Dinah Washington - Another Centennial
Tony Bennett was recording his second volume of duets. Hey, if it worked for Sinatra….(just barely; I have to tell you I can’t stomach those recordings, as the chairman didn’t even know what he was doing as he made them).
Bennett had become an admirer of Amy Winehouse, a British artist who had well known substance abuse issues, but he considered her an important jazz artist and felt very fatherly toward her. Her work at this session revealed that she was nervous singing in front of him and almost walked out. Bennett then casually asked her if she’d ever heard Dinah Washington, that Amy reminded Bennett of her. She lit up and told him that she was one of her favorites. “Did you know her,” she asked. Bennett did, and proceeded to tell her about Washington showing up in Las Vegas, and asking where she could sing. Even on short notice, her shows were packed. This seemed to liberate Winehouse, and during her rendition of her duet with Bennett, “Body and Soul,” she clearly showed her homage in her note choices and phrasing. The performance is classic.
Washington continues to be a bright shining piece of jazz and pop music. Originally a gospel singer, she claimed she could sing anything. While she never tried to sing opera, pretty much everything she did sing proved her right. Her powerful sound hit you in the soul and in the gut, and her way of totally absorbing a song and making it sound like it was being composed on the spot keeps her recordings fresh and alive to this day. But like Winehouse, she had problems and died young.
She was born Ruth Jones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and went to Chicago as a young girl. She led and sang in church choirs from the piano, and was singing in clubs since the age of fifteen. At one club, she sang on one floor while Billie Holiday sang on another. She easily landed a job with Lionel Hampton’s band and made her first recordings. She signed a contract with Mercury Records and remained at the label for thirteen years, recording jazz, pop, R&B, novelty songs and even “Cold, Cold Heart” by Hank Williams (Bennett did too, and both artists had big sellers). She made albums with Clifford Brown, Clark Terry and Ben Webster. She also regularly appeared on television and early Rock ‘n Roll concerts.
From 1955, this is one of her pop records:
Just look at this:
A documentary of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival yielded this classic footage. Notice how she duets with Terry Gibbs:
In 1959, she recorded both “Unforgettable” and “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes.” I was five at the time, and those records got a lot of airplay. My father, who was an amateur singer but bought few records, bought both 45’s, and I used to play them constantly. She also recorded duets with one of Mercury’s male stars, Brook Benton and I had one of them too. They were produced by Clyde Otis, who was determined to create tracks with black string players that were very soulful (I loved it when the strings slid upward and downward on “Baby, You’ve Got What it Takes.” Pat Boone certainly never had such hip accompaniment, and neither did Bennett).
In fact, it was Dinah who taught me about racial tolerance. I had no idea that Washington was black. When I saw her picture, and remembering the soulful, bluesy music she created, certainly something that no white singer did like her, I realized that her race created something special which touched me deeply, and in the midst of a time when I saw discrimination on the news in places like the South, I knew I could never hate anyone of the black race who could create such wonderful music.
At that time, Morris Levy formed Roulette Records, and many Mercury artists switched over. My father would regularly go to places like Woolworth’s and John’s Bargain Stores where they had cutout 45’s (the records would have holes punched in the label area), and buy me a bunch; He knew I listened to anything. One of them was a Roulette Dinah Washington 45. I wore this out, and I can’t listen to it without crying. Happily, it is one of several tracks arranged and conducted by Don Costa, a musical poet.
Washington had a terrible temper, and a few of her outbursts at recording sessions were described to me by musicians who played them. She was married MANY times, and fought weight problems for most of her adult life. She finally overdosed on drugs for weight loss and insomnia. She was only 39.
I leave you with my favorite Dinah recording. This was the ‘B’ side to “What a Diff’rence…” and was not issued in stereo until a series of boxed sets of all of Dinah’s Mercury recordings were prepared and initially issued in Japan. Finally, pianist Joe Zawinul and Milt Hinton are at this session. The guitarist is likely Kenny Burrell.
Happy 100th, Ms. Washington!!