There are jazz singers — and then there’s Sarah Vaughan.
“You’re not going to get a lot of argument from people if you say she is the greatest jazz singer that’s lived,” music scholar Wayne Winborne says in a new USPS video tribute to Vaughan.
The four-minute production was shown during this week’s dedication of the Sarah Vaughan stamp. The Postal Service is also sharing the video on its YouTube channel.
“There’s this wonderful, melodious quality in her voice. Nobody sang quite like her,” radio host Michael Bourne says in the video, which also features clips of Vaughan’s performances and comments from admirers such as Tony Bennett.
The Vaughan stamp is the latest entry in the Postal Service’s Music Icons series, which also has honored such luminaries as Elvis Presley and Ray Charles.
Winborne praises the Postal Service for including Vaughan in the series.
“To lift this particular artist up is very appropriate, very timely … and really a great thing to do,” he says. “She is a national treasure.”