This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Maybe it’s because most of the big-name pop and rock acts are hibernating. Maybe it’s because I spent the last month swinging to the Rat Pack Christmas album. Or maybe it’s just because they both start with the letters J and A. Whatever. All I know is I always seem to listen to a lot of jazz in January. Looks like this year is no exception — thanks mainly to a cornucopia of cool titles that landed in stores before the holidays. At least four respected labels — Blue Note, ECM, Impulse and Verve — have impressive and affordable new retrospectives or reissues on the racks right now. Even if you don’t know be-bop from doo-wop, I suggest you give one or two a try. Here’s a little primer to help you get into the swing on Dinah Washington:
WHO: A brassy, bluesy belter with a salty voice and a lifestyle to match, Washington — born Ruth Lee Jones — was one of jazz’s most versatile vocalists, equally at home with syrupy string-sweetened ballads, rollicking risque blues and middle-of-the-road pop.
WHEN: Dinah did a lotta living, jamming seven marriages into her 39 years and hundreds of recordings into a career that began with 1943’s Evil Gal Blues and ended when she accidentally overdosed on diet pills and booze in 1963.
WHAT YOU GET: That debut single, along with 19 other classics including the salacious New Blowtop Blues and, ahem, Big Long Slidin’ Thing — ostensibly about a trombone — along with the R&B gem I Don’t Hurt Anymore and her breakthrough pop hit What A Diff’rence A Day Makes.
WHERE SHE FITS IN: Right behind Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and the other original divas of soul.
