Sarah Vaughan @ 100, Part 5: Live at Mr. Kelly's (1958)
Divine: The Jazz Albums, 1954-1959, continued.
This was Vaughan’s first official live album, though, of course, since her death in 1990, a number of earlier live performances have been released, notably the 1947 Town Hall concert with Lester Young, radio air checks from Birdland, and her appearances as part of all -tar package shows at Carnegie Hall and in Topeka, Kansas, no less. Today, Mister Kelly’s is still a thoroughly delightful listening experience, with Vaughan at her most sassy and playful, especially with a load of extra material (Mercury Records taped three nights’ worth of shows) first issued in Japan. (By the way, there’s a recent documentary on the legendary Chicago jazz club, Mr. Kelly’s, that’s on my to-view list.)
(Tonight, Wednesday, April 3, my epic celebration of Sarah - in honor of her centennial, is being presented by the New York Adventure Club - details are here.)
Sarah Vaughan and Her Trio At Mr. Kelly’s
(recorded in Chicago, August 1957, and released by Mercury Records in 1958)
Vaughan’s next purely jazz project was another milestone: her first live album proper, done in one of the most famous clubs in Chicago, home base of Mercury Records—and a thing of joy it is. There’s no doubt that this is exactly how she sounded in personal appearances, accompanied by Jones, Davis, and the loyal Haynes. Making this classic set even better was the discovery in the 1980s of previously unissued material from the Chicago appearances, expanding Mr. Kelly’s to full-CD length and making the album an achievement in terms of both quality and quantity.
Here’s the full album on a youTube playlist - click here
The announcer tells us at the start that this is exactly like a normal set, except that, as was often the case in live albums of the period, Vaughan is trying out new material, which necessitated the use of lyric sheets; even so, she loses her way in the last chorus of “Willow Weep For Me.” On “How High The Moon,” she claims not to remember the lyrics, and offers a scat solo as a burnt offering, as it were, to Ella Fitzgerald.
Even with those gaffes, the expanded At Mr. Kelly’s is an album that jazz vocal students should commit to memory. Vaughan excels equally at both fast (“Just One Of Those Things,” “It’s Got To Be Love”) and slow (“Just a Gigolo,” an unusual choice, and the five-minute “Dream”) numbers. There are also live versions of songs from recent albums, like the trio readings of “Lucky In Love,” “If This Isn’t Love,” “Poor Butterfly” and others, which were all also done with Hal Mooney’s opulent orchestrations on the 1956 pop album Great Songs From Hit Shows. She sings an impish reading of the Fats Waller signature, “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter,” but otherwise, most of the major standouts are the slow love songs.
The ballads “Be Anything (But Be Mine),” “Just A Gigolo,” and “Stairway To The Stars” are likewise unique to this album. The first was a Peggy Lee hit from 1952; although it never became a standard, Vaughan gives it the full Monty—she obviously agreed with its message, and she underscores the words, quixotically, by humming in the second chorus. For Vaughan to croon “Gigolo” as a love song in 1957 is a surprise—this is the same time that it was being overexcited by Louis Prima in Las Vegas. Likewise, Vaughan clearly loves “Alone,” written for the Marx Brothers’ A Night At The Opera, as she sings it with extreme tenderness (and later reprised it with Count Basie). “Stairway” was an adaption from the semi-classical piece “Park Avenue Fantasy”; in both its rich, celestial melody and star-struck lyrics, the song is a perfect vehicle for Vaughan: she really makes you feel like you’re ascending bodily into the heavens. I have no doubt that John Coltrane, who recorded “Stairway” in 1959, learned it from Vaughan.
Lucky Strike Extras : One of my my all time-favorite songs by Sarah Vaughan, which I am happy to say is on the Mr. Kelly’s album, is “Poor Butterfly.” She first sang this 1916 song on her classic 1956 double album, Great Songs from Hit Shows, and then kept it in her working “book” for many decades to come.
Here’s the original studio version, arranged and conducted by Hal Mooney:
She famously sang it on The Ed Sullivan Show on June 2, 1957. Unfortunately, this version does not include the verse, which, as Vaughan sings it, is an absolutely essential part of the song. (I don’t know if she didn’t sing on the telecast to begin with, or if she did sing it but it was edited out of the video as posted on the Sullivan YouTube channel.)
In 1958, she appeared at the London Palladium and on the BBC variety show Palladium Sunday. She sang “Poor Butterfly” as one of her four numbers - this time with the verse! There is a low-res version of the whole 12-minute segment on YouTube:
However, for Slouching Towards Birdland readers, here’s a better quality copy of that performance to enjoy:
She kept singing “Poor Butterfly” well into the 1970s - here’s a famous later version from the great 1974 concert in Tokyo. (I can’t help wondering how the Japanese reacted to this particular song?)
This is hardly the end of Sarah’s many performances - Italy, 1975 (again missing the verse)—but it’s the one I will close with here. I have to wonder what it is about this song that resonated so strongly with her, that she kept coming back to it over a period of at least 20 years.
Very Special thanks to the fabulous Ms. Elizabeth Zimmer, for expert proofreading of this page, and scanning for typos, mistakes, and other assorted boo-boos!
Sing! Sing! Sing! : My tagline is, “Celebrating the great jazz - and jazz-adjacent - singers, as well as the composers, lyricists, arrangers, soloists, and sidemen, who help to make them great.”
A production of KSDS heard Saturdays at 10:00 AM Pacific; 1:00PM Eastern.
To listen to KSDS via the internet (current and recent shows are available for streaming.) click here.
The whole series is also listenable on Podbean.com, click here.
(April Fool! It’s Saturday April 6, not the 7th! )
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Loving all your material to celebrate Sarah's centennial. This year is also Blossom Dearie's. Any plans to celebrate her in a similar fashion?
Regarding the comment about the Japanese reacting to Poor Butterfly, probably a lot better than their reaction to Puccini’s opera. More so today than about 100 years ago. The opera is being staged in Philadelphia by Opera Philadelphia, There are about 4 video conversations that put the opera into context.