First Issue: The Dinah Washington Story (The Original Recordings) CD

FIRST ISSUE contains 46 tracks presented in roughly chronological order beginning with Dinah Washington's first recordings for Keynote with Lionel Hampton in 1944 and concluding with her Mercury tracks from 1961. This 2-CD set includes never-before-published photos by Chuck Stewart, plus liner notes and annotations by jazz historian Chris Albertson.

Dinah Washington Story 2 CD

Compilation producer: Chris Albertson.

Personnel includes: Dinah Washington, Brook Benton (vocals); Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone); Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (tenor saxophone); Maynard Ferguson, Clifford Brown, Doc Severinsen, Quincy Jones, Clark Terry (trumpets); Mitch Miller (oboe); Terry Gibbs (vibraphone); Lionel Hampton (vibraphone, drums); Wynton Kelly, Beryl Booker (piano); Jackie Davis (organ); George Morrow, Keter Betts (bass); Max Roach, Ed Thigpen (drums).

Producers include: Quincy Jones, Hal Mooney, Clyde Otis, Bob Shad, Leonard Feather.

Entertainment Weekly (7/16/93, p.59) - "...Wisely emphasizing the jazz-oriented material and small-band settings that best suited her cynically sophisticated style, FIRST ISSUE is marred only by some really annoying surface noise..." - Rating: A-
Musician (10/93, p.93) - "...[FIRST ISSUE] neatly encapsulates [Dinah Washington's] achievements...every style is represented here, and her force-of-nature approach is seldom less than magical..."