I originally wrote this a few years ago when a friend wrote to recall the effect Sarah Vaughan’s Live At Kelly’s and the John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman album had on him. I love Sarah Vaughan and I love Sarah Vaughan’s I Love Brazil!, her second album on Norman Granz’s Pablo label. In this slightly revised and expanded form. I would like to revisit the album in search of uplift and consolation following the past week of horrors.
Granz founded Pablo a decade after he sold Verve, the label he had founded to popularize Ella Fitzgerald. At its core, Granz biographer Tad Hershorn explains, Pablo was a showplace for those artists Granz managed nominally and without fees (Duke Ellington and Count Basie) and those he represented exclusively (such as Joe Pass, Oscar Peterson, and Ella Fitzgerald).
According to Hershorn, Pablo “quickly became a magnet for expatriate musicians, both newcomers and long-time Granz associates, who coveted his solicitous oversight.” He added his own creativity to the mix. “The success of Pablo,” Hershorn writes, “depended on artists’ willingness to to plug into new musical settings provided by Granz.”
Hershorn cites Sarah Vaughan’s “first recording for Pablo, the 1978 How Long Has This Been Going On? as “the textbook illustration of the power of Granz’s label on an artist’s career.” Granz teamed Vaughan with Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Ray Brown, and Louie Bellson. They provide magnificent accompaniment. Side 1 opens with “I’ve Got the World on a String,” followed by “Midnight Sun,” the title track, and “You’re Blasé” before closing with “Easy Living.”
“Easy Living” was written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, the gentlemen who wrote “Thanks For the Memory” for Bob Hope’s film The Big Broadcast of 1938. Sarah’s How Long Has This Been Going On? might have been The Big Album of 1978. In any event, Ms. Vaughan and company, thanks for the memory.
Vaughan recorded I Love Brazil! — don’t forget the exclamation point — in Rio de Janeiro during a 1977 tour “at a point where she was between contracts with American labels.” Thankfully, Pablo released the recording (in 1979). It overflows not only with Vaughan’s love of Brazil, as stated in the title, but also with her love of the composers (some of whom participated in the recording), the musicians, the arrangements, and the songs. Aloísio de Oliveira served as the primary producer of the album. Durval Ferreira is also credited as the creative director of the project. The album isn’t particularly well-known, but I loved it at the time and it remains one of my favorites. I don’t think there is anything like it.
“If You Went Away” leads off the album. Vaughan moderates her vocal style to ease into the set and get inside the heart of these songs. Ray Gilbert wrote the English lyrics on this one, as on several others. He must be a secret hero of the album. Fun fact: Gilbert also wrote the Oscar-winning song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” for the mothballed 1946 Disney film Song of the South, based on Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus stories. Some of us can apply Thanks For the Memory to that film.
Sarah picks up the tempo in “Triste.” It doesn’t sound too too sad to live in solitude. Antonio Carlos Jobim wrote the song, backed Sarah on the piano, and created the fantastic rhythm arrangement. Jobim wrote both the Portugese and English lyrics.
You may recall “Roses and Roses” as brought to us by lesser lights in the heyday of bossa nova. Here Sarah has composer Dorival Caymmi get us going and contribute in Portuguese. The English lyrics are by Ray Gilbert. This is how it should be done.
“Empty Faces” is by Milton Nascimento. He backs Sarah on acoustic guitar and on the vocal as well. Sergio Mendes vocalist Lani Hall wrote the English lyrics. Lani married Herb Alpert in 1973. I love this track.
“I Live To Love You” was written by Luvercy Fiorini and Oscar Castro-Neves. I hope you can guess who wrote the English lyrics. This ended side 1 of the album.
We turn the album over to side 2 and find “The Face I Love.” May I say I love “The Face I Love”? Marcus Valle is the composer. I hope you can guess who wrote the English lyrics.
Milton Nascimento wrote “Courage.” Paul Williams wrote the English lyrics. I wish I could cite the musicians backing Sarah on this one, but my liner notes for this track are shredded. Sarah made sure that Nascimento’s voice was heard.
“The Day It Rained” — what a beautiful track. Mauricio Einhorn adds the grace notes on harmonica. I hope you can guess who wrote the English lyrics.
“A Little Tear” is by Deodato (full name: Eumir Deodato). I hope you can guess who wrote the English lyrics. Stay around for the close while Sarah trades licks with Hélio Delmiro on electric guitar.
You are probably familiar with “Like a Lover.” This track closed the album. Dori Caymmi wrote the song, backed Sarah on acoustic guitar, and added his own vocal part. The moving English lyrics are by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. What a track. If you don’t listen to anything else here, please give this one a try before you go.
The compact disc added two bonus tracks. “Bridges” should have been included on the original album. Milton Nascimento composed the song and adds a vocal part in English. The highly literate Gene Lees wrote the English lyrics. Lees was the author of some 15 books, including The Modern Rhyming Dictionary: How To Write Lyrics.
“Someone To Light Up My Life” is by Jobim with lyrics by Lees. Jobim backs Sarah on piano. “Open your arms and sing…”
