Skip to main content

Drinking Again

The consensus seems to be that Dinah Washington's mid-'50s records for the EmArcy label are better than the later ones she recorded for Roulette Records. Drinking Again, recorded in 1962 - the year before her untimely death - demonstrates that not all of the latter were without their merits. It's an album themed around "the melacholy air of unrequited love" as the sleeve-notes put it, ploughing a similar furrow to Sinatra's downbeat collections like In The Wee Small Hours and Only the Lonely. My copy of the album is a '60s UK mono pressing which, regrettably, isn't in the best of shape.

The musicians aren't credited - only the arranger and conductor Don Costa gets a mention. He and his un-named band do an excellent job variously laying on silky strings, astringent brass & mellow blues as the mood dictates. The bluesy numbers 'I Don't Know You Any More' and 'Baby Won't You Please Come Home' are highlights of the record for me.

Slightly past her very best she may have been, but Washington delivers vocals that are both emotive and tightly-controlled. Her diction as ever is a model of clarity, while her clipped, slightly staccato phrasing suggests an urgency which pulls against the songs' leisurely tempos. And when she leans into a longer or a louder note, there's no lack of power behind it.
 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All Wrapped Up

Here's another of the compilation cassettes I bought this summer, having taken home a Denon twin-deck hi-fi cassette player from the local charity shop. All Wrapped Up is a 1983 compilation of singles by The Undertones, with Side One filled with A-sides, and B-sides on Side Two. A cassette must be the least desirable medium for such an arrangement, with a long rewind required if one just wants to hear the hits repeatedly. The Undertones were unapologetically provincial and anti-fashionable, with their songs sharply-written slices of life that pointedly avoided any mention of politics, or of the then-continuing violence in their native Derry. My favourite tracks are the obvious choices: 'Teenage Kicks', 'Jimmy Jimmy', 'Here Comes the Summer', 'My Perfect Cousin' & 'Wednesday Week'. Their later singles showed increased sophistication but lack the some of the straightforward charm of their earlier work. The B-sides, not unexpectedly, are mo
Post a Comment
Read more

In Heat

Having acquired the soubriquet "the walrus of love", Barry White thereafter became something of a figure of fun, something that misled me (and presumably others) into disregarding his music. Only within the last few years have I begun to pay it more attention. After picking up a copy of his '74 album Can't Get Enough last summer, which I loved, I sought out some of the music by his protegés Love Unlimited. From a Discogs seller I ordered well-used copies of Under the Influence of... ('73) and In Heat ('74) for only £6.25. The only unappealing thing about In Heat is its awful title. The songs and the singing are strong; the arrangements rich & warmly enveloping. As one would expect from White, the thematic focus is firmly fixed on amatory matters. The opening number 'Move Me No Mountain' (the only one on the record not written by White) offers a refreshing rebuttal to the kind of lyrical hyperbole in songs like 'Ain't No Mountain High E
Post a Comment
Read more

Bananas Are Not Created Equal

I knew Jay Berliner's name from his contributions to Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and Charles Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady , so when I saw this curiously-titled LP at the local charity shop I was intrigued, and bought it even though I had no idea what kind of music it might contain. This was after the days when one could still buy records there for a pound apiece, but I don't think I paid more than a fiver for it. The music turned out to be an all-instrumental blend of funk, soul & jazz. Berliner's virtuoso lead guitar is only one of many attractions here. The band of first-rate session musicians behind him are all uniformly excellent too, and, crucially, sound like they're having a blast. Cornell Dupree's supporting guitar work, while less showy than Berliner's, is beautifully-judged, and the rhythm section is terrific. Arranger/conductor Wade Marcus was no slouch either, judging from the way everything comes together. Two of the funk
Post a Comment
Read more