The core of this album is nine of the 10 acclaimed tracks that Sarah Vaughan recorded with her regular trio plus Clifford Brown, Paul Quinchette and Herbie Mann. The surviving alternate take of ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ is omitted, so as to squeeze in the Columbia 10-inch LP Sarah Vaughan, with Miles Davis fronting a slightly larger group of accompanists in 1950.

Both sessions show what a consummate musician Vaughan had become by the early 1950s, but the Brown session has the edge. The unsung hero of the date is Paul Quinichette, whose Lesterish tenor is just as lyrical a foil for Vaughan's vocals as Brownie's trumpet, notably on a song like ‘You're Not The Kind’, where these two fine soloists envelope a rather timid chorus from Herbie Mann. If you want the whole session, then seek out the 2CD set Clifford Brown and the Ladies of Jazz from Lonehill that has Brown's albums with Helen Merrill and Dinah Washington added, and complete. But if you want to focus on Sarah, then this pairing with the Davis session does the job excellently, with gems like ‘Mean To Me’, featuring Budd Johnson's fine tenor solo, among the highlights.