Over a long recording career encompassing roughly ten labels and 45 years, “Divine One” Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990) followed her muse wherever it led.  That meant she might record an album of poetry by Pope John Paul II one day (1984’s The Planet is Alive…Let It Live!) and bossa nova with Sergio Mendes the nest day (1987’s Brazilian Romance, recently reissued as part of Legacy’s Complete Columbia Albums Collection, or a Beatles anthology (1977’s Songs of the Beatles, belatedly released in 1981) followed by a couple of volumes of The Duke Ellington Song Book (1979 and 1980).  Whether jazz, blues, soul, or pop, however, Vaughan created music that was distinctly “Sassy.”  Those tributes to Edward Kennedy Ellington (1899-1974), originally released on Norman Granz’s Pablo label, were in the tradition of past salutes to George and Ira Gershwin (1957), Irving Berlin (1957), Henry Mancini (1965) and Michel Legrand (1972).  Granz surrounded Vaughan with the jazz elite plucked from Pablo’s roster and elsewhere, including Joe Pass, Zoot Sims, Bucky Pizzarelli, Jimmy Rowles, Grady Tate, Frank Wess, Frank Foster, and Andy Simpkins.  The Duke Ellington Song Books One and Two have been brought together for Pablo’s 40th anniversary series as Sophisticated Lady: The Duke Ellington Songbook Collection, and as a bonus, the new 2-CD set includes six tracks from a previously unreleased session arranged by the great composer and multi-instrumentalist Benny Carter.

In the exemplary and comprehensive new liner notes by Tad Hershorn, Gary Giddins’ 1978 review of Vaughan’s Pablo release How Long Has This Been Going On?  is quoted: “It will be interesting to see if she continues to work with producer Norman Granz, because if he parades the entire Pablo stock company through her sessions (including one hopes, a set of Benny Carter arrangements), he will be mining the most valuable lode since Ella Fitzgerald discovered songbooks.”  That set of Carter arrangements is finally here, premiering for the first time on Sophisticated Lady.  It seems that Vaughan began work on the project with Carter but refused their release allegedly because Granz hadn’t included space for her then-husband, trumpeter Waymon Reed, to solo.  During the same August 15, 1979 Hollywood session during which she recorded the Carter charts, Vaughan recorded three of the same songs (“Solitude,” “Day Dream” and “Sophisticated Lady”) in arrangements by trombonist Billy Byers, also a Broadway orchestrator of some note (City of Angels, A Chorus Line).  Recording continued in August and September 1979 in Hollywood and New York, with Vaughan alternating between Byers’ orchestra and a small group, concluding in January 1980 with two small group dates.  Vaughan tackled many of the most famous songs in the Ellington canon during these sessions – among them “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” “I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good),” “In a Sentimental Mood,” “I Didn’t Know About You” and “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart.”

Hit the jump for more details, including the full track listing and order links!

The new Pablo/Concord Music Group release is arranged chronologically by session rather than by original album release, with the first CD preserving Vaughan’s performances of August 15, 16 and 27, 1979, and the second taking in dates of September 12 and 13, 1979 and January 22 and 25, 1980.  This style of presentation is perfectly suited to this material.  Naturally, that first session with Carter’s arrangements might be the selling point here.  The string and horn sections, conducted by Carter, were joined by Bill Green (reeds/flute), Jimmy Rowles (piano), John Collins (guitar), Andy Simpkins (bass) and Grady Tate (drums).  For the Byers portion of the session, Rowles, Simpkins and Tate remained, with Zoot Sims and Frank Wess added on tenor saxophone, Waymon Reed on flugelhorn, J.J. Johnson on trombone and Joe Pass in for John Collins on guitar.  (Sims, perhaps ironically, was back in the studio the very next day with Carter to record his own Ellington tribute on Pablo, Passion Flower: Zoot Sims Plays Duke Ellington.)  Producer Granz continued to record Vaughan in a variety of settings and combinations for the remaining sessions, often with the core nucleus of Reed, Wess, Rowles, Simpkins and Tate.  Sims and Pass were back in on August 27; great guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli joined Byers’ orchestra for the September sessions.  The January 1980 sessions that concluded the project featured Vaughan backed by Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson (vocals/alto saxophone), Lloyd Glenn (piano), Pee Wee Crayton (guitar) and Charles Randall (drums) on January 22, and just Joe Pass and Mike Wofford (piano) the next day.

Vaughan was no stranger to Ellington’s songbook and had, in fact, was revisiting a number of the songs.  She first recorded the immortal “Lush Life” by Ellington’s close collaborator Billy Strayhorn back in 1956 and “Solitude” just a few years later in 1963 – with a Benny Carter arrangement, natch.  The lesser-known “Tonight I Shall Sleep (With a Smile on My Face),” co-written by Duke and Mercer Ellington, was recorded twice by Vaughan at Columbia in 1949.  Her association with “All Too Soon” by Duke and Carl Sigman dated back to the 1940s, while she tackled the 1944 ballad “I Didn’t Know About You” in 1963 at Roulette.  The ensuing years only made Vaughan’s interpretations even richer, however, and the combination of the ace musicians and Ellington’s enduringly alluring compositions added up to some of Vaughan’s best and most inspired vocals of the period – sophisticated, yes, but also equal parts smoke and silk.

Sophisticated Lady: The Duke Ellington Songbook Collection has been produced for reissue by Nick Phillips and remastered by Joe Tarantino.  This deluxe addition to the Sarah Vaughan catalogue and Pablo fortieth-anniversary festivities can be yours at the links below!

Sarah Vaughan, Sophisticated Lady: The Duke Ellington Songbook Collection (Concord/Pablo PAB-34608-2, 2013) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1

1. Sophisticated Lady
2. In a Sentimental Mood
3. Lush Life
4. Solitude
5. Day Dream
6. Tonight I Shall Sleep (With a Smile on My Face)
7. Sophisticated Lady
8. Solitude
9. Day Dream
10. All Too Soon
11. What Am I Here For?
12. I’m Just a Lucky So-and-So
13. Chelsea Bridge
14. Mood Indigo
15. I Didn’t Know About You

CD 2

1. I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
2. Black Butterfly
3. In a Mellow Tone
4. It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)
5. In a Sentimental Mood
6. Lush Life
7. I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)
8. Tonight I Shall Sleep (With a Smile on My Face)
9. Rocks in My Bed
10. Prelude to a Kiss
11. Everything But You
12. I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues

CD 1, Tracks 1-6 are previously unissued
CD 1, Tracks 7-10, 12, 15 & CD 2, Tracks 1, 3, 5, 6 from The Duke Ellington Song Book One, Pablo LP 2312-111, 1979
CD 1, Tracks 11, 13-14 & CD 2, Tracks 2, 4, 7-12 from The Duke Ellington Song Book Two, Pablo LP 2312-116, 1980