Search - Dakota Staton :: Dynamic

DAKOTA AT HER NEAR-BEST

Dominick T. Armentano | Vero Beach, Florida USA | 10/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD album is very early Dakota (February 1958) and her singing and the arrangements are spectacular. "Let Me Off Uptown" and "Cherokee" are wildly delightful while Dakota's swinging and stylish "Say It Isn't So, Joe" is the sleeper hit of the recording sessions. There are also 4 bonus tracks including the little known but haunting "Invitation" (which I remember from a long-lost Percy Faith album called "Music For Her.") The only slight disappointment is a previously unissued track "Ill Remember April" which has a minor Dakota bobble and sounds like a first or second warm-up run-through. But, hey, ANYTHING from Dakota's early years is appreciated and we just hope that the Capitol vault caretakers will remaster and release everything from the late 50's and early 60's."

Delicious Dakota

Byron Kolln | the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood | 01/16/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One of Dakota Staton's early albums, DYNAMIC! definitely lives up to the promise of it's title. With some magical arrangements from Sid Feller, Ms. Staton riffs her way through a selection of jazz and theatre standards, stamping each and every one with her unique brand of musical showmanship.



Highlights would definitely have to include "Let Me Off Uptown" (full of Staton's spunky attitude), "When Sunny Gets Blue" (with one of the most beautiful lyrics you'll ever have the pleasure to hear); and "The Party's Over" (from the Broadway musical "Bells Are Ringing").



If you're a jazz fan you'll really enjoy the snappy vocal stylings of Miss Dakota Staton. A treasure."

She Bridges the Gap Between Two Generations

Stephanie DePue | Carolina Beach, NC USA | 01/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Dynamic," by American jazz singer Dakota Staton, is a reissue of a critically-acclaimed 1958 album, issued by Capitol Records, during her prime, from 1957"s #4 hit single and album,The Late, Late Show; until she moved to England in the mid 1960s. The singer (1930-2007), who was born in Pittsburgh, was named "Down Beat Magazine's" most promising newcomer in 1955. She toured well into her 60s: I can attest to this, as I was lucky enough to see her twice: once in the late `50s, at a Long Island, New York nightclub, when she and I were young, Maggie; she was sexy and I was wearing my favorite red 4"spike heels. And once again, many years later, at Saint Anne's in Brooklyn, N.Y., when neither of us could be called young anymore: she was dressed in white from head to toe, was quite heavy, needed help to get up onto the stage, and sang seated. But she'd assured us before she opened her mouth that she still had her voice, and she did.



Her voice was intimate, yet powerful; bright with a husky, trumpet-like sound; her style, emotionally tough and realistic. Prominent American jazz critic Leonard Feather described her in the late 1950's as "A dynamic song stylist recalling at times elements of Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan." Still, she never reached the heights of popularity of these two stars; she may have been born too late, not hitting her stride until the rock and roll years - that's pretty much what I was into at that time. Still, Staton leaves a swinging record of herself on "Dynamic," as she made "Anything Goes," and "Too Close for Comfort," with Harry Sweets Edison and a rhythm section. She would also work with the likes of George Shearing, Nelson Riddle and Sid Feller: all told, she would record more than two dozen albums, from '62 to '92, for many labels, including United Artists, Verve, and Columbia.



George Shearing once said, "Dakota is dynamic. To hear her sing for the first time is to joyously discover one of the finest jazz singers of our day." And Robert Sherman added, in "The New York Times," 1998, she is "one of America's great vocal stylists." The Times further said, "Dakota Staton's tough, sassy brand of jazz-blues bridges the gap between two generations. She is a stylistic link between the earthiness of Dinah Washington and Big Maybelle, and Chaka Khan's note-bending pop-funk iconoclasm." Staton always had a way of reinterpreting and refreshing the most familiar material that you can hear on this album; and, as "The Chicago Tribune" once said, "A dominating presence, Staton seems to have improved with age - perhaps, one suspects, because whatever hard knocks she's endured in life have been put to use in her music."

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