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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.
 

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