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| 3.726 Ft
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| 1. | I Wanna Be Loved
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| 2. | Don't Explain
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| 3. | Everybody's Somebody's Fool
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| 4. | Invitation
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| 5. | You're Crying
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| 6. | Let's Fall in Love
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| 7. | When Your Lover Has Gone
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| 8. | A Stranger in Town
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| 9. | God Bless the Child
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| 10. | Blue Gardenia
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| 11. | I Can't Face the Music
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| 12. | Sometimes I'm Happy
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Jazz / Vocal, Classic Female Blues, Standards, Traditional Pop, Vocal Jazz
Dinah Washington - Vocals
Al Cohn Sax (Tenor)
Billy Byers Trombone, Arranger
Bob Irwin Mastering
Bryan Koniarz Reissue Producer
Carl Turk Photography
Clark Terry Trumpet
Ernie Royal Trumpet
Ernie Wilkins Arranger
Gary Chester Drums
George Barnes Guitar
Hal Mooney Arranger
Hollis King Art Direction
Ira Howard Liner Notes
Jack Wilson Piano
Jayme Pieruzzi Mastering
Jimmy Cleveland Trombone
Joe Newman Quartet Trumpet
Kai Winding Trombone
Ken Druker Executive Producer
Patti Bown Piano
Quincy Jones Conductor
A torch song date recorded between Dinah Washington's commercial breakthrough in 1959 and her death in 1963, I Wanna Be Loved flaunts a large cast of talented collaborators -- plus, to be sure, Washington's regal readings of 12 great songs -- but, unfortunately, the musical side is overwhelmed by the heavy strings in attendance. Working with Quincy Jones, Washington found her studio cast to include Joe Newman and Clark Terry on trumpet, Jimmy Cleveland and Kai Winding on trombone, and Al Cohn on tenor. However, the arrangements (from Ernie Wilkins and Quincy Jones) rarely leave room for the musicians -- and, in fact, rarely feature them at all -- preferring instead to concentrate on strings and the occasional wordless vocal chorus. As usually happened in these circumstances, Washington appears unfazed by the treacle surrounding her; although she doesn't improvise, her performances of "Blue Gardenia," "Don't Explain," and the title track (originally an r&b hit for her 12 years earlier) are elegant and bewitching. The larger big band makes its presence felt on the two side-closers, both of them ("Let's Fall in Love," "Sometimes I'm Happy") more uptempo material. Although Washington's latter-day Mercury material is often derided, she always succeeded despite her surroundings, and this date is no different. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
Dinah Washington
Active Decades: '40s, '50s and '60s
Born: Aug 29, 1924 in Tuscaloosa, AL
Died: Dec 14, 1963 in Detroit, MI
Genre: Vocal
Styles: Early R&B, Jump Blues, Standards, Traditional Pop, Vocal Jazz
Dinah Washington was at once one of the most beloved and controversial singers of the mid-20th century -- beloved to her fans, devotees, and fellow singers; controversial to critics who still accuse her of selling out her art to commerce and bad taste. Her principal sin, apparently, was to cultivate a distinctive vocal style that was at home in all kinds of music, be it R&B, blues, jazz, middle of the road pop -- and she probably would have made a fine gospel or country singer had she the time. Hers was a gritty, salty, high-pitched voice, marked by absolute clarity of diction and clipped, bluesy phrasing. Washington's personal life was turbulent, with seven marriages behind her, and her interpretations showed it, for she displayed a tough, totally unsentimental, yet still gripping hold on the universal subject of lost love. 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, and her music is abundantly available nowadays via the huge seven-volume series The Complete Dinah Washington on Mercury.
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 Theatre, she began performing in nightclubs as a pianist and singer, opening at the Garrick 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 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, 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," a revival of a Dorsey Brothers hit set to a Latin American bolero tune. For the rest of her career, she would 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, and one that drew plenty of fire from critics even though her basic vocal approach had not changed one iota. Although her later records could be as banal as any easy listening dross of the period, there are gems to be found, like Billie Holiday's "Don't Explain," which has a beautiful, bluesy Ernie Wilkins chart conducted by Quincy Jones. Struggling with a weight problem, Washington died of an accidental overdose of diet pills mixed with alcohol at the tragically 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, All Music Guide |
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