Dakota Staton
Dakota Staton (born June 3, 1930 Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , † April 10, 2007 in New York City ) was an American jazz singer who had her greatest success in the 1950s and 1960s. She also appeared at times as Aliyah Rabia .
Live and act
As a child, Staton performed dance and song numbers with her sisters, attended George Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh and studied music at the Filion School of Music in her hometown, where she was a member of the swing band "Kadets". In 1946 she appeared in the show “Fantastic Rhythm” and from 1948 played regularly in the jazz club “Hill District” with the “ Joe Wespray Orchestra”. In the 1950s she toured nightclubs in the Midwest ( Detroit , Indianapolis , Cleveland , St. Louis ), with a long engagement in Detroit's "Flame Show Bar".
When she sang in the nightclub "Baby Grand" in Harlem, she heard the producer Dave Cavanaugh of Capitol Records , where she released several singles (debut single 1954 "What Do you know about Love?"), Which her 1955 the "Most Promising New Comer Award ”from Down Beat magazine . However, she was not only a jazz singer (succeeding Dinah Washington ), but also sang rhythm and blues with Big Joe Turner and Fats Domino . In 1958 she married the Muslim (from Antigua and Barbuda ) trumpeter Talib Ahmad Dawud and converted to Islam (at times she appeared as Aliyah Rabia) and, like her husband, was an active member of the “Muslim Brotherhood”, which in 1959 made the sole representation of Black Muslim - and Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad fought. This controversy was also publicized in the newspapers and at the time damaged her career with the American audience.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s she released several successful albums, including "The Late Late Show" in 1957 (No. 4 in the charts) whose title song was her biggest hit, "In the Night" 1957 (with George Shearing), "Dynamic!" 1958 (arranged by Sid Feller) and "Dakota at Storyville" 1961 live from the Boston jazz club "Storyville". In 1963 she went to United Artists ("From Dakota with Love", "Live and Swinging", "Dakota with Strings").
In 1965 she moved to England ( Dakota '67 album , recorded in London on London Records), sang on cruise ships and in hotels, while her reputation in the US faded. In the early 1970s she returned to her home country (album I've Been There on Verve Records , 1971) and performed as a singer until the 1990s. a. with Paula Hampton and at the Annual Women's Jazz Festival organized by Cobi Narita in Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center . She continued to publish at irregular intervals, most recently in 1999 "A Packet of Love Letters".
swell
- Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather. The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen. London: Quartet Books. 1984, ISBN 0-7043-2477-6 , p. 155
- Leslie Gourse : Madame Jazz. Contemporary Women Instrumentalists. New York: Oxford University Press. 1995, ISBN 0-19-508696-1 , p. 63
Web links
- Dakota Staton at Allmusic (English)
- Jason Ankeny biography
- Obituary in The Guardian
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Staton, Dakota |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rabia, Aliyah |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 3, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 10, 2007 |
| Place of death | New York City |