Song Saturday, Dinah washington

 

She was born Ruth Jones, on August 29, 1924, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and died on December 14, 1963, of an ‘accidental’ overdose of sleeping pills. She was the daughter of Ollie Jones and Alice Williams and married several times. She married John Young 1942-43, George Jenkins circa. 1949, Walter Buchanan 1950, Eddie Chamblee 1957, Raphael Campos 1957, Horatio Maillard 1959-60, Jackie Hayes 1960 and Richard Lane 1963 (not all marriages were officially confirmed). From those numerous marriages she had two children. She began her career by winning a talent contest at Chicago's Regal Theatre in 1938, she sang in the gospel circuit until 1943 when she left to perform in Chicago area nightclubs. She joined Lionel Hampton's orchestra in 1943 and recorded on Keynote label and on Apollo label. She began her solo career in 1946 and signed a contract with Mercury Records in 1948. Over the next decade she recorded over three hundred sides and in 1958 appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival. In 1959 she toured Europe and signed with the Roulette label in 1962. She also owned a Detroit restaurant and performed with Count Basie and Duke Ellington in 1963. Dinah was known as "The Queen" or "Miss D,"  one of the most versatile cross-over artists of the post World War era. Her gospel trained voice noted for its rhythmical precision and tonal clarity performed blues, jazz, and ballads with equal authority. Arnold Shaw, in his book Honkers and Shouters: Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues, stated "She had a flutelike voice, sinuous, caressing, and penetrating. Master of all devices of the blues and gospel shadings the bent notes, the broken notes, the slides, the anticipations, and the behind-the-beat notes--she handled them with intensity that came from her early church training