Jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan, known for her individualistic style and her extensive range, has died of lung cancer. She was 66.
Vaughan died at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday at her home in the Hidden Hills area of the west San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Ed Rogner said.Vaughan had been admitted March 31 to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, but was released earlier Tuesday, hospital spokeswoman Paula Correia said.
Los Angeles Times jazz critic and longtime friend Leonard Feather, in his book "Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Sixties," described Vaughan as "the most important singer to emerge from the bop era."
Vaughan's style was formed by her early association with be-bop, singing with Billy Eckstine, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine bands in the 1940s.
Vaughan's voice, over which she had phenomenal control, had lovely tone, was flexible and true in pitch. And she had a mastery of scat singing, improvising, swinging and phrasing. She once told an interviewer that horns influenced her more than other singers, which was evident from her harmonic and rhythmic sense.