Talk:Dinah Washington

Ambiguously racist comment
A previous author wrote: "What set Dinah Washington apart from her contemporaries was her extraordinary diction and phrasing. " This strikes me as racial insensitive and reminiscent of Joe Biden's comment of Barack Obama calling him "articulate and bright". If the author means her contemporaries are fellow African Americans, then the comment is certainly racist. If the author means fellow musicians, then the comment needs much more explanation and a citation. I am removing the comment for now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.223.226.5 (talk • contribs) 13:43, 5 July 2007‎ (UTC)


 * Wow, I sincerely hope this is a joke, as the comment does not even have the most vague of racist connotations. Algabal (talk) 10:53, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Would it be "racist" to comment favorably on Frank Sinatra's diction and phrasing? (66.162.249.170 (talk) 06:16, 15 November 2010 (UTC))

Biography
Queen of the Blues: A Biography of Dinah Washington gets lukewarm to negative reviews at amazon.com, but seems to be the only book available on Washington. Anyone know of another? Koyaanis Qatsi

I added "ASIN: 0688048463". What is an ASIN? -- Zoe

I think that's an ID amazon.com uses sometimes in place of an ISBN. Koyaanis Qatsi

I changed 'non-vocal chorusus' to 'wordless choruses' which I think is what was intended. (How can a chorus be 'non-vocal'?)

I own a Biography of her called Queen by Nadine CohodasYellowLE333 (talk) 22:24, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

Breadth and depth of recordings
Mention is made in the article of the many styles Ms Washington sang, but few strong examples in each category are given. Theres no mention of her landmark R&B recordings with Brook Benton. No mention of her performances at Newport, Rhode Island. Short mention of her tribute recording to Bessie Smith. 38.118.43.2


 * Well, Newport and Benton are at least mentioned now.  Wasted Time R 17:57, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Gay Icon Project
In my effort to merge the now-deleted list from the article Gay icon to the Gay icons category, I have added this page to the category. I engaged in this effort as a "human script", adding everyone from the list to the category, bypassing the fact-checking stage. That is what I am relying on you to do. Please check the article Gay icon and make a judgment as to whether this person or group fits the category. By distributing this task from the regular editors of one article to the regular editors of several articles, I believe that the task of fact-checking this information can be expedited. Thank you very much. Philwelch 22:20, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

A Performance Review Comment
Dinah has a smooth delivery on many songs of subtle sentiments.

Although one 1959 performance was very hard-hitting.

She sung Bessie Smith's "Electric Chair Blues."

What was she really saying through this performance?

Most likely "hey people, wake up, this is barbarism."

The message was probably lost on the majority of the vast, dense audience.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
It's not "The Platters' 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.'" The song is a pop standard dating back to the 1930's. The Platters' recording is merely (maybe) the best known. I have altered the text the reflect this.

I am positively sure Dinah Washington Attended Wendell Phillips High School located 39th Street between Giles Ave. & Prarie Ave. and not DuSable High School. She did I remember my mother telling me that she went to school with her and I Know for sure she went to Wendell Phillips. JES

Fair use rationale for Image:Washington1993.jpg
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BetacommandBot 14:49, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Charting hits
I've noticed a lot of Dinah's chart hits are missing from the mid-40s, up until 1955. I have no information on her chart listings before 1955, if anyone does, feel free to add them to the singles chart on Dinah's page. Thank you! Dottiewest1fan (talk) 03:53, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed
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What the hell is that opening sentence about?
The opening sentence is absolute rubbish. She is described as a "blues" singer before the word "jazz" even appears - that is not on. Regardless of her talent and ability to sing anything she was a "Jazz" vocalist. Look the best example I can offer (from the top of my head) as to why the intro needs to be changed is the UK artist Robbie Williams - would you say he was a Jazz or Pop artist? Remember that one of his biggest selling albums was an album of Jazz standards. The reason you wouldn't call him a Jazz vocalist first is because his main renown is as a "pop" vocalist.

If Sid Vicious sings My Way (which he did and it charted in the UK) would you call him a Jazz vocalist.

Therefore we can surmise it is not the material you sing but the way you sing it, the period in which it was sung and the definitions applied to the material by audiences whether contemporary or 50 years later. You could give her an Irish funeral dirge from the 18th century and Washington would still sound like a Jazz singer. Or how about the Miserere by Allegri - would that make her a gospel singer because its a religious piece of music. If she handled that powerful ascending motif well, the one which makes the hair on the back of your neck neck stand up (as the Miserere does and therefore was restricted by the Vatican to be performed only within its walls), would that mean that she's an expert at vocalizing Gregorian chant or the music of Hildegard of Bingen. No it bloody wouldn't.

She was versatile but she was a jazz singer - I'll give her the gospel tag in the intro if she released Gospel albums or regularly sung Gospel when in church. The "blues" an "pop" tags need to be in the main body of the article with refs to back it up - so a sentence (fictional example) would possibly go "At the height of her career Washington released a Gospel album" or maybe "Washington was a Jazz singer who's two and a half octave range and ability to "down-home" phrases allowed her to cross over into the Blues market" - its just a given that jazz vocalists have blues inflections and vice versa - same roots - a bit like listening to The Clancy Brothers and The Carter Family and claiming that the Clancy Brothers are great Country and Western singers and The Carter Family are great singers of Irish traditional song - which wouldn't be the truth. BTW if you are American that's exactly what you should be doing - listening to the Clancy Brothers and The Carter Family at the same time to hear the roots of Country music while also learning to recognize the differences (not being arrogant here I just like to hear the roots of all music including US Country music and like to promote that method to others).

Washington was all of the things said in the intro but she was a Jazz singer.

16:14, 1 May 2013 (UTC)


 * These genre categories are often contentious, but when in doubt we should go with what reliable sources say rather than with any individual editor's opinions. Allmusic - which is generally regarded as pretty reliable, even though it sometimes isn't on details - has her down as Blues, Jazz, R&B, Standards, Traditional Pop, Vocal Jazz, Jump Blues, Early R&B.  She certainly did sing both blues and pop (e.g. "A Rockin' Good Way") as well as jazz, and overall she performed a lot of music (maybe even most of her music) which would be difficult to categorise as jazz.  So, I'd expect to find some mention of genres other than jazz in the opening sentence.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 16:32, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
 * PS: The description of her as "Queen of the Blues" is one she gave herself - - and was taken up by others on her behalf.  Some called her the successor to Bessie Smith in that role.  One of her biographies was called Queen of the Blues.  So. it's not just one magazine calling her that - it was a well known and much-used epithet, and should be contained in the article.  Regarding her range of material, this rightly says that she excelled in "a range of musical genres, from R&B and jazz to blues and pop".  I think an appropriate opening to the article would be something like:"Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones (August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963), was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as 'the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s'. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of 'Queen of the Blues'. She is a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993."  Any thoughts?  Ghmyrtle (talk) 22:57, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Dinah Washington discography

 *  Support split - Discography section takes up close to half of the page, and should be split to a new article entitled Dinah Washington discography. --Jax 0677 (talk) 06:23, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

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Married seven, found dead by sixth
The article says she was married seven times but follows with her sixth husband finding her dead. 76.181.235.33 (talk) 11:01, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for pointing out the inconsistency. The number "six" was changed to "seven" back in August, without any explanation.  I've reverted that change.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:06, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Apparently you need to re-revert from seven back to six AND WATCH this time. Someone has a perverse sense of humor that needs to be curtailed. USConsLib (talk) 04:07, 25 March 2023 (UTC)
 * It currently says seven, which I think is correct, but there's a link to a report of her marriage to Dick Lane which says he's her sixth husband.
 * I'm changing "sixth" to "last", and adding "six" as an option for the number of her husbands. PaulBarden (talk) 22:23, 23 December 2023 (UTC)