Editing Sarah Vaughan (section)

==Career==

===1942–1943: Early career===
Vaughan was frequently accompanied by a friend, Doris Robinson, on her trips into New York City. In the fall of 1942, by which time she was 18 years old, Vaughan suggested that Robinson enter the [[Apollo Theater]] Amateur Night contest. Vaughan played piano accompaniment for Robinson, who won second prize. Vaughan later decided to go back and compete as a singer herself. She sang "[[Body and Soul (1930 song)|Body and Soul]]" and won—although the date of this victorious performance is uncertain. The prize, as Vaughan recalled to [[Marian McPartland]], was $10 and the promise of a week's engagement at the Apollo. On November 20, 1942, she returned to the Apollo to open for [[Ella Fitzgerald]].<ref name="Hayes">{{cite book |last1=Hayes |first1=Elaine M. |title=Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan |date=July 4, 2017 |publisher=Ecco/Harper Collins |isbn=978-0-06-236468-5 |edition=1|pages=29–32}}</ref>

During her week of performances at the Apollo, Vaughan was introduced to bandleader and pianist [[Earl Hines]], although the details of that introduction are disputed. [[Billy Eckstine]], Hines' singer at the time, has been credited by Vaughan and others with hearing her at the Apollo and recommending her to Hines. Hines claimed later to have discovered her himself and offered her a job on the spot. After a brief tryout at the Apollo, Hines replaced his female singer with Vaughan on April 4, 1943.<ref name="sassy" />

===1943–1944: Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine===
Vaughan spent the remainder of 1943 and part of 1944 touring the country with the Earl Hines big band, which featured [[Billy Eckstine]]. She was hired as a pianist so Hines could hire her under the jurisdiction of the musicians' union ([[American Federation of Musicians]]) rather than the singers union ([[American Guild of Variety Artists]]). But after [[Cliff Smalls]] joined the band as a trombonist and pianist, her duties were limited to singing. The Earl Hines band in this period is remembered as an incubator of [[bebop]], as it included trumpeter [[Dizzy Gillespie]], saxophonist [[Charlie Parker]] (playing tenor saxophone rather than alto), and trombonist [[Bennie Green]]. Gillespie arranged for the band, although the [[1942–44 musicians' strike|contemporary recording ban]] by the musicians' union meant that no commercial recordings exist.

Eckstine quit the Hines band in late 1943 and formed a big band with Gillespie, leaving Hines to become the band's musical director. Parker joined Eckstine, and over the next few years the band included [[Gene Ammons]], [[Art Blakey]], [[Miles Davis]], [[Kenny Dorham]], [[Dexter Gordon]], and [[Lucky Thompson]]. Vaughan accepted Eckstine's invitation to join his band in 1944, giving her the opportunity to record for the first time on December 5, 1944, on the song "I'll Wait and Pray" for [[De Luxe Records|De Luxe]]. Critic and producer [[Leonard Feather]] asked her to record later that month for [[Continental Records|Continental]] with a septet that included Dizzy Gillespie and [[Georgie Auld]]. She left the Eckstine band in late 1944 to pursue a solo career, although she remained close to Eckstine and recorded with him frequently.

Pianist [[John Malachi]] is credited with giving Vaughan the moniker "Sassy", a nickname that matched her personality. She liked it, and the name and its shortened variant "Sass" stuck with colleagues and the press. In written communications, Vaughan often spelled it "Sassie".{{cn|date=May 2025}}

===1945–1948: Early solo career ===
[[File:Sarah Vaughan - William P. Gottlieb - No. 2.jpg|thumb|left|At [[Café Society]], September 1946|344x344px]]
Vaughan began her solo career in 1945 by freelancing on [[52nd Street (Manhattan)|52nd Street]] in New York City at the Three Deuces, the Famous Door, the Downbeat, and the [[Onyx Club (New York City)|Onyx Club]]. She spent time at Braddock Grill next to the Apollo Theater in Harlem. On May 11, 1945, she recorded "[[Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)|Lover Man]]" for Guild with a quintet featuring Gillespie and Parker with [[Al Haig]] on piano, [[Curly Russell]] on double bass, and [[Sid Catlett]] on drums. Later that month, she went into the studio with a slightly different and larger [[Dizzy Gillespie|Gillespie]]/[[Charlie Parker|Parker]] aggregation and recorded three more sides.

After being invited by violinist [[Stuff Smith]] to record the song "Time and Again" in October 1945, Vaughan was offered a contract to record for [[Musicraft Records|Musicraft]] by owner Albert Marx, although she would not begin recording as a leader for Musicraft until May 7, 1946. In the intervening time, she recorded for Crown and Gotham and began performing regularly at [[Café Society]] Downtown, an [[racial integration|integrated]] club in New York's [[Sheridan Square]].

While at Café Society, Vaughan became friends with trumpeter [[George Treadwell]], who became her manager. She delegated to him most of the musical director responsibilities for her recording sessions, allowing her to concentrate on singing. Over the next few years, Treadwell made changes in Vaughan's stage appearance. Aside from a new wardrobe and hair style, she had her teeth [[Crown (dentistry)|capped]], eliminating a gap between her two front teeth.

Her recordings for Musicraft included "[[If You Could See Me Now (1946 song)|If You Could See Me Now]]" (written and arranged by [[Tadd Dameron]]), "[[Don't Blame Me (Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh song)|Don't Blame Me]]", "[[I've Got a Crush on You]]", "[[Everything I Have Is Yours (song)|Everything I Have Is Yours]]" and "[[Body and Soul (1930 song)|Body and Soul]]". With Vaughan and Treadwell's professional relationship on solid footing, the couple married on September 16, 1946.

In 1947, Vaughan performed at the third Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at [[Wrigley Field (Los Angeles)|Wrigley Field]] in Los Angeles that was produced by [[Leon Hefflin, Sr.]] on September 7, 1947. The [[Miguelito Valdés|Valdez Orchestra]], The Blenders, [[T-Bone Walker]], [[Slim Gaillard]], [[Joe Liggins|The Honeydrippers]], [[Johnny Otis|Johnny Otis and his Orchestra]], [[Woody Herman]], and the [[Johnny Moore's Three Blazers|Three Blazers]] also performed that same day.<ref>"Starry' Day at Cavalcade of Jazz", ''Los Angeles Sentinel'', September 4, 1947.</ref>

Vaughan's recording success for Musicraft continued through 1947 and 1948. Her recording of "[[Tenderly]]"—she was proud to be the first to have recorded that [[jazz standard]]<ref>Said by Sarah Vaughan herself [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNi6M_A9AzU in her introduction to singing "Tenderly" Live in Sweden in 1958] (on Youtube).</ref>—became an unexpected pop hit in late 1947. Her December 27, 1947, recording of "[[It's Magic]]" (from the [[Doris Day]] film ''[[Romance on the High Seas]]'') found chart success in early 1948. Her recording of "[[Nature Boy]]" from April 8, 1948, became a hit around the time the popular [[Nat King Cole]] version was released. Because of a second recording ban by the musicians' union, "Nature Boy" was recorded with an [[a cappella]] choir.

===1948–1953: Stardom and the Columbia years===
The musicians' union ban pushed Musicraft to the brink of bankruptcy. Vaughan used the missed royalty payments as an opportunity to sign with the larger [[Columbia Records|Columbia]] record label. After the settling of legal issues, her chart successes continued with "[[Black Coffee (1948 song)|Black Coffee]]" in the summer of 1949. While at Columbia through 1953, she was steered almost exclusively to commercial pop ballads, several with success on the charts: "[[That Lucky Old Sun]]", "Make Believe (You Are Glad When You're Sorry)", "I'm Crazy to Love You", "Our Very Own", "I Love the Guy", "Thinking of You" (with pianist [[Bud Powell]]), "[[I Cried for You]]", "These Things I Offer You", "Vanity", "I Ran All the Way Home", "Saint or Sinner", "My Tormented Heart", and "Time".

She won ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazine's New Star Award for 1947, awards from ''[[Down Beat]]'' magazine from 1947 to 1952, and from ''Metronome'' magazine from 1948 to 1953. Recording and critical success led to performing opportunities, with Vaughan singing to large crowds in clubs around the country during the late 1940s and early 1950s. In the summer of 1949, she made her first appearance with a symphony orchestra in a benefit for the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]] entitled "100 Men and a Girl." Around this time, Chicago disk jockey [[Dave Garroway]] coined a second nickname for her, "The Divine One", that would follow her throughout her career. One of her early television appearances was on [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]]'s variety show ''[[Stars on Parade (TV series)|Stars on Parade]]'' (1953–54) in which she sang "[[My Funny Valentine]]" and "Linger Awhile".

In 1949, with their finances improving, Vaughan and Treadwell bought a three-story house on 21 Avon Avenue in Newark, occupying the top floor during their increasingly rare off-hours at home and moving Vaughan's parents to the lower two floors. However, business pressures and personality conflicts led to a cooling in Treadwell and Vaughan's relationship. Treadwell hired a road manager to handle her touring needs and opened a management office in Manhattan so he could work with other clients.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

Vaughan's relationship with Columbia soured as she became dissatisfied with the commercial material and its lackluster financial success. She made some small-group recordings in 1950 with Miles Davis and Bennie Green, but they were atypical of what she recorded for Columbia.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

====Radio====
In 1949, Vaughan had a radio program, ''Songs by Sarah Vaughan'', on [[WEPN (AM)#WMGM|WMGM]] in New York City. The 15-minute shows were broadcast in the evenings on Wednesday through Sunday from The Clique Club, described as "rendezvous of the bebop crowd."<ref name=bb/> She was accompanied by [[George Shearing]] on piano, [[Oscar Pettiford]] on double bass, and <!-- No better source without a typo ("Clark"), but enough to confirm it was indeed ... -->[[Kenny Clarke]] on drums.<ref name=bb>{{cite magazine|title=Songs by Sarah Vaughan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EBcEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT8|access-date=September 29, 2016 |magazine=Billboard |date=January 22, 1949 |page=9}}</ref>

===1954–1959: Mercury years===
[[File:Sarah Vaughan 1955.jpg|thumb|right|Vaughan in 1955]]
In 1953, Treadwell negotiated a contract for Vaughan with [[Mercury Records|Mercury]] in which she would record commercial material for Mercury and jazz-oriented material for its subsidiary, [[EmArcy Records|EmArcy]]. She was paired with producer [[Bob Shad]], and their working relationship yielded commercial and artistic success. Her debut recording session at Mercury took place in February 1954. She remained with Mercury through 1959. After recording for [[Roulette Records|Roulette]] from 1960 to 1963, she returned to Mercury from 1964 to 1967.

Her commercial success at Mercury began with the 1954 hit "Make Yourself Comfortable", recorded in the fall of 1954, and continued with "[[How Important Can It Be]]" (with [[Count Basie]]), "[[Whatever Lola Wants]]", "[[The Banana Boat Song]]", "You Ought to Have a Wife", and "[[Misty (song)|Misty]]". Her commercial success peaked in 1959 with "[[Broken Hearted Melody]]", a song she considered "corny" which nevertheless became her first gold record,<ref name="The Book of Golden Discs">{{cite book |first= Joseph |last= Murrells |year= 1978 |title= The Book of Golden Discs |edition= 2 |publisher= Barrie and Jenkins |location= London |page= [https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/120 120] |isbn= 0-214-20512-6 |url= https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/120 }}</ref> and a regular part of her concert repertoire for years to come. Vaughan was reunited with Billy Eckstine for a series of duet recordings in 1957 that yielded the hit "[[Passing Strangers (1957 song)|Passing Strangers]]". Her commercial recordings were handled by a number of arrangers and conductors, primarily [[Hugo Peretti]] and [[Hal Mooney]].

The jazz "track" of her recording career proceeded apace, backed either by her working trio or combinations of jazz musicians. One of her favorite albums was a [[Sarah Vaughan (1955 album)|1954 sextet date]] that included [[Clifford Brown]].

In the latter half of the 1950s, she followed a schedule of almost non-stop touring. She was featured at the first [[Newport Jazz Festival]] in the summer of 1954 and starred in subsequent editions of that festival at Newport and in New York City for the remainder of her life. In the fall of 1954, she performed at [[Carnegie Hall]] with the Count Basie Orchestra on a bill that also included [[Billie Holiday]], Charlie Parker, [[Lester Young]] and the [[Modern Jazz Quartet]]. That fall, she again toured Europe before embarking on a "Big Show" U.S. tour, a succession of performances that included [[Count Basie]], George Shearing, [[Erroll Garner]] and [[Jimmy Rushing]]. At the 1955 New York Jazz Festival on [[Randalls and Wards Islands|Randalls Island]], Vaughan shared the bill with the [[Dave Brubeck]] quartet, [[Horace Silver]], [[Jimmy Smith (musician)|Jimmy Smith]], and the [[Johnny Richards]] Orchestra.

Although the professional relationship between Vaughan and Treadwell was quite successful through the 1950s, their personal relationship finally reached a breaking point and she filed for a divorce in 1958. Vaughan had entirely delegated financial matters to Treadwell, and despite significant income figures reported through the 1950s, at the settlement Treadwell said that only $16,000 remained. The couple evenly divided the amount and their personal assets, terminating their business relationship.

She made her UK debut in 1958 on [[Sunday Night at the London Palladium]] with several songs including "Who's Got the Last Laugh Now".<ref>Rebroadcast of Sunday Night at the London Palladium May 17, 2020</ref>

===1959–1969: Atkins and Roulette ===
The exit of Treadwell from Vaughan's life was precipitated by the entry of Clyde "C.B." Atkins, a man of uncertain background whom she had met in Chicago and married on September 4, 1958.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://northjersey.newspapers.com/article/the-news/38628111 |title=Singer Sarah Vaughan Sued for Limited Divorce |date=March 27, 1963 |website=North Jersey Newspapers |access-date=November 21, 2023}}</ref> Although Atkins had no experience in artist management or music, Vaughan wished to have a mixed professional and personal relationship like the one she had with Treadwell. She made Atkins her manager, although she was still feeling the sting of the problems she had with Treadwell and initially kept a closer eye on Atkins. Vaughan and Atkins moved into a house in [[Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey]].<ref name="sassy" />

When Vaughan's contract with Mercury ended in late 1959, she signed on with Roulette, a small label owned by [[Morris Levy]], who was one of the backers of [[Birdland (New York jazz club)|Birdland]], where she frequently appeared. She began recording for Roulette in April 1960, making a string of large ensemble albums arranged or conducted by [[Billy May]], [[Jimmy Jones (pianist)|Jimmy Jones]], [[Joe Reisman]], [[Quincy Jones]], [[Benny Carter]], [[Lalo Schifrin]], and [[Gerald Wilson]]. She had pop chart success in 1960 with "Serenata" on Roulette and "Eternally" and "You're My Baby", a couple of residual tracks from her Mercury contract. She recorded ''[[After Hours (1961 Sarah Vaughan album)|After Hours]]'' (1961) with guitarist [[Mundell Lowe]] and double bassist [[George Duvivier]] and ''[[Sarah + 2]]'' (1962) with guitarist [[Barney Kessel]] and double bassist [[Joe Comfort]].

In 1961, Vaughan and Atkins adopted a daughter, Deborah Lois Atkins, known professionally as Paris Vaughan. However, the relationship with Atkins proved difficult and violent. After several incidents, she filed for divorce in November 1963. She turned to two friends to help sort out the financial affairs of the marriage. Club owner John "Preacher" Wells, a childhood acquaintance, and Clyde "Pumpkin" Golden Jr. discovered that Atkins' gambling and spending had put Vaughan around $150,000 in debt. The Englewood Cliffs house was seized by the IRS for nonpayment of taxes. Vaughan retained custody of their child and Golden took Atkins' place as Vaughan's manager and lover for the remainder of the decade.

When her contract with Roulette ended in 1963, Vaughan returned to the more familiar confines of Mercury. In the summer of 1963, she went to Denmark with producer Quincy Jones to record ''[[Sassy Swings the Tivoli]]'', an album of live performances with her trio. During the next year, she made her first appearance at the [[White House]] for President [[Lyndon Johnson]] and danced with the president afterwards.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Harris |first1=Gardiner |title=The Underside of the Welcome Mat |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/weekinreview/09harris.html?ref=weekinreview |access-date=3 May 2024 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=8 November 2008}}</ref> The Tivoli recording would be the brightest moment of her second stint with Mercury. Changing demographics and tastes in the 1960s left jazz musicians with shrinking audiences and inappropriate material. Although she retained a following large and loyal enough to maintain her career, the quality and quantity of her recorded output dwindled as her voice darkened and her skill remained undiminished. At the conclusion of her Mercury deal in 1967, she lacked a recording contract for the remainder of the decade.

===1970–1982: Fisher and Mainstream===
[[File:Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan Perform at the White House.jpg|thumb|left|250px|[[Dizzy Gillespie]] and Vaughan perform at the [[White House]] in honor of the [[Mohammad Reza Shah|Shah of Iran]] on November 15, 1977.]]

In 1971, at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, Marshall Fisher was a concession stand employee and fan when he was introduced to Sarah Vaughan. They were attracted to each other immediately. Fisher moved in with her in Los Angeles. Although he was white and seven years older, he got along with her friends and family. Although he had no experience in the music business, he became her road manager, then personal manager. But unlike other men and managers, Fisher was devoted to her and meticulously managed her career and treated her well. He wrote love poems to her.<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|277}}

In 1971, [[Bob Shad]], who had worked with her as a producer at Mercury, asked her to record for his label, [[Mainstream Records|Mainstream]], which he had founded after leaving Mercury. Breaking a four-year hiatus, Vaughan signed a contract with Mainstream and returned to the studio for ''[[A Time in My Life]]'', a step away from jazz into pop music with songs by [[Bob Dylan]], [[John Lennon]], and [[Marvin Gaye]] arranged by [[Ernie Wilkins]]. She didn't complain about this eclectic change in direction, but she chose the material for her next album after admiring the work of [[Michel Legrand]]. He conducted an orchestra of over one hundred musicians for ''[[Sarah Vaughan with Michel Legrand]]'', an album of compositions by Legrand with lyrics by [[Alan and Marilyn Bergman]]. The songs brought some of the musicians to tears during the sessions. But Shad wanted a hit, and the album yielded none.<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|278–280}} She sang a version of the pop hit "[[Rainy Days and Mondays]]" by the Carpenters for ''[[Feelin' Good (Sarah Vaughan album)|Feelin' Good]]''.<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|283}} This was followed by ''[[Live in Japan (Sarah Vaughan album)|Live in Japan]]'', her first live album since 1963.<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|293}} ''Sarah Vaughan and the Jimmy Rowles Quintet'' (1974) was more experimental, containing free improvisation and some unconventional scatting.<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|294}}

''Send in the Clowns'' was another attempt to increase sales by breaking into the pop music market. Vaughan disliked the songs and hated the album cover depicting a clown with an afro. She filed a lawsuit against Shad in 1975 on the belief that the cover was inconsistent with the formal, sophisticated image she projected on stage. She also contended that the album ''Sarah Vaughan: Live at the Holiday Inn Lesotho'' had an incorrect title and that Shad had been harming her career.<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|295–296}} Although she disliked the album, she liked the song "[[Send in the Clowns]]" written by Stephen Sondheim for the musical ''A Little Night Music''. She learned it on piano, made many changes with the help of pianist Carl Schroeder, and it became her signature song.<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|300–305}}
[[File:Optreden Sarah Vaughan, 1978 - 03.jpg|thumb| Vaughan in 1978]]
In 1974, she performed music by [[George Gershwin]] at the [[Hollywood Bowl]] with the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic]]. The orchestra was conducted by [[Michael Tilson Thomas]], who was a fan of Vaughan and invited her to perform.<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|306–307}} Thomas and Vaughan repeated the performance with Thomas' home orchestra in Buffalo, New York, followed by appearances in 1975 and 1976 with other symphony orchestras in the United States.<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|310}}

After leaving Mainstream, she signed with [[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]] and worked on an album of songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney that were arranged by [[Marty Paich]] and his son, [[David Paich]] of the rock band Toto. She was enthusiastic to be more involved in the making of an album, but Atlantic rejected it on the claim that it contained no hits. "I don't know how they can recognize hits in advance", she said. Atlantic canceled her contract. She said, "I don't give a damn about record companies any more."<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|297}}

===Rio and Norman Granz===
In 1977, filmmaker Thomas Guy followed Vaughan on tour to film the documentary ''Listen to the Sun''. She traveled throughout South America: Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. She was enamored of Brazil, as this was her third tour of Brazil in six years. In the documentary, she called the city of Rio "the greatest place I think I've ever been on earth". Audiences were so enthusiastic that she said, "I don't believe they like me that much."<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|315}} After rejection by Atlantic, she wanted to try producing her own album of Brazilian music. She asked [[Aloísio de Oliveira]] to run the sessions and recorded ''I Love Brazil!'' with [[Milton Nascimento]], [[Jose Roberto Bertrami]], [[Dorival Caymmi]], and [[Antonio Carlos Jobim]].<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|315–316}}

She had an album but no label to release it, so she signed to [[Pablo Records|Pablo]] run by [[Norman Granz]]. She had known Granz since 1948 when she performed on one of his Jazz at the Philharmonic tours. He was the record producer and manager for Ella Fitzgerald and the owner of [[Verve Records|Verve]]. After selling Verve, he started [[Pablo Records|Pablo]]. He was dedicated to acoustic, mainstream jazz and had recorded Count Basie, [[Duke Ellington]], and [[Clark Terry]]. In 1978 he recorded Vaughan's ''[[How Long Has This Been Going On? (Sarah Vaughan album)|How Long Has This Been Going On?]]'', a set of jazz standards with veteran jazz musicians [[Oscar Peterson]], [[Joe Pass]], [[Ray Brown (musician)|Ray Brown]], and [[Louis Bellson]]. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award. Pablo released ''I Love Brazil!'' and it, too, was nominated for a Grammy.<ref name="Hayes" />{{rp|317–319}}

===1982–1989: Late career===
[[File:Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine.jpg|thumb|Vaughan and Billy Eckstine at Monterey Jazz Festival in 1981]]

In the summer of 1980, she received a plaque on 52nd Street outside the CBS Building (Black Rock) commemorating the jazz clubs she had once frequented on "Swing Street" and which had long since been replaced with office buildings. A performance of her symphonic Gershwin program with the [[New Jersey Symphony]] in 1980 was broadcast on PBS and won her an [[Emmy Award]] the next year for Individual Achievement, Special Class. She was reunited in 1982 with Tilson Thomas for a modified version of the Gershwin program, played again by the Los Angeles Philharmonic but this time in its home hall, the [[Dorothy Chandler Pavilion]]; the CBS recording of the concert ''[[Gershwin Live!]]'' won a Grammy for [[Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female|Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female]].

After the end of her contract with Pablo in 1982, she committed to a limited number of studio recordings. She made a guest appearance in 1984 on [[Barry Manilow]]'s ''[[2:00 AM Paradise Cafe]]'', an album of pastiche compositions with established jazz musicians. In 1984, she participated in ''The Planet is Alive, Let It Live'' a symphonic piece composed by Tito Fontana and Sante Palumbo on Italian translations of Polish poems by Karol Wojtyla, better known as [[Pope John Paul II]]. The recording was made in Germany with an English translation by writer [[Gene Lees]] and was released by Lees on his private label after the recording was rejected by the major labels.

In 1985 Vaughan reconnected with her longstanding, continually growing European audience during a celebratory concert at the Chatelet Theater in Paris. Released posthumously on the Justin Time label, ''[[In the City of Lights]]'' is a two-disc recording of the concert, which covers the highlights of Vaughan's career while capturing a beloved singer at the height of her powers. Thanks in part to the hard-swinging telepathic support of pianist Frank Collett (who answers each of her challenges then coaxes the same from her), Sarah reprises [[Tad Dameron]]'s "If You Could See Me Now" with uncommon power, her breathstream effecting a seamless connection between chorus and bridge. For the Gershwin Medley, drummer [[Harold Jones (drummer)|Harold Jones]] swaps his brushes for sticks to match energy and forcefulness that does not let up until the last of many encores.  On June 16, 1985, Vaughan appeared at the [[Playboy Jazz Festival]].

In 1986, Vaughan sang "Happy Talk" and "Bali Ha'i" in the role of Bloody Mary on a studio recording by [[Kiri Te Kanawa]] and [[José Carreras]] of the score of the Broadway musical ''[[South Pacific (musical)|South Pacific]]'', while sitting on the studio floor.  Vaughan's final album was ''[[Brazilian Romance]]'', produced by [[Sérgio Mendes]] with songs by [[Milton Nascimento]] and [[Dori Caymmi]]. It was recorded primarily in the early part of 1987 in New York and Detroit. In 1988, she contributed vocals to an album of Christmas carols recorded by the [[Mormon Tabernacle Choir]] with the [[Utah Symphony Orchestra]] and sold in Hallmark Cards stores. In 1989, Quincy Jones' album ''[[Back on the Block]]'' included Vaughan in a brief scatting duet with Ella Fitzgerald. This was her final studio recording. It was her only studio recording with Fitzgerald in a career that had begun 46 years earlier opening for Fitzgerald at the Apollo.

The video ''Sarah Vaughan Live from Monterey'' was taped in 1983 or 1984 with her trio and guest soloists. ''Sass and Brass'' was taped in 1986 in New Orleans with guests Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson. ''Sarah Vaughan: The Divine One'' was part of the ''[[American Masters]]'' series on PBS. Also in 1986, on Independence Day in a program nationally televised on PBS she performed with the [[National Symphony Orchestra]] conducted by [[Mstislav Rostropovich]], in a medley of songs composed by George Gershwin.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/462446/a-capitol-fourth-1986|title=Capitol Fourth -- 1986, A (1986) - Overview - TCM.com|website=Turner Classic Movies}}</ref>