[Dixielandjazz] re; Sarah Vaughan

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

oddly enough, as they say, my first and illiterate acquaintance with a contrast made between G sharp and A flat was on the sleeve of an LP relating to my performance side, which is not jazz at all -- though I was once inadvertently recorded with Big Joe Duskin doing the Paul Robeson thing
Chaliapin, the legendary Russian basso cantante and singing actor was described as having a G sharp but no A flat... Presumably this came from insider knowledge, and it would mean never trying to sing anything above a G natural, and be discovered in private. And you can't buy or hire a new larynx.  

I probably mentioned before the Benny Carter Glasgow big band, and how in the course of getting his horn ready, pretty well polishing the mouthpiece while chatting to the man sitting next to him, Tommy blew a fanfare through the mouthpiece by an utter coincidence just as Benny stepped on to the stage behind the band -- fanfare in raspberry -- he gave an "oh, my God!" wince and grimace, but managed to stop laughing in the course of Benny's spoken introduction, at least one of the introductions including an observation that since he couldn't remember who had composed the next number up he wondered whether it wasn't one of his own, so he asked Bob Stephens (if I have the name right, the pianist who enchanted Pepper Adams on another occasion by playing a stride piano solo) to remind him afterwards to check his ASCAP. 

Robert R. Calder 

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