Queen of the Blues
5
By Frances Perkins
She was certainly worthy of her title, “Queen of the Blues”, and this album is as fine an example as any. This was recorded towards the end of Dinah’s career in 1962, and the instrumentation is considerably more balanced than on her earlier blues focused album (which covered Bessie Smith). Here she sings soulfully and in good form, while the band backs her up tastefully. Ms. Washington’s ability to convey emotions in her delivery, particularly lonesomeness, longing and despair while articulating a story is quite impressive. While some feel the edginess to her singing near the end of her life detracted in certain ways from her overall musical package, that criticism isn’t well founded as she still had superb control and arguably a tone unmatched in earlier years. Nothing sounded finer at that time than the blues numbers, which you can enjoy here.
