25 January 2022

Dinah Washington Forged Her Own Path – Phantom Dancer 25 January 2022

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.

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.

The Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV hosted by me, Greg Poppleton.

Enjoy a whole library of Phantom Dancer mixes online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 25 January at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/. This episode is a Phantom Dancer Classic which first went to air on 30 March 2021.

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 orchestra She 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. I

n 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’.

25 JANUARY PLAY LIST