I Concentrate On You - Dinah Washington

Misery

I Concentrate On You
Dinah Washington
Mercury Records MG 20604
1960

From the back cover: Author Carl Van Vechten, writing about a meeting with Bessie Smith, noted, "This was no actress; no imitator of a woman's woes; there was no presence. It was the real thing – a women cutting her heart open with a knife until it was exposed for all of us to see, so that we suffered as she suffered, exposed with a rhythmic ferocity, indeed, which could hardly be borne."

There aren't any blues singers like Bessie in our time, but as Alberta Hunter (composer of Down Hearted Blues) has remarked, "No, they don't have blues singers now like they had then, except maybe Dinah Washington."

Just as Bessie Smith was the peerless leader in her time, so has Dinah Washington wholly mastered the blues competition on the contemporary scene. For soulful singing, Dinah can't be surpassed; the pointed definition by Van Vechten could apply to her. Raised in an environment (in Chicago) that emphasized the role of the church, she played piano for her church choir and came to understand the problems of man as only the music of the church can express them. In her years as a singer, she hasn't forgotten her heritage. She sings simply and directly, with an earthly quality that communicates instantly. Her singing is gimmickless, clear and warm.

Crazy Love
Fool That I Am
I Concentrate On You
Lord You Made Us Human
The Song Is Ended
Forgotten
Good Morning Heartache
While We're Young
Daybreak
I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
Show Me The Way
Misery