"Actor: Dinah Washington"

• Jazz On A Summer's Day | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-4.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The 1959 Newport Jazz Festival was a true musical watershed, as Jazz on a Summers Day reveals. This 75-minute film captures an event poised on the cusp of a new era, as the cool jazz of Jimmy Guiffre and the effortless scat of Anita ODay intermingle with the hard bop of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and the smouldering fusion overtones of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Theres a crisp contribution from Chuck Berry, a typically feel-good set from Louis Armstrong--including a hilarious duo with Jack Teagarden--and, as evening shades into night, a heartfelt performance from Mahalia Jackson, closing with a melting rendition of "The Lords Prayer". Bert Stern has assembled all these and more into a satisfying sequence, complete with footage of an enthusiastic and informal audience. Shots of the yachting line-up from the Americas Cup round out a blissful and what now seems blissfully naïve occasion. On the DVD: Colour picture quality has worn well, whereas sound has deteriorated notably at times: Thelonius Monks quarter-tones could easily be a semitone flat! Even so, its worth putting up with this to enjoy a tour through music-making whose relaxed spontaneity would be impossible to emulate today. --Richard Whitehouse

• Dinah Washington - the Swing Era | DVD | (03/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  One of the most beloved vocalists of the past century DINAH WASHINGTON (1924-1963) was justly celebrated for her very personal singing style that was at home in all types of music be it blues jazz R&B or pop. In this respect she was gifted with an unmistakable salty high-pitched voice that was perfect for her complete clarity of fiction and her phrasing with strong roots in the blues. An artist who led a very turbulent personal life DINAH WASHINGTON was known for her no-nonsense unsentimental yet always moving renditions centred on the universal subject of lost love. It should come as no surprise that her unique vocal style exerted huge influences on jazz and R&B singers such as Esther Phillips Nancy Wilson and Diane Schuur.Gathering material from early in her career this video offers a fascinating picture of the young DINAH WASHINGTON at a time when she was mainly concentrating on jazzy torrid R&B numbers shortly after she had been discovered by bandleader Lionel Hampton. Featuring different clips and appearances (some of them at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theatre!) this is an essential document that will surely surprise and fascinate the many fans of the late great DINAH WASHINGTON. The DVD has been completed with a selection of soundies from Martha Davis Ruth Brown Dorothy Dandridge Sister Rosetta Tharpe and other female vocalists from the Forties and Fifties.(Includes 22 songs.)