Search - Sarah Vaughan :: Send in the Clowns

One of my favorites and Sarah's voice never sounded better

J. S. | seattle wa | 07/09/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Out of over 30 Sarah Vaughan cds that I have, I have listened to this one more than any of the others. This is the one that turned my appreciation of Sarah into full-blown love. Oddly it is an imperfect album, perhaps, because its sound is so readily categorized as 1970s soul, but Sarah soars on this album in a way unmatched on any other album of hers that I've come across. Indeed, you could say that while the songs are imperfect, Sarah's performance itself is one for the ages. She never rose out of the depths with more power and emotion than she does here; she never rode on her accompaniment more fluidly; and the brass of her voice never sounded better. Also, although some might call the songs' lyrics less than top-rate, Sarah actually does an incredible interpretation of the lyrics on this album, and turns the songs into something very special. If you ever had a fondness for seventies soul but felt that something was missing from it, you'll realize after listening to this album that what was missing was Sarah Vaughan's voice. I don't think it is an accident that Columbia marked this album as a Columbia Jazz Classic, which is not a distinction that they liberally bestow left and right, and is all the more remarkable because the album does not sound like a jazz album."

Different & a superb constructed studio recording.

Richard Meyer | Woodbridge,VA | 03/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 78 I saw Sarah at a night club in New Orleans.Sarah talks on stage a short bit and one thing she said stuck out "I did an album called Send In The Clowns and you bought it and bought it and bought it.Send In the Clowns on Pablo had not been released yet so Sarah was referring to this recording.This album sold big even before CD's were invented.Another time I caught her being interviewed by Merve Griffin & Shaza Shaza Gabor & I have this on tape.Something that stuck out on that interview was that Merve Griffin started talking and stating"Recently I recorded an album and I went in and there was a lone piano player accompanying me.I sang the numbers and a few weeks later the producers brought back the recording to me & there was a full orchestra & strings & singers behind me going Do A Do A, Do A Do A.He was a darn good piano player but what the producers brought me back sounded nothing like the original".Sarah then says"Oh I did a couple of albums like that.What you don't know is that the singer will go in and record the tunes & then two weeks later the musicians or whatever come in and do the background.You don't know but a lot of switch'n goes on back and forth between the musicians & the singer before the album is completed.I've had singers walk up to and say to me "We sure enjoyed singin with you."Sarah says, What Singers?I never saw em."I sure goes to show you that in almost any setting Sarah Sounds good.In most all of this recording the background music is all composed around what Sarah originally sang and in some songs background singers are superinjected.Oh but what an R&B almost 70's disco sound from Sara reaching out in all different directions like an octpus hitting all those beautiful & different notes while still obtaining that perfect sense of rythm & timing that she had.I love that somewhat rock version of Send in the Clowns.On the Pablo album she really slows that song down to a ballad & hits those high Soprano notes.When ever Sarah was around the Count Basie orchestra it just made her sing her ass off even more.Love Don't Live Here Any More is superb and typically Sarah.She could have broken a dozen glasses on the memorex tape commercial with that one.Sarah sings "It's My House",& the background singers add in "Her House".The background singers were superinjected in perfectly and the music was superimposed inbetween/and along side of Sarah precisely.All of that made the songs even more trippie.That rock version of That'll Be Johnny is something else.I had a younger black man listening to Sarah her Roulette songs & says "This is a black woman"? Then I said in a lot of instances in her early stuff she really did not sound black not until her later years;really stretched out hitting an even wider variety of notes, but it sounded so good".The he listend to some Live in Japan & agreed with me.The song Right In The Next Room brings back memories when I would have fights & quarrels with my wife and she would be right in the next room listening.I Need You More Than Ever Now is a soaring rock/soal R&B number with all that superimposed stuff behind Sarah.On Thinking It Over is a great song that was put on this album that was on her 1st Mainstream album A Time In My Life that was an absolute bomb but Sarah haden't been in the recording business for a couple of years & I guess she was experimenting with different things at that time.Do Away With April is excellent & the background singers blend in perfectly.O honey bend those notes and sing that song the Wave with that superimposed Michele Legrand type backing & no background singers.Sarah later does super balad/then upbeat version of it on Mainstream Live In Japan & also does another version of it on an out of print French album that is just not as good.Then Sarah moans & groans & has such wonderful delightful pain calling herself of all things little Sassy raising a family & being a woman when she is only 3 years old when she sings "Got To See If I Can't Get Daddy To Come Back Home"no back up singers.This is a very different but delightful recording and Sarah even declared herself that it sold like hot cakes.On Mainstream Sarah did 2 more delightful albums on Mainstream.Feelin' Good is done with 3 or 4 different arrangers on it superimposed musical backgrounds but not as many background singers but some of constructed voice excersizes she does on it are excellent.Such songs as Alone Again Naturally which Esther Phillips version can't hold a candle to it,Promise Me is another peach, Easy Evil.I have a bootleg of this album on CD & once found it on an acution done on a Japanese Mainstream Album but I did not want to bid the national debt on it.The Feelin' Good album is superb also.The last Mainstream album of Sarah's in 74 SV & The Jimmy Rowels Quintet is a live studio album done in front of about 30 people/friends;they tried to do it with larger crowds but it just wouldn't work.Sarah absolutely restructers and adds additional beutiful notes to The Folks Who Live On The Hill;it will blow you away.She also does an 8 minute version of That Face on it where she sing lyrics & the scat sings all kinds of notes & come back & sings again.Listen to Morning Star it's a trip,A House Is Not A Home is very good also. 6 long song in all.Get this one too.Why weren't these two albums ever offered to the American public on CD?On that Interview with Merve Griffin they both discussed Sarah doing concerts with Frank Sinatra.One was already done & another one was coming up at the London Palladium which had already been sold out before it opened.Anybody in there right mind would want to sing with Sarah because she would just make the other one sound better and in that case Sinatra needed all the help he could get.Sure wish these recording were avaiable to the public and also a live performance that was supposed to be fantastic done in Australia."

SARAH VAUGHAN "SEND IN THE CLOWNS"

Richard Meyer | 08/26/1998

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Review by Kirk Douglas ProvoJazz "purists" will not be particularly fond of this album, though true followers of The Divine One will find it interesting, if nothing more to hear her voice in these contemporary settings. Like her "Songs of the Beatles" record, Sarah is decidedly more pop on these numbers and, yes, even verging on disco(!) on a few numbers. Her voice as an interpretive instrument is in full force though, even when then selections are questionable or lacking in integrity. She goes through the title song, winningly, as she has many many times before. This version, though is a little on the short side. "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" is a pleasant but sad tale of a relationship gone wrong. Sassy conveys the drama knowingly . . . "That'll Be Johnny" is delightfully rhythmic and Vaughan does not lose it, though the tune is a bit different from alot that she has done through the years. "Right In The Next Room" and "I Need You More (Than Ever Now)" are mid-tempo fare that have a bit of the dancefloor in them, while "On Thinking It Over" is quietly pretty, moving . . . "Do Away With April" is clever, poking fun at all those old songs about the month where so many fall in love, at least according to the poets of the day. Most interesting is the fact that Vaughan had sung many of the April songs herself! "Frasier (The Sensuous Lion)" is a novelty song, if ever Vaughan has sung one. Yes, it is a song about a lion(!!!) and the signer's sense of humour and unique gift for timing is in full display throughout. One just wonders, though, why was Vaughan given this song to sing in this context. It would have been more at home at say, "Circus of the Stars".Sarah could sing anything for sure, and here she does. At nest this album will make you smile."