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Ranked as one of the foremost jazz song
stylists, Sarah Lois Vaughan, b. Newark, N. J., Mar. 27, 1924,
d. Los Angeles, Apr. 30, 1990, began her career in the choir
of her local Baptist church. In 1942 she won a contest at
Harlem's Apollo Theater and, shortly afterward, a job as vocalist
with the Earl HINES band. For most of her career, however,
she worked as a soloist, achieving lasting fame for her jazz
recordings with Dizzy GILLESPIE and Charlie PARKER in the
early 1950s, for her complex bebop phrasing, and her impeccable
scat singing. She performed extensively in the United States
and abroad, at White House performances over the years, and
was active through the 1980s. In 1982 she received a Grammy
for best jazz vocal performance. Although in much of her later
recorded work she sang popular songs with bland orchestral
backup, her voice remained a consistently virtuoso instrument
that she manipulated with stunning effect.
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