”She wasn’t a jazz singer like Ella or Sarah. She didn’t scat. She didn’t sing around the lyrics or the melody so much. Yet her feeling for rhythm and the blues, and the very sound of her voice, were just as essential in jazz.” Radio presenter Michael Bourne’s assessment of Dinah Washington’s unique art serves well as an accurate epitaph on the short but memorable life of this much loved singer. She was the vocal favourite of so many musicians that it is hardly surprising Mike Hennessey and his guests were determined to place this sincere tribute on record. The biographical facts are well known ‐ or should be ‐ but they are worth reiterating for newcomers. Dinah Washington was born Ruth Lee Jones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on August 29th, 1924 (and for collectors of minutiae that date was Charlie Parker's fourth birthday). She was raised in Chicago, where she played piano accompanying a church choir. Then, in 1939, she won an amateur talent contest and three years later was spotted by agent Joe Glaser (Louis Armstrong’s guiding light) and, through Glaser, brought to the attention of Lionel Hampton. She worked with Hamp’s big band for three years but never made any records with the orchestra in the studio (Hamp’s contract with Decca at the time precluded the employment of singers on his records). However, while with Hamp, she did make the first titles under her own name for the burgeoning Keynote label (Lionel played piano and drums on the date under an alias) and may beheard on various recordings by the band playing ”live”, notably in Carnegie Hall in April 1945. In his autobiography, Hampton recalled the early days of Dinah with his band: ”...she was only about nineteen or twenty. That girl was so poor she was raggedy. She was dark ‐ the light‐skinned girls got all the attention in those days. She wasn’t pretty, and that was hard for a girl singer travelling with a bunch of guys. The guys were not kind to her. The story has been told many times, and it’s true, that the first time they saw her, they covered their heads!”. But Dinah could stop the show with the power of her singing and her personality. Hamp recalls: ”I had to put her down next to closing, because nobody and no one could follow her.” It was inevitable that Dinah would leave the orchestra and carve out her own career. She was always grateful to Lionel for his encouragement and for the lessons hetaught her about showmanship, but from 1946 until her death on December 14th, 1963 (the result of inadvertently mixing pep pills, diet tablets and alcohol) she was a star in her own right, arguably the first ”soul” singer before the term became fashionable. Her early days with achurch choir gave her a grounding in gospel, to which she added the raunchy rhythm‐and‐blues numbers as well as turning in some superb performances as a ballad singer. Mike Hennessey has been an admirer of Dinah Washington’s art for many years and when the opportunity to salute her on record occurred, he planned the tribute with care, waiting for the chances to employ the musicians he wanted. The two singers were well‐versed in the Dinah Washington ethos, although neither attempted anoutright copy. Jan Harrington hails from Cleveland, Ohio and has, like Dinah, roots in gospel music as well asthe blues. She sang both during her tours of the United States, adding country music and pop songs to her repertoire. She made several visits to Vietnam in the Seventies to entertain US troops stationed there and, in 1980, came to EurOpe, living first in Scandinavia (where she worked with men such as Phil Woods, Putte Wickman and pianist Per Husby) before moving to Germany. She echoes Dinah’s sentiments when she says, ”It is not enough just to sing ‐ you have to communicate to an audience in many ways and send them away feeling they've had agood time.” Lilly Thornton’s background isjazz. She was born in Wiesbaden in 1966 of an American father and Swiss mother, both of whom were jazz enthusiasts. She studied piano and classical singing in her late teens and continued her vocal studies with Rachel Gould at the Swiss Jazz School in Berne. Her sister, Simone (also a singer) encouraged her to take up singing as a,career and by the time she was 20, Lilly was confident enough to begin doing dates on her own with various jazz and soul bands as well as appearing in European jazz festivals. Dinah Washington is high on her list of vocal favourites, along with Sarah Vaughan, Bobby McFerrin and Al Jarreau. Authenticity has been added to this Dinah Washington salute by the appearance on several tracks of men who actually worked with Dinah. The reliable bass‐drums team of Keter Betts and Jimmy Cobb, both of whom had worked with “The Queen Of The Blues" on several occasions, were booked to appear with Jan and Mike for a short tour at the end of 1994. A further Washington connection was made with the addition of Nat Adderley on comet, A for Nat played with Dinah a few times, and Nat Adderley i although tenor saxophonist Billy Mitchell (ex Gillespie and Basie bands) never played or recorded with the Queen, his blues‐drenched work is certainly in keeping with the high level of tenor men who worked with Dinah ‐ men such as Wardell Gray, Paul Quinichette, Eddie Chamblee and Lucky Thompson. With the exception of ”Olé”, a feature for Keter Betts both arm and pizzicato (plus some intriguing Spanish effects), Harry Edison’s tune “Centerpiece” and the standard ”Just Friends”, all of the songs heard here come from the Washington repertoire, a fine balance of blues, jump tunes and standards. Jan Harrington clearly loves the ambiance of the occasion at the Erding concert and treats us to fine versions of two Leonard Feather tunes, originally recorded by Dinah at that very first record date for the Keynote label back in December 1943. "Evil Gal Blues” retains its wartime atmosphere as Jan tells us about her man and how she ”lost him to Uncle Sam”, while “Salty Papa” has a splendid blues vocal (complete with some interpolations from ”Every Day’) and some outstanding ”preaching” tenor from Mitchell. Nat Adderley, who plays most of his comet solos in mute and with restraint, duets with Jan on the enjoyable ’WillowWeep For Me”, providing the second voice and the scat interludes, The quintet rips into ”Just Friends” and “Centerpiece” with the controlled abandon of a regular working group, yet this was a band assembled just for the tour. Mike Hennessey told meof the pleasure he experienced in the musical company of such top‐level jazzmen. ”Playing piano with Keter Betts was marvellous,” he said. ”His time, intonation and choice of notes are perfect and with Jimmy Cobb on drums, you have one of the best bass‐drum teams I’ve ever known. Two days after Erding came the concert at Chemnitz, represented here by a gorgeous ”If I Had You”, with classic ballad tenor from Mitchell, tasteful work from Adderley and a sensitive piano chorus which continues and embellishes the mood. ”Makin’ Whoopee” is another memorable performance, this time by just Jan and the Hennessey‐led rhythm trio. Early in 1993, Jan and Mike met the American alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe in the studio at Sandhausen. Arthur erupted on to the jazz stage in the Seventies. He reached an international audience with his Columbia albums such as ”In The Tradition” and ”Lenox Avenue Breakdown” from his most impressive period on record. He is equally impressive here with his impassioned, Bird‐like two choruses on ”I Thought About You” sandwiched between Jan Harrington’s excellent vocals. Lilly Thornton's contributions to this Dinah Washington tribute reflect a more formal approach, due perhaps to her years of classical training. But the jazz feeling is implicit in everything she sings. For the final session Lilly brought along her bass player and drummer to join Hennessey in the re‐creation of the massive Dinah Washington hit ”What A Difference A Day Made”, which reached number nine in Billboard magazine’s “Honour Roll Of Hits” and remained 14weeks in the magazine’s ”Hot 100 of 1959”. There is a pleasing contrast between the up‐tempo treatment of “Love Walked In” and the sensitive approach to J. Fred Coots’s 1934 masterpiece, ”For All We KnoW’. Jan Harrington brings this sincere tribute programme to a close with, of course, ”Bye Bye Blues” on which everyone, with the exception of Keter Betts, takes asolo‘ The curtain comes down on ”Rue Chaptal”, one of those bebop tunes with a variety of titles (and sometimes composersl). In this case ”Royal Roost” and ”Tenor Madness” are two alternative names for this piece. But there is no confusion over the message; the spirit of Dinah Washington will live on for aslong asjazz is played. ‐ Alun Morgan