This is from the movie Jazz on a Summer’s Day, about the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958. That’s Terry Gibbs on vibes and Urbie Green on trombone. Dinah had beautiful enunciation, beautiful phrasing, beautiful melodic embellishments, and a beautiful voice that goes right to one’s heart. She did jazz, blues, gospel, pop, r & b, and you name it. She was a feisty and earthy woman and very independent, not at all shy and retiring. She married seven times. I knew a manicurist of hers who attested to her temper and gave my wife and me a dress that Miss Dinah had given her. Her music is what counts. That’s her legacy.

The Best of Michael S. Rozeff