The musically inclined Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990) played piano, then organ, and finally realized her vocal talent singing in the church choir. Her voice ranged over three octaves, and she exercised control over it; swooping from high to low and back. Early in Vaughan’s career, she toured with many of the great jazz musicians of the day, and incorporated some of their styles into her own. Later, she recorded both jazz and pop songs as a solo artist. Remarkably, her voice did not diminish with time; she sang with her signature interpretive power for the whole of her five-decade career.

Sarah Vaughan was one of America’s greatest singers, successful in both jazz and pop, with a talent for improvisation and skillful phrasing and a voice that ranged over several octaves. The stamp art is an oil painting of Vaughan in performance based on a 1955 photograph by Hugh Bell.