[Dixielandjazz] Dinah Washington reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Dinah Washington: The Fabulous Miss D: The Keynote, Decca and Mercury Singles 1943-1953
(Verve Select B001466802, 4-CD set)
by Bruce Sylvester
Goldmine, December 31, 2010

Dinah Washington (1924-63) was dubbed "queen of the blues" -- "A Slick Chick (On
The Mellow Side)" to borrow a 1946 song title. She could purr like a kitten, but
you sensed that the kitten had claws. As the notes to her 1984 reissue "Wise Woman
Blues" on Rosetta eloquently stated, "She used words like an artist uses pigment;
vowels became primary colors."
With 107 tracks, "The Fabulous Miss D" opens with the four songs from her debut solo
session (during her days in Lionel Hampton's band) with Hampton's crew backing her.
Its "Evil Gal Blues" embodies the tough comic persona she cultivated. Like her foremothers
Victoria Spivey and Hattie McDaniel, she could even use dentistry for risque double
entendre ("Long John Blues"). But her songs were honest enough to acknowledge that,
for all her romantic prowess, she was hardly a beauty.
Miss D never over-emoted. Alabama-born and Chicago-bred, she delivered "I Want To
Cry" with late-night supper-club sophistication with an undercurrent of South Side
grit.
She was so versatile that Mercury Records had her cover white pop and country hits
in hopes of scoring black sales. Both artistically and commercially, the results
were mixed. She successfully soloed redoing Tennessee Ernie Ford and her friend Kay
Starr's duet "I'll Never Be Free," but an arranger dressed her in orchestral dreck
for Guy Mitchell's "My Heart Cries For You."
With her blond wigs, furs and multiple marriages, Miss D was a legend in her time.
Let's hope that a subsequent box will delve further into her vast Mercury catalog.


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
530/ 642-9551 Office
916/ 806-9551 Cell
Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV

In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. 
Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.