, she retained a "youthful suppleness and remarkably luscious timbre" and was capable of the projection of [[coloratura]] passages described as "delicate and ringingly high".<ref name="NYTObit"/>

Vaughan had a large vocal range of [[soprano]] through a female [[baritone]], exceptional body, volume, a variety of vocal textures, and superb and highly personal vocal control. Her ear and sense of pitch were almost perfect, and there were no difficult intervals.<ref name="Williams1992">{{cite book|first=Martin |last=Williams|title=The Jazz Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CRd6wD3LH84C&pg=PA211 |access-date=August 6, 2013|date=November 11, 1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-536017-2|pages=211–}}</ref>

In her later years, her voice was described as a "burnished contralto" and as her voice deepened with age her lower register was described as having "shades from a gruff baritone into a rich, juicy contralto".<ref name="NYT87">{{cite news|last=Holden|first=Stephen|title=Sarah Vaughan At Carnegie|work=The New York Times|page=52|date=June 21, 1987|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/21/arts/sarah-vaughan-at-carnegie.html}}</ref> Her use of her contralto register was likened to "dipping into a deep, mysterious well to scoop up a trove of buried riches."<ref name="NYTCarnegie">{{cite news|last=Holden|first=Stephen|title=Jazz Festival; Sarah Vaughan, at Carnegie, Shows Grace in Adversity|work=The New York Times|page=33|date=July 3, 1988 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/03/arts/jazz-festival-sarah-vaughan-at-carnegie-shows-grace-in-adversity.html}}</ref> Musicologist Henry Pleasants noted, "Vaughan who sings easily down to a contralto low D, ascends to a pure and accurate [soprano] high C."<ref name="Pleasants">{{cite book |last1=Pleasants |first1=Henry |title=The Great American Popular Singers. |year=1985 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0671540999 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/greatamericanpop00plea }}</ref>

Vaughan's [[vibrato]] was described as "an ornament of uniquely flexible size, shape and duration,"<ref name="Williams1992"/> as well as "voluptuous" and "heavy."<ref name="NYTObit"/> Vaughan was accomplished in her ability to "fray" or "bend" notes at the extremities of her vocal range.<ref name="Williams1992"/> It was noted in a 1972 performance of [[Lionel Bart]]'s "[[Where Is Love?]]" that "In mid-tune she began twisting the song, swinging from the incredible cello tones of her bottom register, skyrocketing to the wispy pianissimos of her top."<ref name="Inc1972"/>

She held a microphone in live performance, using its placement as part of her performance.<ref name="Williams1992"/> Her placings of the microphone allowed her to complement her volume and vocal texture, often holding the microphone at arm's length and moving it to alter her volume.<ref name="Williams1992"/>

She frequently used the song "[[Send in the Clowns]]" to demonstrate her vocal abilities in live performance. The performance was called a "three-octave tour de force of semi-improvisational pyrotechnics in which the jazz, pop and operatic sides of her musical personality came together and found complete expression" by ''The New York Times''.<ref name="NYTObit"/>

Singers influenced by Vaughan include [[Amy Winehouse]], [[Phoebe Snow]], [[Anita Baker]], [[Sade (singer)|Sade]], and [[Rickie Lee Jones]].<ref name="NYTObit">{{cite news|last=Holden|first=Stephen|title=Sarah Vaughan, 'Divine One' Of Jazz Singing, Is Dead at 66|work=The New York Times|page=1|date=April 5, 1990|access-date=March 27, 2020 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/05/obituaries/sarah-vaughan-divine-one-of-jazz-singing-is-dead-at-66.html }}</ref> Singers [[Carmen McRae]] and [[Dianne Reeves]] both recorded tribute albums to Vaughan following her death; ''[[Sarah: Dedicated to You]]'' (1991) and ''[[The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan]]'' (2001) respectively.

Though usually considered a jazz singer, Vaughan avoided classifying herself as one. She discussed the term in a 1982 interview for ''[[Down Beat]]'':

<blockquote>
I don't know why people call me a jazz singer, though I guess people associate me with jazz because I was raised in it, from way back. I'm not putting jazz down, but I'm not a jazz singer ... I've recorded all kinds of music, but (to them) I'm either a jazz singer or a blues singer. I can't sing a blues – just a right-out blues – but I can put the blues in whatever I sing. I might sing 'Send In the Clowns' and I might stick a little bluesy part in it, or any song. What I want to do, music-wise, is all kinds of music that I like, and I like all kinds of music.<ref name="Phillips2013">{{cite book|first=Damon J. |last= Phillips |title=Shaping Jazz: Cities, Labels, and the Global Emergence of an Art Form|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jOh9a-rL-e0C|date=July 21, 2013|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4008-4648-1 |page=150}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Vaughan mentioned Judy Garland as major vocal influence in a 1969 interview for the Los Angeles Times:

"Judy Garland was the singer I most wanted to sound like then, not to copy, but to get some of her soul and purity. A wonderful young voice."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sarah_Vaughan | title=Sarah Vaughan - Wikiquote }}</ref>