Sarah Vaughan — Sarah Vaughan

Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Sarah Vaughan

1955 · EmArcy MG 36004 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	EmArcy
Catalogue number	MG 36004
Year	1955
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Vocal
Producer	Bob Shad (uncredited on the jacket)
Musicians	Sarah Vaughan (vocals), Clifford Brown (trumpet), Paul Quinichette (tenor sax), Herbie Mann (flute), Jimmy Jones (piano), Joe Benjamin (bass), Roy Haynes (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  YMG36004 A MF1 A1
Side B:  YMG36004B MF1 A1

Condition

Cover: NM-
Vinyl: EX

Variant chronology

1955 - US EmArcy deep-groove 'big drummer' label, square-icon/silver-rim design, blue back cover  <- this copy
1955 - Canada EmArcy pressing of the same drummer label
1957 - Netherlands EmArcy pressing
1958 - US EmArcy reissue, later drummer-label state
1964 - UK/Netherlands/France Mercury reissue (cat. 125 061 MCL)
1967-1974 - Japan Mercury/EmArcy mono reissues
1974-1976 - US Trip Records reissue (TLP-5501)
1983/1991 - Japan EmArcy limited/promo reissues (SGD-55)
2000 - Verve remastered CD reissue
2004-2024 - later European/Japanese vinyl reissues and 180g audiophile cuts (including a Speakers Corner pressing)

This Pressing

1955 EmArcy MG-36004 mono - deep-groove 'drummer' label, first-pressing design window, blue back cover.

The Album

Recorded in a single session on December 18, 1954 in New York, this album paired Sarah Vaughan with a hand-picked small group built around the 24-year-old trumpet phenomenon Clifford Brown, alongside Paul Quinichette, Herbie Mann and the rhythm team of Jimmy Jones, Joe Benjamin and Roy Haynes. Vaughan had already established herself through her work with Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine and her own hit singles, but this date let her stretch as a jazz improviser among first-rate instrumentalists rather than behind a pop orchestra. The repertoire mixes standards such as Embraceable You and September Song with the then-recent Lullaby Of Birdland, which Vaughan turns into a loose, swinging showcase for both her voice and Brown's horn. Brown's playing throughout is prized by collectors and historians as some of his most lyrical studio work before his death less than two years later. The record is widely regarded as one of the finest vocal-jazz sessions of its era and a highlight of Vaughan's mid-1950s Mercury/EmArcy period, when the label let her record for the jazz audience alongside her commercial singles. It remains a touchstone for the possibilities of a jazz singer working as an equal partner with a top-tier instrumental group, and it helped cement Brown's reputation in the final, most productive stretch of his brief career.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Lullaby Of Birdland
2. April In Paris
3. He's My Guy
4. Jim

Side 2

1. You're Not The Kind
2. Embraceable You
3. I'm Glad There Is You
4. September Song
5. It's Crazy

The Label

Both sides carry a deep-groove label: a blue-and-white design with the EmArcy script in an oval at the upper left, a small square device beneath it, and the large stylised drummer figure to its right, rimmed by LONG PLAYING HIGH FIDELITY and MERCURY RECORD CORPORATION MADE IN U.S.A. text, with the session date printed on each side. This drummer-label design, paired with deep-groove pressing rings on both sides and an all-blue-ink back cover, is the design EmArcy used at the label's launch in the mid-1950s, before a later redesign replaced the drummer motif on subsequent pressings of this catalogue number. The deep groove and this early label state place the record in the earliest manufacturing window for MG 36004 rather than a later flat-label restrike.

Fidelity

The session was cut using Mercury's Fine-Fairchild Margin Control mastering process noted on the jacket, an early-stereo-era technique aimed at extending dynamic range and groove clarity on mono microgroove pressings. Collectors rate original EmArcy drummer-label pressings of this title as the most natural-sounding cut of the session, ahead of the later Mercury and Trip Records reissues, with a well-regarded 180-gram European audiophile reissue offering a quieter but slightly less immediate alternative for those who cannot find a clean original.

Notes

This is the original-era EmArcy pressing of MG-36004: the blue-and-white drummer-emblem label with the session-date printed copy, deep-groove rims on both sides, and the all-blue-ink back cover text match the earliest manufacturing state for this catalogue number. The stamped runout prefix YMG 36004 A/B with the MF1 A1 mastering code aligns with the first pressing's identifiers, differing only by a trailing stamper letter not recorded in this copy's transcription. No later label redesign or reissue-era rim text appears on either side.

Documenting collections

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