Swingin' Miss 'D' [Bonus Tracks]

Performer: Dinah Washington/Quincy Jones Orchestra
Producer: Bob Shad
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Dinah Washington (vocals). Quincy Jones's Orchestra: Quincy Jones (conductor); Hal McKusick (alto saxophone, flute); Anthony Ortega (alto saxophone); Jerome Richardson, Lucky Thompson (tenor saxophone); Danny Bank (baritone saxophone); Don Elliott (trumpet, mellophone, vibraphone, xylophone, bongo); Bernie Glow, Jimmy Maxwell, Ernie Royal, Doc Severinsen, Charlie Shavers, Clark Terry, Nick Travis, Joe Wilder (trumpet); Jimmy Cleveland, Urbie Green, Quentin Jackson (trombone); Tommy Mitchell (bass trombone); Clarence "Sleepy" Anderson (piano); Barry Galbraith (guitar); Milt Hinton (bass); Jimmy Crawford, Osie Johnson (drums). Includes liner notes by Brian Priestly & John Wilson. This is part of Verve's Master Edition series. Personnel: Dinah Washington (vocals); Barry Galbraith (guitar); Hal McKusick (flute, alto saxophone); Anthony Ortega (clarinet, alto saxophone); Jerome Richardson, Lucky Thompson (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Danny Bank (bass clarinet, baritone saxophone); Don Elliott (trumpet, vibraphone, xylophone, bongos); Clark Terry, Doc Severinsen, Ernie Royal, Joe Wilder, Bernie Glow, Jimmy Maxwell, Nick Travis, Charlie Shavers (trumpet); Jimmy Cleveland, Quentin Jackson, Urbie Green (trombone); Tommy Mitchell (bass trombone); Clarence "Sleepy" Anderson (piano, celesta); Jimmy Crawford , Osie Johnson (drums). Liner Note Authors: John S. Wilson ; Brian Priestley. Recording information: New York, NY (06/25/1956-12/06/1956). Editor: Peter Pullman. Photographers: Howard; Chuck Stewart. Arrangers: Ernie Wilkins; Quincy Jones; Benny Golson. Dinah Washington had everything you could ask for in a singer--pitch, phrasing, diction, savvy, romanticism, humor, a voice golden or guttural, you name it. She was utterly comfortable in whatever style was called for that day, whether jazz, R&B, blues or pop. Her versatility is readily apparent on the series of classy "jazz" albums she recorded for Emarcy/Mercury from 1954 through 1959, till the enormous success of "What A Difference A Day Made" inspired Mercury to try to force her into a purely hit-making mold. THE SWINGIN' MISS "D" was recorded in 1956 with 23-year-old Quincy Jones arranging. Jones was already an experienced hand with Dinah, since he wrote the charts for her lyrical FOR THOSE IN LOVE in 1954. As the full title states, MISS "D" is an altogether different affair--upbeat and crisply arranged, with Washington turning in one exhilarating tour de force performance after another. Expectedly, there are also exquisite ballad performances here like "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye," "I'll Close My Eyes" and the newly-written "Never Let Me Go." But it's the hard-driving charts (surperbly restored in a Verve Master Edition) that show Miss D to such advantage on this particular day. Dinah Washington was accompanied by an orchestra organized and conducted by Quincy Jones on this 1957 album, and she was singing to arrangements mostly written by the young bandleader, swing charts of pop standards by the likes of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and Duke Ellington. The result had much in common with the swing albums of Frank Sinatra in the same period, especially because Jones' arrangements were heavily influenced by Billy May and Nelson Riddle. Sinatra's records were regarded as "pop, " of course, and Washington's, at least when released on the EmArcy subsidiary of Mercury Records, as "jazz, " but her precise articulation and attention to lyrical meaning left little room for improvisation, and while Jones allowed for brief solos from a band that included Charlie Shavers, Clark Terry, Urbie Green, and Milt Hinton, the jazz categorization was actually arbitrary. Whatever musical genre you assign it to, however, this is an excellent Washington album. For the 1998 reissue, Verve has added seven bonus tracks recorded around the same time and with much the same personnel, though they were intended as singles and thus are inferior contemporary tunes. Often, however, Washington sounds more comfortable and enthusiastic on these pop and R&B songs than she does on the standards. [The CD was also released with six bonus tracks.] ~ William Ruhlmann

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