Southern Sirens with Laura Blackley

Listen to the show here:

In addition to Dinah Washington, you’ll also hear songs from Charlotte’s Robin Rogers, the Ellen James Society, Kat Edmonson, Hazeldine, Those Darlings, Rayna Gellert, Janis Martin, Asheville’s Shannon Whitworth, the Staples Singers, Ruth Brown, and the new release by Sarah Jaffey. Plus, a helping of “Southern Hospitality” is rolled out for Maria Muldaur.

Dinah Washington was born Ruth Lee Jones on August 29, 1924 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Shortly thereafter her family moved to Chicago, the city she always called home. Despite the fact that her first recording was “Evil Gal Blues” and that she will always be known as the”Queen of the Blues”, Dinah always strongly objected to the pigeon-holing. She preferred to describe her style as jazz-infused gospel. As a matter of fact, she was playing piano and singing duets with her mother at St. Luke’s Baptist Church before she was in her teens.

Dinah became known as a child prodigy and won a talent contest at the Regal Theater by singing “I Can’t Face the Music”. Influenced by Billie Holiday, she began performing in nightclubs at the age of fifteen- secretly, because of her age and her family’s resistance to secular music.

In 1940, at the age of sixteen, Dinah worked the big-time gospel circuit with Rev. C.L. Franklin (Aretha’s father), Roberta Martin, and Mahalia Jackson. After two years, she returned to the Chicago nightclub scene. Her obvious talent began to attract attention, and she was invited to join Lionel Hampton’s band in 1943, just before she turned twenty. Talent scouts and critics took notice, and she began to record R&B hits for small labels in 1945. Big-time label Mercury signed Dinah in 1946, and she amassed a top-notch catalog of recordings in the jazz and pop fields. She had her biggest hit in 1959 with “What a Difference a Day Makes” and followed it with some legendary duets with Brook Benton.

She was never an obedient servant to the written structure of a song, always altering the melody and meter to make it more her own. Quincy Jones colorfully described Washington’s style, saying she “could take the melody in her hand, hold it like an egg, crack it open, fry it, let it sizzle, reconstruct it, put the egg back in the box, back in the refrigerator and you would’ve still understood every single syllable.”

But the singer’s high-flying musical gifts were matched by her wild and extravagant personal life, fueled in part by her own deep-rooted insecurity. Married seven times, Washington battled with her weight for years. She heavily used numerous prescription medications, primarily for weight loss and insomnia. Even though she sang “I don’t need clothes or furs,” in “As Long As I’m In Your Arms”, she burned through her recording profits buying shoes, furs and automobiles in an effort to lift her spirits. She was often generous in sharing the spotlight with up-and-coming performers, but Dinah held herself in rather regal regard, often referring to herself in the third person as “Miss D”.

On the morning of December 14, 1963, Dinah’s eighth husband, Dick “Night Train” Lane, famed NFL defensive back, found Dinah non-responsive. She was later pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy showed a lethal combination of secobarbital and amobarbital had contributed to her untimely death at the age of 39. Her death was ruled an accidental overdose.

“Miss D” at her best: