Whatever else you want to say about Sarah Vaughan, she was an artist of extremes, and often of contradictions. She was born with a voice that, if not for the color of her skin in her generation, would ...

Born in 1924 in Newark, N.J., Vaughan came up in the '40s, alongside bebop, a new jazz style she instantly took to. In the following decades, she proved to be one of the best singers of any genre.

This is FRESH AIR. Jazz and pop and classical singer Sarah Vaughan was born 100 years ago today in Newark, N.J. As a girl, she sang in church in Newark before breaking into show business at New York's ...