The All of Dinah Washington

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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There is no short and painless way to sample the Queen at her best; you have to rush out and buy the entire works. Fortunately, it is possible to do that, on a 21-CD series from Japanese Universal that collates her Mercury Recordings of 1946-60 into seven three-CD boxes. You can invest your money in smaller samples and the individual albums, but if you have any taste at all, you are eventually going to want her complete works.


Of the single-disc anthologies, “Queen: The Music of Dinah Washington” (Verve 000256102) is obviously meant to tie in with the new biography, but at a mere 12 tracks is far too short to do more than whet the appetite. Since with Washington more is better, check out the 20-track “Definitive Dinah Washington” (Universal 589839) – the only sampler thus far to combine material from her recordings with both Mercury and Roulette.


Of her original albums, “What a Diff’rence a Day Made” (Verve 145433002) was her most popular record in her lifetime, and though it contains her biggest hit, the dreadfully syrupy arrangements don’t sound any better now than they did 45 years ago. Much better is “The Swingin’ Miss D,” which offers 18 outstanding tracks arranged by the young Quincy Jones (back in the day when he was still writing his own charts).


EMI has made most of the smaller but equally marvelous Washington Roulette catalog available on Blue Note. The best of these are “Back To The Blues” (CDP 5433429) and “Dinah Washington in Love” (CDP 7972732). Only slightly less exciting are “Dinah ’62” (CDP 8183122) and “Dinah ’63” (7945762). Too bad she didn’t live to make “Dinah ’64” – or even “Dinah ’04.”


I hope someday soon Blue Note or Mosaic will do a complete box of Washington’s 1960-63 recordings. That would be one set worth instantly acquiring. In the meantime, buy all the Roulette titles you can find, and snap up the Japanese set as soon as you can save up enough yen. It’s the only way to experience the Queen in all her royal majesty.


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