Dinah '62

AMG Review of Dinah '62

John Bush
All Music Guide

The first of five LPs Dinah Washington recorded for Roulette during her last year and a half of life, Dinah '62 finds one of the foremost interpreters in vocal jazz treading merrily through a set of standards informed by Fred Norman's modern and commercially slanted ig-band arrangements. Despite a few trad vocal backgrounds, most of these charts never overwhelm the songs or Washington's performances, and sometimes add to them; this version of the decades-old "Red Sails in the Sunset" benefits from its earthy electric guitar and organ. The singer brings a lifetime of experience to these songs, carrying the soporific world-weariness of Johnny Mercer's "Drinking Again" but then skating rompishly over the light /p>

ovelty "Destination Moon." Washington is far more willing to indulge in histrionics than earlier in her career, but still exhibits remarkable control over her vocalizing, whether light or forceful.