“LET IT LIVE!--SARAH VAUGHAN SINGS POPE JOHN...

“LET IT LIVE!--SARAH VAUGHAN SINGS POPE JOHN PAUL II.” Jazzlette JLR 1 (Box 240, Ojai 93023). As a young man in Poland, Karol Wojtyla, now better known as Pope John Paul II, wrote a series of poems. They were later translated into Italian and set to music by two Milan composers, Tito Fontana and Sante Palumbo.

In 1982, an Italian impresario, Gigi Campi, persuaded Gene Lees, the Canadian lyricist, to attempt a free translation into English. With an American singer (Sarah Vaughan), a Belgian arranger (Francy Boland), an Argentine conductor (Lalo Schifrin) and a German setting (the Tonhalle concert hall in Dusseldorf), this album was produced, live, in June, 1984.

Actually, only 5 of the 15 cuts present Vaughan singing Wojtyla. On one, the voice is that of Benard Ighner. There are two original songs co-written by Lees: “The Mystery of Man” (music by Boland), which is used chorally or instrumentally on several tracks in addition to Vaughan’s, and “Let It Live” (music by Schifrin), heard briefly as an instrumental and then as Vaughan’s triumphant finale, with a kind of gospel groove.

This is by no stretch of the imagination a jazz album, though some members of the large orchestra (including strings) are among Europe’s foremost jazz musicians.

Wotylja’s poetry expresses no profound thoughts, though “The Armaments Worker” is an effective message vehicle. The Lees translations, and more particularly the sensitive lyrics of his own two numbers, are carried aloft by Vaughan’s beatific readings.

There are a few brief instrumental solos, uncredited: It’s Tony Coe on tenor sax, Sahib Shihab on soprano, Bobby Scott at the piano. What matters most in this multinational effort is a mood that is established at the outset and sustained through the two sides with a consistency that reflects credit on all 75 participants. 5 stars.