Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington was one of the most beloved and versatile singers of the mid-20th century, at home in all kinds of music, be it R&B, blues, jazz, gospel, and pop. Hers was a gritty voice, marked by absolute clarity of diction and clipped, bluesy phrasing. Washington's personal life was turbulent and her interpretations showed it, for she displayed a tough, totally unsentimental, yet still gripping hold on the universal subject of lost love. From the 1940s onwards, she scored numerous Top Ten singles on the R&B charts before crossing over to the pop charts with 1959's What a Diff'rence a Day Makes!, which also won her Grammy for Best R&B Performance. Although she died young in 1963, she has had a huge influence on R&B and jazz singers who have followed in her wake, notably Nancy Wilson, Esther Phillips, and Diane Schuur. Her music as been collected on several large-volume series, including The Complete Dinah Washington on Mercury and The Complete Roulette Dinah Washington Sessions.
Born Ruth Lee Jones, she moved to Chicago at age three and was raised in a world of gospel, playing the piano and directing her church choir. At 15, after winning an amateur contest at the Regal Theater, she began performing in nightclubs as a pianist and singer, opening at the Garrick Stage Bar in 1942. Talent manager Joe Glaser heard her there and recommended her to Lionel Hampton, who asked her to join his band. Hampton says that it was he who gave Ruth Jones the name Dinah Washington, although other sources claim it was Glaser or the manager of the Garrick Stage Bar. In any case, she stayed with Hampton from 1943 to 1946 and made her recording debut for Keynote at the end of 1943 in a blues session organized by Leonard Feather with a sextet drawn from the Hampton band. With Feather's "Evil Gal Blues" as her first hit, the records took off, and by the time she left Hampton to go solo, Washington was already an R&B headliner.
Signing with the young Mercury label, Washington produced an enviable string of Top Ten hits on the R&B charts from 1948 to 1955, singing blues, standards, novelties, pop covers, and even Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart." She also recorded many straight jazz sessions with big bands and small combos, most memorably with Clifford Brown on Dinah Jams but also with Cannonball Adderley, Clark Terry, Ben Webster, Wynton Kelly, and the young Joe Zawinul (who was her regular accompanist for a couple of years).
In 1959, Washington made a sudden breakthrough into the mainstream pop market with What a Diff'rence a Day Makes! The album featured a revival of composer María Grever's 1930s composition (also previously a hit for the Dorsey Brothers) set to a Latin American bolero rhythm. It was a Top Ten Hot 100 hit and won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance. For the rest of her career, she would largely concentrate on singing ballads backed by lush orchestrations for Mercury and Roulette, a formula similar to that of another R&B-based singer at that time, Ray Charles. Included among these are gems like her 1961 rendition of Billie Holiday's "Don't Explain," which has a beautiful, bluesy Ernie Wilkins chart conducted by Quincy Jones. Tragically, Washington died of an accidental overdose of diet and sleeping pills mixed with alcohol at the early age of 39, still in peak voice, still singing the blues in an L.A. club only two weeks before the end.
© Richard S. Ginell /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Dinah Washington In The Land Of Hi-Fi
Jazz - Released by Island Mercury on 1 Jan 1956
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Dinah Washington On Mercury Vol.5 (1956-1958)
Jazz - Released by Mercury Records on 1 Jul 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Dinah Washington On Mercury, Vol. 3 (1952-1954)
Jazz - Released by Verve Reissues on 1 Jan 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Spotlight on Dinah Washington
Jazz - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 28 May 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
20th Century Masters: The Best Of Dinah Washington - The Millennium Collection
R&B - Released by Universal Music Enterprises on 3 Feb 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sings The Standards (2003 Remaster)
Pop - Released by Parlophone UK on 25 Aug 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dinah Washington - Very Best Of
Pop - Released by Parlophone UK on 3 Jul 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best In Blues
Jazz - Released by Verve Reissues on 1 Jan 1957
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
For Lonely Lovers
Jazz - Released by Verve Reissues on 6 Jan 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Dinah '62 (Domestic Only)
Jazz - Released by Parlophone UK on 1 Jan 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Roulette Sessions In Love
Pop - Released by Parlophone UK on 1 Jan 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Slick Chick
Lounge - Released by AP Music Jukebox on 8 Feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
What a Diff'rence a Day Makes!
Pop - Released by Music Manager on 13 Jan 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Wanna Be Loved
Jazz - Released by Verve Reissues on 1 Jan 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best Of Dinah Washington
Jazz - Released by Parlophone UK on 13 Apr 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dinah Washington: A Night of Jazz
Jazz - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 5 Oct 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Newport '58 (Live)
Dinah Washington, Terry Gibbs, Max Roach, Don Elliott
Jazz - Released by Verve Reissues on 1 Jan 1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
What a Difference a Day Makes - Dinah Washington Sings Hits Like Unforgettable, This Bitter Earth, And Mad About the Boy!
Soul - Released by Get Gone on 2 Aug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
This Bitter Earth
R&B - Released by Charly Records on 8 Jun 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo