Hard on the heels of the Retrospective centenary tribute to Sarah Vaughan (reviewed in Jazzwise August 2024) comes a companion celebration of Dinah Washington. It’s welcome, as she is not as widely recognised as some of her contemporaries, but her early work (prior to her major label success) on the first CD here is remarkable. How many other singers discussed novocaine as an antidote to the pain of forced intercourse, a subject that perhaps very few of her contemporaries would have tackled? She does so in a song that also says ‘You thrill me when you drill me’.

This collection starts with her early work, which leads us to the very famous recordings of the late 1950s and early 60s. From her mid-1940s work with sextets and septets (including a version of ‘I Can’t Get Started’ that seems to suspend time) she effortlessly moves into big band territory with Chubby Jackson and members of the Herman orchestra on a fine ‘Stairway to the Stars’.

At the start of the 1950s she is hitting the charts, with ‘I Wanna be Loved’ and a memorable version of ‘Cold Cold Heart’, with Paul Quinichette’s tenor playing a fine counterpart to her voice. In the 1950s, high points come in her collaborations with drummer Jimmy Cobb (including ‘Trouble In Mind’ with a fine cameo from Ben Webster) but most notably with Quincy Jones.

By the time she cuts ‘Easy Living’ with his octet in 1955, her style is at its finest: relaxed, knowing, and utterly musical. On this track Quinichette again shines, and maybe this collection goes to show his partnership with Dinah was as significant as that of Billie and Lester?

The second CD goes on to include her best work until shortly before her death in 1963.