Vaughan's father, Asbury "Jake" Vaughan, was a carpenter by trade and played guitar and piano. Her mother, Ada Vaughan, was a laundress and sang in the church choir. Jake and Ada Vaughan had migrated to Newark, New Jersey from Virginia during the First World War. Sarah was their only biological child, although in the 1960s they adopted Donna, the child of a woman who traveled on the road with Sarah Vaughan.
1943-44: Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine
Vaughan spent the remainder of 1943 and part of 1944 touring the country with the Earl Hines big band, which featured baritone Billy Eckstine. Vaughan was hired as a pianist, reputedly so Hines could hire her under the jurisdiction of the musicians' union (American Federation of Musicians) rather than the singers union (American Guild of Variety Artists), but after Cliff Smalls joined the band as a trombonist and pianist, Sarah's duties were limited exclusively to singing. The Earl Hines band in this period is remembered as an incubator of bebop, as it included trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonist Charlie Parker (playing tenor rather than the alto, for which he is remembered), and trombonist Bennie Green. Gillespie arranged for the band, although the contemporary recording ban by the musicians' union meant that no commercial recordings exist.  Eckstine quit the Hines band in late 1943 and formed his own big band with Gillespie, leaving Hines to become the new band's musical director. Parker joined Eckstine, and the band would, over the next few years, host a startling cast of jazz talent, including Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Art Blakey, Lucky Thompson, Gene Ammons, and Dexter Gordon, among others.  Vaughan accepted Eckstine's invitation to join his new band in 1944, giving her an opportunity to develop her musicianship with the seminal figures in this era of jazz. Eckstine's band afforded her first recording opportunity, a December 5, 1944 date that yielded the song "I'll Wait and Pray" for the De Luxe label. That date led critic and producer Leonard Feather to ask her to cut four sides under her own name later that month for Continental, backed by a septet that included Dizzy Gillespie and Georgie Auld.  Band pianist John Malachi is credited with giving Vaughan the moniker "Sassy", a nickname that matched her personality. Vaughan liked it, and the name (and its shortened variant "Sass") stuck with colleagues and, eventually, the press. In written communications, Vaughan often spelled it "Sassie".  Vaughan officially left the Eckstine band in late 1944 to pursue a solo career, although she remained very close to Eckstine personally and recorded with him frequently throughout her life.
what happened in 1943?
Eckstine quit the Hines band in late 1943 and formed his own big band with Gillespie, leaving Hines to become the new band's musical director.
Eckstine quit the Hines band in late 1943 and formed his own big band with Gillespie, leaving Hines to become the new band's musical director.