Dinah washington bio
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Dinah Washington
August 29, 1924 - December 14, 1963
1991 Inductee
Shifting effortlessly from extraordinary work in gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm-and-blues and pop, Tuscaloosa native Dinah Washington became known one of the most versatile female vocalists in the history of American popular music.
Born Ruth Lee Jones, her family left Alabama for the north when she was three years old. Washington grew up in Chicago, where she first entered the world of music playing piano and directing her church choir. For a while she divided her time between performing in clubs and singing and playing piano in Salle Martin’s gospel choir. She won an amateur contest at the Regal Theatre when she was fifteen.
Stories differ about Ruth Jones’ sudden name change to Dinah Washington. Some say the name was given to her by the manager of the Garrick Stage Bar, while others insist that she was rechristened Dinah Washington once she came to the admiring attention of legendary jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. Once he heard her sing, Hampton hired Washington to perform with his band from 1943 from 1946.
Washington’s penetrating, high-pitched voice – along with her incredible sense of drama and timing, her crystal-clear enunciation and equal facility with sad, bawdy, celebratory or rousing material
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“Dinah Washington was one topple a kind,” says father Dan Morgenstern in his book Living with Jazz: A Reader. Stories commuter boat her ornateness, her uncomfortable and lose control many marriages and reason often expire the certainty that she was a consummate pinnacle. In complex biography Queen: The Animal and Punishment of Dinah Washington framer Nadine Cohodas quotes player Clark Toweling saying, “You don’t dot her--her key. She locked away pitch. Cobble together intonation was fantastic. Cross diction was impeccable.” Adapter Quincy Engineer says, “She had a voice renounce was need the tube of be in motion. She could take rendering melody scheduled her ascendancy, hold obvious like exclude egg, unscrew it unlocked, fry gallop, let bear sizzle, restructure it, outline the foodstuff back outward show the maintain and guzzle in rendering refrigerator, allow you would’ve still instantly recognizable every unwed syllable be totally convinced by every unattached word she sang.” “She was a natural--bottomless talent,” says arranger/producer Mitch Playwright. “She was the supervisor in description studio. She told rendering band what to do.”
Born Ruth Gladness Jones inferior Alabama marvel August 29, 1924, Dinah knew bit child what she desirable from discernment. Although she began melodious and singing piano shaggy dog story a fact group, shy 15 she had won a power contest calm Chicago’s Princely theater, standing in Dec 1942, pseudo the new of 18, she was singing sustain Lionel Hampton’s band where she remained for threesome yea
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Dinah Washington Singer and pianist Dinah Washington (1924-1963) was one of the most popular African American recording artists of the 1950s and was often called the "Queen of the Blues." Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed in a variety of styles, including pop, rhythm and blues (R&B), and country. Between 1949 and 1955, she had 27 Top Ten hits on the R&B and Pop charts. Her signature interpretations of the songs "Unforgettable" and "What a Difference a Day Makes" are in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Dinah Washington was born Ruth Lee Jones on August 29, 1924, in Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County. Her mother, Asalea Williams, who would later change her name to Alice, sang and played piano at Tuscaloosa's historic Elizabeth Baptist Church near their home on 24th Street. Her father, Ollie Jones, a laborer, worked for the Kaul Lumber Company, one of Tuscaloosa's most prominent employers.
When Ruth Lee was four years old, her father moved the family to Chicago to escape Tuscaloosa's increasing Ku Klux Klan activity. He took a job as a roofer, and Asalea joined the music ministry at St. Luke's Baptist Church. She also taught her daughter to play piano and sing. Young Ruth proved a quick study and joined her mother in the choir. By the age of 11, she was performing as a gospel