Blues and Dinah Washington
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This paper is an examination of the life of blues singer Dinah Washington, who had a strong influence on the development of American rhythm and blues. Born Ruth Jones, she changed her name to one she believed would be more marketable, began singing professionally in her teens, and cut her first record at 19. Known as the "Queen of the Blues," she eventually showed her versatility with virtually any type of repertoire. She was married numerous times, and her tumultuous personal life included addictions to drugs and alcohol, leading to her untimely death at 39. Nevertheless, her musical talents made her a powerful success and a strong influence on later singers, especially Aretha Franklin, Esther Phillips, Nancy Wilson, and Ernestine Anderson. The warmth of her voice combined with distinctive phrasing to turn a variety of standard ballads into new compositions, creating distinctive and inspiring music. Ruth Lee Jones was born August, 1924, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; since the births of black babies frequently went unrecorded in the South, the exact date has been noted as August 8, August 22, and August 29. Her father, Oldie Jones, was a gambler who was frequently away from home. Her mother, Alice Williams Jones, worked as a domestic, which also kept her from spending much time with Ruth and her brother, Harold. Around 1927 or 1928, the family moved to Chicago, following a sizable black migration that was occurring in America at that time; Jim Haskins notes, "Between 19
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duced four blues hits. She left Hampton's orchestra before she had turned 21, to concentrate on singing the blues and record with Apollo Records, recordings that were well-received: "The descriptive words used by critics were instructive: velvet, silken."
In the summer of 1946, she married drummer George Jenkins and continued her career singing in small clubs and honkytonks across the country; in 1947, she gave birth to George Jenkins, Jr. and shortly afterward divorced his father because of his drug habit. Her second child, Robert Grayson, Jr., known as Bobby, was born the following summer; she had married his father, whom she had known from childhood, as soon as her second divorce was finalized.
Although now a star, she was restricted, by singing only the blues, to what was then known as the "race" market. In 1949, Billboard changed the term from "race records" to "rhythm and blues," which "described a particular form of urban black music. Dinah had the distinction of being among the first artists on that new chart." She married her fourth husband, bass player Walter Buchanan, though this marriage also did not last long, and continued to record and perform to increasing success. Sally Plaksin quotes Ebony's descr
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Approximate Word count = 1613
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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