Queen (The Music Of Dinah Washington) - Dinah Washington

Advantages: Includes the most famous songs recorded by her
Disadvantages: Only for classic jazz/blues fans.

...and fifties was female artists. It is here, that we pick up with probably the greatest, and most loved of them all, Dinah Washington. This 2 CD album takes us through the very pinnacle of her outstanding career. Dubbed 'The Queen Of The Blues,' she touched on the hearts of many listeners in her day with her sweet, soulful vocals and catchy melodies. Singing for songwriters such as Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, she came from, like most of her contemporaries, from Gospel music inherited from by parents. Starting out as a jazz singer, she left her piano and choir days behind and reached out to 'the devil's' music' at the age of nineteen. This album takes us through her recording life right up to the year before she died from heart failure, induced by a drugs overdose in 1963 and the tender age of only 39. A singer, who... Read review

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Advantages: One of the greatest soul albums of all time
Disadvantages: ---

...beautiful vocals under mannered pre planned phrasing and prepackaged formula. Here, she just lets loose but still keeping strong vocal form; sounding more like a looser Ivy Anderson( A singer in Duke Ellingon's band in the 40's ) instead of a stiff Doris Day knock off. With her breathy vocal style and picture perfect tone on <i>" Serenade" </i> she gives a wonderfully nuanced style homage to Dinah Washington . ( She also did a tribute album of her material in 64) . Capturing the song's demure but breezy subtleties, around an elegant background of a jazz band augmented with lush R&B horns, <i>" Dream"</i> is the best non-Bachrach-Bachrach ever done or record. Aretha filters in luxurious gospel shouts into the song's schmaltz. The music, cocktail jazz arrangements blended in a pop-soul background, captures Burt's weird camp appeal without... Read review

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Advantages: Class Acts
Disadvantages: None

...and many other favourites who crop up here. For those new to this sort of music, it's laid back, late night, problems with my man, but what the hell sort of sentiment... ~~~ CD1: Many early artists here, including US black soul singers Dinah Washington and Aretha Franklin from the 1960's. If you've never heard Franklin, then she is the Queen of Soul, godmother to Whitney Houston and unmissable over a long career (and still performs occassionally). Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Peggy Lee and Billie Holiday were the most famous singers of their day in the 1950's. Simone died only a few years ago, while Holiday fell foul of drugs, only after a career that challenged the segregation of the southern states. Her most famous track concerned the lynching of an innocent black man, and this CD collection is named in her honour. Irma Thomas... Read review

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