1. September In The Rain
2. Willow Weep For Me
3. Just One Of Those Things
4. Be Anything But Darling Be Mine
5. Thou Swell
6. Stairway To The Stars
7. Honeysuckle Rose
8. Just A Gigolo
9. How High The Moon
10. Dream
11. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
12. It's Got To Be Love
13. Alone
14. If This Isn't Love
15. Embraceable You
16. Lucky In Love
17. Dancing In The Dark
18. Poor Butterfly
19. Sometimes I'm Happy
20. I Cover The Waterfront
The vocal jazz albums march on! Fortunately, where I expected to be bored with this album, I was instead entertained! Way to go Sarah Vaughan for being interesting! These records really are all about personality, aren't they? Because this album is live, it has a more loose and organic feeling than the structured studio recordings. The band is made up of only 3 people, which means there are no blasting trumpets or syrupy strings to dilute the mood of the album. This makes the album quite a bit more enjoyable because there isn't any overbearing orchestration to distract us from Sarah, who manages to fulfill the quite daunting task of carrying this double album entirely by herself.
The material is the same tried tested and true material from the Great American Songbook, but they're made interesting by Sarah Vaughan's singing skill, and just as frequently, her mistakes. She has no idea what the lyrics to 'How High the Moon' are, but that doesn't stop her from singing it in the style of Ella Fitzgerald (that is, saying absolutely nothing). These 'mistakes', along with the between song banter, actually manages to evoke being in a late night club in the 50s. Thankfully, this was the era before any asshole with enough Bud Light could shout "FREEEEEEEBIIIIIIIIIIIRD!" and ruin your audio recording forever.
I enjoyed this album a lot more than I thought I would, especially since it's the longest one I've listened to yet. This practically felt like a single album! 8/10
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