Crazy and Mixed Up
You want to know why her nickname was "Sassy"? Listen to  this.  This istheessential Sarah Vaughan, a self-produced, small-combo  session from 1982, featuring Joe Pass on guitar.  She picked the musicians, she  picked the songs, and the result is Sassy at her purest--undiluted by slick  orchestrations or studio enhancements.  The atmosphere is loose and lively,  Vaughan's voice at its ripest--and she's recorded nice and close so you can  almost feel the warmth of her breath coming through the speakers.  Her scatting  scatters "Autumn Leaves" like a whirlwind, and on my favorite track  ("In Love in Vain") she stretches and bends the melody as if it were  saltwater taffy.--Jim Emerson