At the same church Sarah sang at the choir at the age of 7, she became the organist at the age of 12, and sang as a soloist. She quit school at a young age, and started singing at "Amateur Hour" contests.

By the age of 20 she had already become something of a legend amongst her fellow musicians, a new look in the new wave of bebop musicians.

Her recordings document her radical experiments with melody and vocal timbre, and illustrate the many aspects of her art that were to become less pronounced in later years.

She joined Lester Young in 1950 at the Town Hall Concert. It was with this move that she decided to pursue a solo career, the path that she would follow for the rest of her career, and she began to establish herself as an independent force.

Like a gifted actress, Sarah Vaughn always made the lyrics come alive. She combined exquisite elegance, impressive range, and an effortless delivery. Vaughan played her voice with a musical creativity, as if it were a "real" instrument.

Her health worsened in the '80s, but she recorded an album of Gershwin songs with The Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1982. The years of smoking finally took their toll. Sarah Vaughan died at her home in Hidden Hills, California, on the 3rd of April 1990.