Sarah Vaughan | with Clifford Brown [Vinyl] LP

“Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown”, originally issued only under the singer’s name, marked her only collaboration with the celebrated trumpeter. The names of both artists would be coupled on the cover in subsequent reeditions after Clifford Brown died in a car accident in 1956 at the tender age of 26, bringing one of the most exciting careers in jazz to a tragic close.

The album was Vaughan’s favorite among her works through 1980, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. In Bebop: The Best Musicians and Recordings, jazz commentator Scott Yanow notes simply that on this album “everything works”, making of it an “essential acquisition”. Ink Blot Magazine, characterizing this as one of Vaughan’s “jazziest” albums, describes it also as one of her greatest. In Jazz: A Critic’s Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings, New York Times’ jazz commentator Ben Ratliff listed the album as one of Vaughan’s best, indicating that the recording date seemed among those blessed sessions where “even middle-level musicians can sound like gods”.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz selected this album as part of its suggested “Core Collection”, stating “it is very difficult to find any flaw in what should be recognized as one of the great jazz vocal records”, and awarded it “crown” status.