Jazz Library

Dinah Washington was only 39 when she died of an accidental overdose of barbiturates in 1963. Yet in her short life she was one of the most successful of all jazz singers, also crossing into blues and pop territory. Gwyneth Herbert joins Alyn Shipton to pick the essential recordings by Dinah, starting with her bluesy repertoire of the mid-1940s and tracing her career as she became one of the finest interpreters of American popular song. The programme includes her collaborations with Quincy Jones and with the fourth of her eight husbands, Eddie Chamblee.