Any self-respecting jazz musician would leap at the chance to record an after hours session with Dinah Washington. One of the finest musician’s singers, Washington demanded respect from her band and paid in return by giving her fellow players plenty of room for solos, on record or in concert.
Her Dinah Jams LP from 1954 isn’t just one of the finest jazz-meets-vocals dates, it’s one of the best jam sessions ever released. Listeners expecting a record of narcoleptic torch songs, however, may well be shocked by the dynamic range of this date, comprising ebullient stormers as well as slow blues. (Just because the band relaxes the rhythm certainly doesn’t mean they have to slow it down.)
The results of three sessions recorded one year apart, After Hours With Miss D featured a hand-picked band — including Clark Terry on trumpet and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis or Paul Quinichette on tenor, plus Washington’s rock-solid rhythm section of bassist Keter Betts, drummer Ed Thigpen, and usually pianist Junior Mance (who made his debut with Dinah on the first of these dates).
The first two selections are the best, the opener “Blue Skies” a studied introduction for all the principals (each of them heard in extended form on the eight-minute track), and the second a runaway train with Clark Terry’s hyper-inflated trumpet as the conductor and the rest of the band carried along for the ride. (AllMusic Review by John Bush)