Bio: Dinah Washington

Singer Dinah Washington performed in many settings, but never as well as when singing jazz material.

Born Ruth Lee Jones in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Aug. 29, 1924, Washington sang as part of a Chicago gospel group, the Sara Martin Singers, while still a teenager. She won an amateur singing contest, and began working in Chicago nightclubs during the early 1940s. From there she went on to work with Lionel Hampton (1943-'46). Around this time she also started making her own records.

Washington developed a style equally suited to r&b as well as jazz, but it was the jazz material, principally that recorded during the mid '50s with jazz artists such as Clifford Brown, Max Roach and Clark Terry, that marked her as a definitive jazz singer. Many vocalists, whether singing jazz, blues, r&b or gospel, have been influenced by her unique phrasing and expression. Unfortunately, her stormy personal life cut her career too short. Washington died on Dec. 14, 1963.

Recordings include The Bessie Smith Songbook (EmArcy, 1958); Dinah Jams (EmArcy, 1954); The Complete Dinah Washington On Mercury (Mercury); Mellow Mama (Delmark, 1945); Sings Standards (Verve); The Fats Waller Songbook (Verve); and What A Difference A Day Makes (Mercury).

John Ephland