Excellent Bluesy & Jazzy Dinah

Out of all the seven box sets Mercury issued on Dinah Washington, this one is the best and I own four of the box sets. Dinah peaked as an artist during the mid to late 1950s, which is when this box set covers her songs. Dinah's often been bashed (unfairly) in the music press for going "pop" after the huge success of her 1959 single, "What A Difference A Day Makes", which was done in a violin and string-saturated style not uncommon for its time, but critics who watched and listened to Dinah over the years as a blues and jazz artist felt betrayed. Though Dinah's fans mostly loved whatever she recorded, the critics gave her grief.

This box set covers Dinah's last great jazz and blues recordings right before she hit "the big time" and went totally pop afterwards. Unlike the 2 box sets which come after this one, these arrangements still show Dinah in a bluesy-jazzy vein. The songs are a well-chosen lot (Dinah and her producers always had exquisite taste) and she sings the hell outta most of these selections, belting out a song that reminded many of Bessie Smith and yet capable of switching gears to a jazzy chanteuse mode in others. She does no wrong in almost every track. Even on a standard such as Gershwin's "Our Love Is Here to Stay", which was covered by just about every artist, is given new life by Dinah, who gives it a punch that others somehow missed. What a versatile artist she was, always bringing out the essence of each song, even if it meant exposing them in a raw, emotional light, but that was what separated her from the other gal singers. And this was not simply just a gal, Dinah was a wise, no nonsense mama, always putting her man in his place. We love her for it!

really shows dinah at teh peak of her career!

thisb 3 cdset contains many of dinah's besyt tracks made between 1956 and 1958.tthe arrangments are well prepared, even on some traxcks, dinah is acconmpan9iced by a choir. if you are a really big fan of dinah's, youll rea;lluy want this one. a rea;l taste of dinah's peak years at jazz/blues singing even if you are not a dinah wfan or are just starting yto get interesrted in her songs, then this set is thet key.