Queen

Zusatztext The Queen: God bless her. Anyone who loved Dinah Washington as I did will appreciate this book by Nadine Cohodas! which beautifully documents the joys and sorrows of the life of this lady who was a peer of her contemporaries Ella Fitzgerald! Sarah Vaughan! and Billie Holliday. --George Wein! author of Myself Among Others and founder of the Newport Jazz Festival Dinah Washington died at thirty-nine! but packed so much life and incident into every moment it's a wonder that Nadine Cohodas could sort it out; the marital adventures alone might have daunted a less avid biographer. Nor does she slight her music. Dinah could make every kind of song vital and personal! no matter the contextjazz! blues! swing! pop! r&b! or r&r. Cohodas captures the Queen in all her obstinate spitfire glory. --Gary Giddins! author of Weather Bird and Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams Informationen zum Autor Nadine Cohodas is the author of Strom Thurmond and the Politics of Southern Change! The Band Played Dixie: Race and the Liberal Conscience at Ole Miss! and Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records! which was a New York Times Notable Book of 2000 and inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2002 as a classic of blues literature. She lives in Washington! D.C. Klappentext Queen is the landmark biography of the brief! intensely lived life and soulful music of the great Dinah Washington. A gospel star at fifteen! she was discovered by jazz great Lionel Hampton at eighteen! and for the rest of her life was on the road! playing clubs! or singing in the studio--making music one way or another. Dinah's tart and heartfelt voice quickly became her trademark; she was a distinctive stylist! crossing over from the "race" music category to the pop and jazz charts. Known in her day as Queen of the Blues and Queen of the Juke Boxes! Dinah was regarded as that rare "first take" artist! her studio recordings reflecting the same passionate energy she brought to the stage. As Nadine Cohodas shows us! Dinah suffered her share of heartbreak in her personal life! but she thrived on the growing audience response that greeted her signature tunes: "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes!" "Evil Gal Blues!" and "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)!" with Brook Benton. She made every song she sand her own. Dinah lives large in these pages! with her seven marriages; her penchant for clothes! cars! furs! and diets; and her famously feisty personality--testy one moment and generous the next. This biography! meticulously researched and gracefully written! is the first to draw on extensive interviews with family members and newly discovered documents. It is a revelation of Dinah's work and her life. Cohodas captures the Queen in all her contradictions! and we hear in this book the voice of a natural star! born to entertain and to be loved. PROLOGUE "George Gershwin wouldn't know his own song when I'm through with it. I can't stay hidebound to any melody." DINAH WASHINGTON It was a Saturday night in February 1961 on Chicago's South Side. The patrons at Roberts Show Lounge were in a festive moodthe men in sharp business suits, the women dressed somewhere between Sunday church and New Year's Eve. A few whites were scattered among the tables; the rest were black Chicagoans waiting expectantly for the show to begin even though most of them had seen the star attraction many times. That didn't matter. When Dinah Washington was in town, the music was always good and always different. No one knew when something unusual might happen. What would she sing? What would she wear? What was new in the offstage life that raised eyebrows and made headlines? Dinah had just married her sixth husband, a slight, handsome actor twelve years her junior. But it was a good bet she'd hav...

Autorentext
Nadine Cohodas is the author of Strom Thurmond and the Politics of Southern Change, The Band Played Dixie: Race and the Liberal Conscience at Ole Miss, and Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records, which was a New York Times Notable Book of 2000 and inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2002 as a classic of blues literature. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Klappentext
Queen is the landmark biography of the brief, intensely lived life and soulful music of the great Dinah Washington.

A gospel star at fifteen, she was discovered by jazz great Lionel Hampton at eighteen, and for the rest of her life was on the road, playing clubs, or singing in the studio--making music one way or another.

Dinah's tart and heartfelt voice quickly became her trademark; she was a distinctive stylist, crossing over from the "race" music category to the pop and jazz charts. Known in her day as Queen of the Blues and Queen of the Juke Boxes, Dinah was regarded as that rare "first take" artist, her studio recordings reflecting the same passionate energy she brought to the stage. As Nadine Cohodas shows us, Dinah suffered her share of heartbreak in her personal life, but she thrived on the growing audience response that greeted her signature tunes: "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes," "Evil Gal Blues," and "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)," with Brook Benton. She made every song she sand her own.

Dinah lives large in these pages, with her seven marriages; her penchant for clothes, cars, furs, and diets; and her famously feisty personality--testy one moment and generous the next. This biography, meticulously researched and gracefully written, is the first to draw on extensive interviews with family members and newly discovered documents. It is a revelation of Dinah's work and her life. Cohodas captures the Queen in all her contradictions, and we hear in this book the voice of a natural star, born to entertain and to be loved.

Leseprobe
PROLOGUE

"George Gershwin wouldn’t know his own song when I’m through with it. I can’t stay hidebound to any melody."
—DINAH WASHINGTON 

It was a Saturday night in February 1961 on Chicago’s South Side. The patrons at Roberts Show Lounge were in a festive mood—the men in sharp business suits, the women dressed somewhere between Sunday church and New Year’s Eve. A few whites were scattered among the tables; the rest were black Chicagoans waiting expectantly for the show to begin even though most of them had seen the star attraction many times.

That didn’t matter. When Dinah Washington was in town, the music was always good and always different. No one knew when something unusual might happen. What would she sing? What would she wear? What was new in the offstage life that raised eyebrows and made headlines?

Dinah had just married her sixth husband, a slight, handsome actor twelve years her junior. But it was a good bet she’d have a story about the good-looking man who’d caught her eye the other day. She might tell a few jokes, too. And if the patrons were noisy when she sang, Dinah’s sharp tongue would silence them. It was grand to watch as a spectator, though less inviting to be on the other end of her momentary annoyance.

Shortly after ten the announcer came over the loudspeaker: “Ladies and gentlemen, Miss D—Dinah Washington.”

She walked to the microphone with a slow, confident gait, sizing up this night’s audience as they took her in from their seats. She was just over five feet but seemed much taller. It wasn’t the high-heeled dress shoes but her command of the space and the moment. She turned to the band and signaled the key. The piano player hit the opening notes. The bass and drums came in a split second later, and Dinah was off. She opened upbeat, then sang some ballads, finally some blues, first the bawdy tunes and then the ones that made her cry with those lines about love gone sour and lif…

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