Retirement
Father Tom Vaughn reappeared publicly in 1990, conducting the memorial service for singer June Christy at the famed Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills). As part of the service, he invited a quartet of eminent musicians to play in her honor, but didn't join the group himself, instead opting to listen and enjoy the music as a spectator.
By the early 1990s, his children were grown and Vaughn played at local clubs a few times each year; a 1990 performance at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel received positive reviews. He also hosted a Public-access television cable show, "All That Jazz", and was considering a return to the recording studio.
Vaughn was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times in 1991 and asked why he chose to remain a priest rather than accept fame and fortune as a touring musician.
"Nothing can move me at the deepest spiritual level like music can, (but) music was never completely satisfying. Music was something that came to me as a pure gift. Maybe it came too easily. The clergy came to me through hard work and learning. I felt called to the inquiries of the mind. Tom Vaughn didn't want musical notoriety. I've never made much of a fuss over it myself."
After turning 60, Vaughn further reduced his public performances to perhaps once a year. He remained married to wife, Bev, and practiced for three or four hours most mornings for his own enjoyment.
"That feeling, when it's right, there's nothing better--carnality, food, throw it all out the window. When I get in a groove, I'm detached, almost like losing consciousness, like flying some sort of super aircraft. It's close to an out-of-body experience."
At an interview in 1996, he acknowledged spliting piano time between playing the classics (Bach, Beethoven & Chopin) and improvising jazz with touches of blues and bebop.
Vaughn died March 4, 2011, according to comments posted on a YouTube video of Vaughn's recording of "Battle Hymn of the Republic".
Today, Vaughn's version of Battle Hymn of the Republic can be heard every Saturday night at 9:00 pm EST on WABE 90.1 in Atlanta. The song have provided the introduction to H. Johnson's "Jazz Classics" radio show, for 21 of more than 26 years that the show has aired.
All of Vaughn's records have been out of print for many years, but his three children began compiling their father's work into digital form in 2006.
Read more about this topic: Tom Vaughn (musician)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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