*She also sang September Song at that concert with Marsalis and he played complete the Clifford Brown solo in honour. So, for a '50s "pop" record...
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There was an excellent book by Stanley Dance called "The world of Earl Hines" that I read many years ago which recounted Sarah Vaughan's ability as a pianist. I seem to recall that there was even a photo of the band that Hines led at that time which featured her as the singer along with Bird and Dizzy. I am a massive fan of Earl Hines and was always disappointed that this band never recorded. Hines was always a bit dismissive of his own big bands but they always fascinated me. They came out of Chicago and all his orchestras sounded a bit "harder." You can hear how the emerged out of the jazz that matured under the influence of Armstrong and then appreciate the how bands like Goodman had an impact before you arrive at the early forties records where it was clear just how influential Count Basie had become. Like so many bands of that time, they did also produce a load of commercial material , some of which is pretty dire yet the instrumental recordings are so aggressive and exciting that you can forgive the less interesting material. When you combine that with the impression that Hines' band then became an incubator for bebop, the fact that it never recorded seems almost tragic. When I read about this big band as a teenager I was really disappointed that is didn't record. Some time later I discovered that this band may actually have not been quite what I expected as it also included a string section. I wonder if this made Hines' big band the only one to do so, albeit so briefly as to evade making any records. All of a sudden, this dampens your opinion for this more modern band and you wonder just how representative a track like "Scoops Carrry's merry" would have been of the slightly earlier band.
The tenor solo is Wardell Gray:-
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