Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones (August 29, 1924 - December 14, 1963), was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She is a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Career edit:
Ruth Lee Jones was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and moved to Chicago as a child....read moreDinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones (August 29, 1924 - December 14, 1963), was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She is a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Career edit:
Ruth Lee Jones was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and moved to Chicago as a child. She became deeply involved in gospel and played piano for the choir in St. Luke's Baptist Church while still in elementary school. She sang gospel music in church and played piano, directing her church choir in her teens and being a member of the Sallie Martin Gospel Singers. She sang lead with the first female gospel singers formed by Ms. Martin, who was co-founder of the Gospel Singers Convention. Her involvement with the gospel choir occurred after she won an amateur contest at Chicago's Regal Theater where she sang "I Can't Face the Music".
After winning a talent contest at the age of 15, she began performing in clubs. By 1941-42 she was performing in such Chicago clubs as Dave's Rhumboogie and the Downbeat Room of the Sherman Hotel (with Fats Waller). She was playing at the Three Deuces, a jazz club, when a friend took her to hear Billie Holiday at the Garrick Stage Bar. Joe Sherman was so impressed with her singing of "I Understand", backed by The Cats and The Fiddle, who were appearing in the Garrick's upstairs room, that he hired her. During her year at the Garrick - she sang upstairs while Holiday performed in the downstairs room - she acquired the name by which she became known. She credited Joe Sherman with suggesting the change from Ruth Jones, made before Lionel Hampton came to hear Dinah at the Garrick. Hampton's visit brought an offer, and Dinah went to work as his female vocalist in 1943 after she had sung with the band for its opening at the Chicago Regal Theatre. She sang with the Hampton band for two years.
She made her recording debut for the Keynote label that December with "Evil Gal Blues", written by Leonard Feather and backed by Hampton and musicians from his band, including Joe Morris (trumpet) and Milt Buckner (piano). Both that record and its follow-up, "Salty Papa Blues", made Billboard's "Harlem Hit Parade" in 1944.
She stayed with Hampton's band until 1946 and, after the Keynote label folded, signed for Mercury Records as a solo singer. Her first record for Mercury, a version of Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'", was another hit, starting a long string of success. Between 1948 and 1955, she had 27 R&B top ten hits, making her one of the most popular and successful singers of the period. Both "Am I Asking Too Much" (1948) and "Baby Get Lost" (1949) reached Number 1 on the R&B chart, and her version of "I Wanna Be Loved" (1950) crossed over to reach Number 22 on the US pop chart. Her hit recordings included blues, standards, novelties, pop covers, and even a version of Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart" (R&B Number 3, 1951). At the same time as her biggest popular success, she also recorded sessions with many leading jazz musicians, notably Clifford Brown on the 1954 live album Dinah Jams, and also recorded with Cannonball Adderley, Clark Terry, and Ben Webster.
In 1959, she had her first top ten pop hit, with a version of "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes", which made Number 4 on the US pop chart. Her band at that time included arranger Belford Hendricks, with Kenny Burrell (guitar), Joe Zawinul (piano), and Panama Francis (drums). She followed it up with a version of Nat "King" Cole's "Unforgettable", and then two highly successful duets in 1960 with Brook Benton, "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" (Number 5 pop, Number 1 R&B) and "A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love) (# 7 pop, # 1 R&B). Her last big hit was "September in the Rain" in 1961 (Number 23 pop, Number 5 R&B).
According to Richard S. Ginell at Allmusic:
"She 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 was well known for singing torch songs. In 1962, Dinah hired a male backing trio called the Allegros, consisting of Jimmy Thomas on drums, Earl Edwards on sax, and Jimmy Sigler on organ. Edwards was eventually replaced on sax by John Payne. A Variety writer praised their vocals as "effective choruses".
Washington's achievements included appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival (1955-59), the Randalls Island Jazz Festival in New York City (1959), and the International Jazz Festival in Washington D.C. (1962), frequent gigs at Birdland (1958, 1961-62), and performances in 1963 with Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
Performing at the London Palladium, with Queen Elizabeth sitting in a box, Washington told the audience: "There is but one Heaven, one Hell, one queen, and your Elizabeth is an imposter."
Personal life edit:
Washington was married seven times. Her husbands were John Young (1942-43), George Jenkins (1946), Robert Grayson (1947), Walter Buchanan (1950), saxophonist Eddie Chamblee (1957), Rafael Campos (1961), and pro football player Dick "Night Train" Lane (1963). She had two sons: George Kenneth Jenkins and Robert Grayson.
Washington was an outspoken unapologetic liberal Democrat. She once said, "I am who I am and I know what I know. I'm a Democrat plain and simple, always have been. I'd never vote for a Republican because in my opinion they don't have what it takes to run any kind of private or public office. That's all."
Death edit:
Early on the morning of December 14, 1963, Washington's seventh husband Lane went to sleep with his wife, and awoke later to find her slumped over and not responsive. Doctor B. C. Ross came to the scene to pronounce her dead. An autopsy later showed a lethal combination of secobarbital and amobarbital, which contributed to her death at the age of 39. She is buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.
Awards edit:
Grammy Award edit:
Year! Category
Title
Genre
1959
Best Rhythm & Blues Performance
What a Difference a Day Makes
R&B
Grammy Hall of Fame edit:
Recordings by Dinah Washington were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
Year
Title
Genre
Label
Year Inducted
1959
Unforgettable
pop (single)
Mercury
2001
1954
Teach Me Tonight
R&B (single)
Mercury
1999
1959
What a Diff'rence a Day Makes
traditional pop (single)
Mercury
1998
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame edit:
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed a song of Dinah Washington as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock.
Year Recorded
Title
Genre
1948
Am I Asking Too Much?
R&B
Honors and Inductions edit:
Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington is a 1964 album recorded by Aretha Franklin as a tribute.,
In 1993, the U.S. Post Office issued a Dinah Washington 29 cent commemorative postage stamp.,
In 2005, the Board of Commissioners renamed a park, near where Washington had lived in Chicago in the 1950s, Dinah Washington Park in her honor.,
In 2008, the city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Washington's birthplace, renamed the section of 30th Avenue between 15th Street and Kaulton Park "Dinah Washington Avenue." The unveiling ceremony for the new name took place on March 12, 2009, with Washington's son Robert Grayson and three of her grandchildren, Tracy Jones, Tera Jones, and Bobby Hill Jr., in attendance.,
Year
Title
Result
Notes
1993
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Inducted
Early Influences
1984
Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame
Inductedread less
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