Two Monuments In Jazz

Two remarkable performers from the world of jazz had birthdays this week. Paul Whiteman, the "King of Jazz,' was born on March 28, 1890, in Denver and Sarah Vaughan, known as "Sassy" and the "Divine One" was born on March 27, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey.
Today, Paul Whiteman is almost forgotten outside of tight circles of music history' He was primarily responsible for promoting the integration of jazz in popular music throughout the United States. Historian Glenn T. Eskew says this about him:

Alert to the emerging style, Whiteman pioneered standardized settings of the songs, capturing the melodies on paper and leaving room for improvisation while making jazz appear "respectable" for dancing by using symphonic arrangements. Whiteman made recordings in 1920 of "Avalon" and "Whispering" songs that inspired Johnny Mercer. By 1924, in a bid to blend the "serious" with the "popular," Whiteman conducted his Palais Royale Orchestra in the world premier of George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue,' which revealed the omnipresence of syncopation. Indeed, Whiteman's various approaches to jazz gained him his crown, for he mastered a jazz-inflected light-sweet music that while never the hot music of [Louis] Armstrong nonetheless popularized the genre in the United States. From the cabaret to the symphony hall, musicians embraced the rhythm and blues of playing as Americans consumed Whiteman's liberating jazz.

Whiteman photo in the magazine, Radio Stars, Februay 1934

And we can't let Whiteman's birthday pass without an opportunity to hear his celebrated orchestra performing the popular music that made them famous. This 1928 recording features 25 year-old Bing Crosby singing his first number one hit. Crosby would go on to shape popular singing for the rest of the century.

The magnificent American singer, Sarah Vaughan, was a performer if not a magician who wrang emotion out of a song with her warmth and three-octave range. Indeed she was a symphony of sound over her fifty years on the stage. The introductory paragraph of her Wikipedia entry quotes the music critic, Scott Yanow, as saying she had "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."  When coupled with the greatest of songwriters from the first half of the 20th century I think she could be matched only by Ella Fitzgerald for her vocal magic and entertainment value. 

Sarah Vaughanm 1946                     William P. Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress

The Divine One performed for almost fifty years and, nineteen years after her death in 1990, we still wait for a singer who can approach her amazing voice. The decline of professional songwriting and popular music in general have contributed to the void. And where is jazz, a genre birthed in the United States, but cast aside for mass market mediocrity and worse. I wait eagerly for a paradigm shift in music.

In the 1970's this Stephen Sondhein classic became her signature song and tour de force demonstration of her amazing vocal abilities.

Sources
Photos and Illustrations:
Whiteman photo, photographer uncredited, archive.org

Text:

Glenn T. Askew, Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World, University of Georgia Press: Athens and London, 2013