A CHEAP REMASTERING JOB

I agree with the reviewer who said that this was a bad remastering job, but DINAH WASHINGTON was born to do this tribute album to BESSIE SMITH ,so you'll still want it in your collection.Maybe some readers won't like my commentary, but DINAH might have been the most vicious jazz singer of her time ,but in her case it's a compliment.She probably was also the most blues inclined jazz singer.Maybe this is due to the fact that she married so many times.

Right Idea, Wrong Execution, But Still Worth Having........

The feedback on this Dinah release has been mixed, and mostly it's due to the questionable remastering job and also Dinah's back-up band for this release. The rickety tick IS annoying and first listens to this CD can turn away even the staunchiest Dinah fans. I was like that too in the beginning, but after repeated listens, Dinah's wonderful interpretations of Bessie's stuff and her fierce performance simply carried me over. Also, not all the tracks have that insulting rickety-tick drummning. On "If I Could Be With You..." "Fine Fat Daddy" and "Backwater Blues", she gives an old-fashioned jazz performance with a jazzy back-up. One wishes if only the entire session had been done with a more jazzy approach as opposed to the Dixieland ironic rickety-tick could this release been much more widely accepted. I don't know what happened on the remastering job, Dinah's voice is relegated to the left channel on most of the tracks. I'd like to think Universal/Verve did the best job they could. Keep in mind the original sessions were done in mono, so converting them to stereo adds the realism---warts and all. Sorry!