Queen of Bebop audiobook

The Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughn by Elaine M. Hayes is a 2017 Ecco publication.Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States, which features songs characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation based on a combination of harmonic structure, the use of scales and occasional references to the melody. Since starting my ‘Monday Musical Moments’ feature at ‘The Book Review’, I’ve read my share of musical memoirs and biographies. After a while I became a little wary of them for a plethora of reasons, but I also learned a lot about the way biographies are constructed. I’ve learned the difference between authorized and unauthorized and all the various ways biographers approach their subjects. Invariably, they tend to go in definite directions, either by exploring the artist’s musical achievements or by delving into their personal life. Some biographers, and think this is one of them, will choose a theme, and center the book around it. If you want a small clue as to which way the biographer will go, pay very close attention to all the words in the title. Sometimes, I can glean from that, what the author will emphasize the most. In this case, “The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughn” is a huge giveaway. I was right in assuming the book would mainly focus on Vaughn’s musical abilities, with a smattering of personal information and history rounding things out. I am not in any way an aficionado on Vaughn’s music or life, but I have bumped into her a few times since becoming a huge fan of jazz. This book explores all the different ways Sarah reinvented herself during her long career. She had to succumb to pressure on occasion when the greedy recording labels sacrificed her talent by watering down her signature style, because for them, money is the bottom line, and so getting a popular hit was more important. We also get to meet Vaughn’s band members, and all recognizable musicians she worked with over the years, and examine the approach she took to living the life of a musician, especially on the road. While the bulk of the book is centered around Sarah the singer, her personal life is not left out of the equation, by any means, it’s just not examined in minute detail or given the same amount of real estate. The reader gets the general idea, nonetheless. Vaughn's personal life was beset by poor choices in men, an increasing problem with drugs and alcohol, and she spent her life hoping to make her disapproving parents proud. But, Vaughn did always, somehow, manage to rebound, and continued to work, even during her fight with cancer, offering to sing while lying down in bed, if she had to. I think this is a perfect book for someone who is unfamiliar with Sarah’s music or even if you are, you may only know her jazz tunes or her pop tunes or show tunes. This book will give you a fuller picture of Vaughn’s many musical incarnations. Her voice was an instrument few vocalists have the good fortune to possess. Vaughn was a natural talent with a very wide vocal range and perfect pitch, which is essential to jazz, especially bebop. I really enjoyed the history related here and found the music business to be as frustrating then as it is now. I relished hearing about the jazz greats Vaughn worked with, the music she recorded, and the way Vaughn catered to her fans, always, always, giving the audience their money’s worth. Vaughn’s personality does vibrate throughout the book, and it is easy to see how she got the nickname ‘Sassy’. She had a long, storied career, dealt with race discrimination, sexism, the recording industry, and a host of personal issues. But, at the end of the day, Sarah has gone down in history, as one of the best vocalists of all time. She won four Grammy’s and received many great honors, including singing at the White House. If you have never listened to Sarah sing, I urge you to do so. I’m fond of her Jazz recordings, because they really show off her broad range and ability to shift octaves, pitches, and notes, all while improvising with the band. Vaughn had a HUGE voice- just beautiful. This book does what it sets out to do, I think. The goal was to show Vaughn’s versatility, the way she was able to stay relevant and successful even when jazz took a back seat to rock music, in popularity. She could sing ANYTHING, even if the songs she had to record were not always the best representation of her talent. In fact, Vaughn’s voice would have been suited to Opera if she had had the chance to study it- although most agree Sarah would have felt stifled by its rules. When reading a biography, it is very important, at least to me, for it to be organized and well researched. As I’ve said before, if someone has the time, inclination, a little writing talent, and extreme organizational skills, they can write a biography. But, it is obvious to me when a book is a gushing, ‘fan club’, sycophant job, where the subject can do no wrong, or when someone has simply pasted together interview segments, magazine articles, or album liner notes, hastily published for the sake of money. This book, however, is professionally done, very well written, an extremely organized and detailed accounting of Sarah musical life and career. It may take a more politic approach, but, I think if you understand going in that this book is about the music more than about Sarah’s personal life, you will enjoy it a lot more and appreciate the author's intentions. As most people tend to do, once I read a book like this one, it sparks a curiosity about the person behind the art, and I hope someone does satisfy the public demand for a more personalized portrait of Sarah Vaughn. But, until that time, this book is a terrific way to get to know more about Sarah’s music and might even turn you on to jazz, which I hope fervently that it does. But, beware, once you’ve been bitten by the bug, you’ll be a fan for life!! But, you don’t have to be a Jazz enthusiast to enjoy her music, as Vaughn said herself: I’m not a jazz singer. I’m a singer. After you’ve read this book, you will know and understand exactly what Sarah meant by that. 4 starsCheck out my Monday Musical Moments spotlight and more reviews and features at http://www.the-bookreview.com

Sarah Vaughn is one of my favorite jazz artists ever. Ever. Her operatic, 4-octave voice is a force of nature. Before reading this new biography, i knew very basic information about her. She’s always been sort of private and elusive about her personal life and therefore not a lot was known. At least I didn’t know a lot. I saw her perform at a jazz festival in Detroit in the late 70’s or early 80’s and it was just insane. Just the consummate performer and entertainer. This biography was as good as it could be. What I mean by that is Vaughn is not a larger-then-life personality like a Billie Holiday, Miles Davis or even a Lena Horne who have all had either a very public or turbulent life or both. So, some may feel hearing about her love life and marriages with these unknown and unfamiliar paramours will be rather boring. There’s no real drama pouring forth from these pages for casual fans who are looking for some big public or dramatic bit to happen.On the other hand, I really enjoyed hearing the minutiae details of recording life from her 45+ years in the studio and performing. The author did a thorough job providing information about recording sessions, concerts, etc... She also let you in on record company politics, the sexism and racism in the industry and how Ms. Vaughn handled it all. She also provided stories about various friendships, relationships and tense events with the leading titans in the jazz world like Dizzy, Ella, Eckstine, Yardbird and more...Overall, I would recommend this for diehard Sarah Vaughn fans for sure, but also for those interested in getting more information about one of the greatest jazz voices and entertainers who ever lived.

Sarah Vaughan had such an arsenal of technique and feeling at her disposal that she changed the way singers were viewed and became as much an instrument as any other in a band, improvising riffs, harmonies, and counter-melodies on-the-fly like her fellow jazz musicians and soloists like Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and many others who changed the way jazz was played. Despite the cultural pressures of her times, she did all this as a black woman at a time when being a black woman musician was viewed as three strikes against being even human, never mind being a cultured musical genius. To be successful on her own terms to the extent that she was welcomed by presidents of nations and celebrated in classical institutions that had, only a few years earlier looked at her and her art as the scum of the earth is a remarkable accomplishment. In this well-researched and revealing biography, music historian Elaine M. Hayes tells us how this happened and how, despite personal flaws that brought down many people who were much better placed than her by fate, this was achieved. It's a remarkable story and one that needs to be heard more than ever. - BH.

I found this by a stroke of luck, and let me say I was indeed lucky. This a great music biography but it is much more than just a music bio. The parts that deal with civil rights could well be part of a history book. This writer really produced a remarkable piece of work here. I've read over 100 music bios, not to show off but I can now say this is in the top 5. The writer did some remarkable research, and the result is detailed. It's never dry and it remains a wonderful human interest story. If you like jazz or any music for that matter, you need this. If you're interested in civil rights this book is for you too.

A really good book that exhaustively covers an extraordinary artist and her career. When the author covered specific songs, I listened on Spotify and won a whole new appreciation for how the written word / a critique can deepen the enjoyment of the music. Hayes does a great job telling us of Vaughan’s voice, life, demons, the times she lived in, the racism and sexism she navigated to have a vaunted career and win a stellar reputation. An excellent example of a well done biography.

Sarah Vaughan & The Jimmy Rowles Quintet - Morning Star https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLix...Sarah Vaughan & Dizzy Gillespie 1987 - Round Midnight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoiY8...

Thoughtful and artful biography of Sarah Vaughan. I have to admit right from the start that Sarah Vaughan is not my favorite "girl singer." (That would be Ella Fitzgerald, of course.) And when Elaine is describing Vaughan's characteristic style: slides, melismas, vibrato, I recognized why. I prefer to see the song clearly through the singer, which is what Ella does; although she embellishes, it's usually in service of the song. Whereas Vaughan in her performances is showcasing her voice, which she learned to use her voice as an instrument, during her early days, when after touring with a few bands, she was hanging out in nightclubs with the early jazz greats who revolutionized jazz. Her gift came from being able to improvise, to collaborate and to re-interpret the music, all the gifts of the jazz greats. Elaine's writing has both qualities. She can imitate the sound of music, like most great music reviewers. For instance, this passage: Yet she also provides a clear window through which to view her subject. The early chapters where Sarah Vaughan is struggling to make a name for herself engaged me more than the later chapters where she is struggling with record producers to be able to perform the material that interests her (over and over again) and where she is touring relentlessly all around the world (but from a biographer's point of view, it would be impossible to avoid the repetition). The writing is rich with quotes from reviewers and colleagues who Elaine interviewed, all smoothly folded into the writing so it flows.

Written by someone, not of the jazz world, who fell in love with Sarah Vaughan's voice. Her outsider status is made evident in her occasional need to explain terminology or references that anyone even vaguely familiar with jazz would not need explanations of, and this may well be a good thing. It means she focuses on the music and not the gossip. We do get the stories of Sarah's very bad judgment in regards to men. We don't get a lot of sordid stuff about drugs and booze, and I was just as happy not to. I got to read about Sarah's voice, and her music, and her career in music. There are some wonderful and knowledgeable descriptions of what she did with a song. A book very much worth reading. And I'd recommend listening along with it. I wish she'd spent a little time on one of my favorite Sarah recordings, "Shulie a Bop," and maybe a little more on her musical interaction with CLifford Brown. But these are quibbles.

Elaine M. Hayes' "Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan" is an impressive piece of work, seemingly the result of a dozen lifetimes of work and an endearing infatuation with her subject. If Ms. Hayes does seem to occasionally get lost in the thickets of race and gender issues, well, how could she not? (The image of Bill Haley singing "Shake Rattle and Roll" and returning to his privileged white existence will stay with me forever, p.174). Perfection is not for us in this lifetime, of course. References to Ms. Vaughan's drug and alcohol use are coy, non-specific and puzzling. That Ms. Vaughan had perfect pitch is not mentioned until p. 313, and on p. 266, likely the club referenced is the "Starwood," not the "Stanwood." Minor objections to a important, informative biography.

Fine, sensitive, general biography of the jazz icon - with emphasis on Sarah Vaughan’s masterful musicality, her professional and personal challenges and triumphs. The author (local to Seattle, a former editor of Seattle’s Earshot Jazz magazine) has done a good job integrating firsthand interviews with family and former colleagues with archival sources. Besides the text, there are several hundred endnotes and an inclusive index. The one feature missing is a selected discography with notes on how to access available film and video material featuring Vaughn.

I'm a huge fan of Sarah Vaughan! I am also very protective of her and her legacy! I think Elaine M. Hayes unearth truths about Sassy as if she was interviewing her. I could hear Sarah's voice throughout the book...especially when folk tried labeling her. She wasn't having it! Elaine reminded us of her brilliance as a musician and fragility when she loved hard, even when the love wasn't reciprocated! Elaine truly captured the beautiful humanity of Sass! I felt like I knew her! I hope people are blessed by her story just as much as it has blessed me!

This book is written by a woman with a doctorate in music history. I enjoyed her style of writing, as well as, her detail. I'm currently reading biographies of BIPOC entertainers in 20th century America. This one made me want to dig deeper into the Sarah Vaughan library of music and rediscover her brilliance. A truly great read for any music lover.

Informative and lovingThese words are good. They put Sarah Vaughan's career and life into perspective, though certain parts get a little too bogged down in the details of individual projects, especially in the later years. It's a little exhausting to read about "this happened at recording session X and this happened at concert Y" for so many words.

Even without opening this amazing book one learns something merely from reading the title: that Sarah Vaughan was a pioneer of Bebop. Who knew. Sarah didn't like to be pigeonholed and considered herself equal parts jazz, blues, pop, classical hence, "The Musical Lives Of..." another incredible fact without having read the first page. Elaine M. Hayes tells a story a young girl from Newark N.J. who sang in the church choir and whose voice no one paid particular attention to. Accept that Sarah had a fire in her belly. As a young teenager she would often sneak out of her house at night to listen and hang-out in the various jazz clubs late into the wee hours. The clubs were her education. This is not a tale of someone being at the right place and the right time, not on your life. This is a story of dedication, hard work, and most importantly passion. Nothing comes out of a vacuum. This is also the feeling I got about this author's work though it felt like a true labor of love. Along the way the reader gets to journey through landmark recording sessions and meet-up with jazz legends and get an inside view. Know and discover that some other legendary musicians such as Chick Corea, Jan Hammer and Bob James were brought to the fore through Sarah. If you have musician chops of your own you will discover that the author is no slouch when it comes to the understanding of the mechanics of music, just a little more icing along with the insightful analysis and meticulous research. This biography steered me to many of (at least what my ears now tell me) Sarah Vaughan's essential recordings. And for this alone I will be forever grateful.

Excellent chronicle of Sarah Vaughan's professional career.

I just had no idea about all the facets of Sarah’s 66 year life. I sure would like to hear her early jazz vocals with Diz and Bird. She was an amazing woman.

The title of this book, "The Queen of Bebop" is misleading. The subtitle, "The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan" is more accurate. As with so many biographies of jazz musicians, sources here are problematic. The sources for this book are interviews with Sarah Vaughan (in which she said different things at different times over the years), interviews with musicians (often occurring years after the fact, when memories had become more selective), articles from Down Beat, Metronome, etc. (the authorship of which is sometimes ambiguous). In short, the story of Sarah Vaughan is pieced together with a lot of anecdote and a little bit solid documentary evidence. Adding to that is some critical assessment of Sarah Vaughan's recorded work, which is generally helpful. All in all, this is a well written biography, especially given the paucity of good sources the author had to work with.