Dinah '62 [Bonus Tracks]

Dinah Washington was one of the great jazz singers but she was so versatile that she could sing anything. In her career, Washington performed swinging jazz, R & B hits, middle-of-the-road pop tunes, spirituals and blues with equal credibility, creativity and feeling.

Her career only lasted a little more than 20 years. Washington joined Lionel Hampton's orchestra in 1943 and, by the time she left three years later, she was already a major attraction. She recorded frequently during the 1950s, having a major pop hit in 1959 with What A Difference A Day Makes. There was no decline in her singing in the early 1960s but an accidental overdose of diet pills in late-1963 caused her premature death.

Dinah '62 is one of Washington's best recordings from her later period. Backed by an impressive big band arranged by Fred Norman, she makes such songs as Drinking Again, Miss You, A Handful Of Stars, Red Sails In The Sunset and even You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You sound as if they were written for her.

Dinah Washington's conversational style is heard at its prime throughout this colorful and easily recommended set.

-Scott Yanow

The first of five LPs Dinah Washington recorded for Roulette during her last year and a half of life, Dinah '62 finds one of the foremost interpreters in vocal jazz treading merrily through a set of standards informed by Fred Norman's modern and commercially slanted ig-band arrangements. Despite a few trad vocal backgrounds, most of these charts never overwhelm the songs or Washington's performances, and sometimes add to them; this version of the decades-old "Red Sails in the Sunset" benefits from its earthy electric guitar and organ. The singer brings a lifetime of experience to these songs, carrying the soporific world-weariness of Johnny Mercer's "Drinking Again" but then skating rompishly over the light ovelty "Destination Moon." Washington is far more willing to indulge in histrionics than earlier in her career, but still exhibits remarkable control over her vocalizing, whether light or forceful. [EMI's 2003 reissue of Dinah '62 added four songs recorded at the same session but released on subsequent LPs, including the hard-living "Me and My Gin."] ~ John Bush, All Music Guide