21 September 2021
(Until 21 September)Dinah Washington Forged Her Own Path – Phantom Dancer 21 September 2021
Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show
Dinah Washington, The Queen of the Blues, the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature. This is a repeat Phantom Dancer because of the current Covid lockdown in Sydney.As an artist, she was one of the most beloved and controversial singers of the mid-20th century.- Beloved, because she had a great voice.
- Controversial, because she didn’t seek approval from ‘the gatekeepers’. And as you’ll hear in her Birdland radio broadcast on this week’s Phantom Dancer, she didn’t hold back from telling radio announcers to shut up or stop being corny.
DINAH
Dinah Washington was the stage name of Ruth Lee Jones.She was a jazz singer but also sang blues, R&B, and pop music.As a child she sang gospel music in church and played piano, directing her church choir in her teens and sang lead with the first female gospel singers formed by Sallie Martin, co-founder of the Gospel Singers Convention. She joined the gospel choir after she won an amateur contest at Chicago’s Regal Theater, singing, ‘I Can’t Face the Music’.HAMPTON
At 15, she started singing in clubs. By 1941–42 she was performing at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago 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. Club owner 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 downstairs room. Sherman gave her her stage name.Lionel Hampton came to hear Dinah at the Garrick and invited her to join his orchestraShe made her recording debut singing Evil Gal Blues, written by Leonard Feather (who wrote Blow Top Blues you’ll hear Dinah sing in this week’s show, live on 1952 radio) and backed by Hampton and musicians from his band. Both that record and its follow-up, ‘Salty Papa Blues’, made the Billboard “Harlem Hit Parade” in 1944.In December 1945 she made a series of twelve recordings for Apollo Records, 10 of which were issued, featuring the Lucky Thompson All Stars.She stayed with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra until 1946.SOLO
Her first solo recording, Fats Waller’s ‘Ain’t Misbehavin”, was another hit. Between 1948 and 1955, she had 27 R&B top-10 hits, making her one of the most popular and successful singers of the period.‘Am I Asking Too Much?’ (1948) and ‘Baby Get Lost’ (1949) reached Number 1 on the R&B chart. Her version of Johnny Green’s 1930s hit, ‘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, including last week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist, Clifford Brown, Clark Terry, Cannonball Adderley and Ben Webster.In 1950, Dinah Washington performed at the sixth avalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Also featured on the same day were Lionel Hampton, PeeWee Crayton’s Orchestra, Roy Milton and his Orchestra plus Tiny Davis and Her Hell Divers. 16,000 were reported to be in attendance and the concert ended early because of a fracas while Lionel Hampton played ‘Flying High’.Washington returned to perform at the twelfth Cavalcade of Jazz also at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles in 1956. Performing that day were Little Richard, The Mel Williams Dots, Julie Stevens, Chuck Higgin’s Orchestra, Bo Rhambo, Willie Hayden & Five Black Birds, The Premiers, Gerald Wilson and His 20-Piece Recording Orchestra and Jerry Gray and his Orchestra.In 1959, she had her first top ten pop hit, with a version of ‘What a Diff’rence a Day Makes’. She followed it up with a version of Irving Gordon’s ‘Unforgettable’ and then two highly successful duets in 1960 with Brook Benton, ‘Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)’, which you’ll hear on this week’s show from a 1960 aircheck and ‘A Rockin’ Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)’. Her last big hit was ‘September in the Rain’, in 1961.She won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance, 1959, for ‘What a Diff’rence a Day Makes’.30 MARCH PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM SydneyLISTEN ONLINECommunity Radio Network Show CRN #510 | ||
107.3 2SER Tuesday 21 September 202112:04 – 2:00pm (+9 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pmNational Program5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am2SEA Eden Monday 3 – 4am2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4pm2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4pm3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 – 9pm1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm4RPH Brisbane Sunday 3 – 4am7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 – 6am3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm | ||
Set 1 | One Night Stand Radio | |
Artistry in Rhythm (theme) + I Know That You Know | Stan Kenton Orchestra | ‘One Night Stand’Cafe RougeHotel Pennsylvania NYCAFRS Re-broadcast27 Sep 1945 |
I’m In Love With Someone | Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Glagys Tell | ‘One Night Stand’Panther RoomHotel ShermanChicagoAFRS Re-broadcastMar 1944 |
Poinciana | Jan Savitt Orchestra | ‘One Night Stand’Palladium Ballroom HollywoodAFRS Re-broadcast4 Oct 1945 |
Set 2 | Jimmy Grier | |
Music in the Moonlight (theme) + Just Friends | Jimmy Grier Orchestra (voc) Dick Webster | Cocoanut GroveAmbassador HotelTRANSCORadio Transcription1932 |
Save The Last Dance For Me | Jimmy Grier Orchestra (voc) Donald Novis | Cocoanut GroveAmbassador HotelTRANSCORadio Transcription1932 |
The More You Hurt Me The More You Make Me Care + Music in the Moonlight (theme) | Jimmy Grier Orchestra (voc) Margaret Lawrence | Cocoanut GroveAmbassador HotelTRANSCORadio Transcription1932 |
Set 3 | 1950s Jazz Radio | |
Open + Without a Word of Warning | Arnett Cobb | ‘Stars in Jazz’BirdlandWNBC NBC NY2 Jul 1952 |
Open + Small Hotel / All The Things You Are / Rose Room | Larry Green | Starlight RoofHotel ChaseKMOX CBS St Louis1958 |
Open + Too Marvelous | Erroll Garner | Basin StreetWCBS CBS NYC6 May 1956 |
Set 4 | Dinah Washington | |
No Love, No Nothin’ | Dinah Washington (voc) Lionel Hampton Orchestra | ‘One Night Stand’Traianon BallroomSouthgate CaAFRS Re-broadcast16 Jun 1944 |
Mixed Emotions + Blow Top Blues | Dinah Washington | ‘The Birdland Show’WJZ ABC NYC21 Jun 1952 |
You’ve Got What It Takes | Dinah Washington and Brook Benton | AircheckWKBW Buffalo NY1960 |
Set 5 | Erskine Hawkins Commercial Discs | |
Rockin’ Rollers’ Jubilee | Erskine Hawkins Orchestra | Comm RecNew York City12 Sep 1938 |
No Soap | Erskine Hawkins Orchestra | Comm RecNew York City14 May 1939 |
A Study in Brown | Erskine Hawkins Orchestra | Comm RecNew York City20 Oct 1938 |
I Hadn’t Anyone Till You | Erskine Hawkins Orchestra (voc) Dolores Brown | Comm RecNew York City20 Dec 1939 |
Set 6 | 1930s Swing Radio | |
Dixieland Band | Benny Goodman Orchestra (voc) Helen Ward | Palomar BallroomKFI NBC Red22 Aug 1935 |
You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth | Bunny Berrigan Orchestra | Paradise RestaurantWABC CBS NY10 Apr 1938 |
Kiss Me Again | Bunny Berrigan Orchestra (voc) Gail Reese | Paradise RestaurantWABC CBS NY10 Apr 1938 |
You Do The Darndest Things, Baby | Count Basie Orchestra (voc) Jimmy Rushing | ChatterboxHotel William PennWCAE NBC Red Pittsburgh10 Jan 1937 |
Set 7 | Dorsey Brothers Orchestra 1956 | |
Intro + Song of India | Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra | Cafe RougeHotel StatlerWRCA NBC NY1956 |
Ridin’ Around in the Rain | Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra (voc) Dolly Houston | Cafe RougeHotel StatlerWRCA NBC NY1956 |
Sunny Side of the Street | Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra (voc) Lynn Roberts | Cafe RougeHotel StatlerWRCA NBC NY1956 |
Just For Taking Bows | Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra | Cafe RougeHotel StatlerWRCA NBC NY1956 |
Set 8 | Carson Robinson Buckaroos | |
Careless Love (theme) + Home on the Range | Carson Robinson Buckaroos | ‘Ford RandG Used Cars’Radio Transcription1939 |
Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie + Down on the Levee | Carson Robinson Buckaroos | ‘Ford RandG Used Cars’Radio Transcription1939 |
Goin’ Back to my Good Ol’ Texas Home + Golden Slippers | Carson Robinson Buckaroos | ‘Ford RandG Used Cars’Radio Transcription1939 |
Wabash Moon + Boots and Saddles + Close | Carson Robinson Buckaroos | ‘Ford RandG Used Cars’Radio Transcription1939 |
