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Dinah Washington: Evil Gal: The Imperious Dinah Washington

by Nic Jones
In these days of photogenic warblers putting out the standards with only a negligible grasp of individuality and little in the way of interpretive skill, Dinah Washington continues to put a smile on your face before she's even got through the first line of a song. Evil Gal is a trawl through the sides she cut in the first half of the 1950s, and there isn't a song here that finds her in less than sublime form. It might almost ...
Continue ReadingDinah Washington: Music for Lovers

by Chris M. Slawecki
Dinah Washington's biting, blues-smoked phrasing is often cited as the primordial ground from which singers such as Esther Phillips and Nancy Wilson blossomed, and through them, more contemporary vocalists like Chaka Khan and Patti Labelle subsequently bloomed. This new collection of ballads draws from Washington's 1962-63 recording prime, a fertile period when she released several albums of ballads and blues, arranged and conducted by longtime Frank Sinatra favorite Don Costa, for Roulette and Mercury Records.
Like every female ...
Continue ReadingThe Complete Roulette Dinah Washington Sessions

by Jim Santella
Dinah Washington The Complete Roulette Dinah Washington Sessions Mosaic Records 2004
What a voice!
Five CDs and 94 tracks from her 1962-63 recording sessions give this complete Dinah Washington collection from Mosaic ample opportunities for extended listening. Five hours of Ms. Washington's expressive way with a song tell a long and detailed story.
She swings naturally with a genuine aura. On Disc I, walking bass, comping piano, rhythm ...
Continue ReadingDinah Washington: Queen of the Juke Box "Live", 1948-1955

by Dave Nathan
Ted Ono's Baldwin Street Music has rescued Dinah Washington's live performances from New York's Birdland, Royal Roost and Basin Street. There are also a couple of cuts from the soundtrack of Harlem Variety Review. It was during this period that many of her recordings consistently appeared at the top of the R & B charts. But it wasn't until her classic What a Difference a Day Made" that she broke through to the pop charts. The first performance on the ...
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