Quincy Jones Arranges a Love Letter
Washington's voice carries a warmth that made even the slickest arrangements feel intimate and real.
For Those in Love arrived in June 1955 as Dinah Washington was already well-established — she'd been recording for years and knew how to command a session. What made this one special was Quincy Jones handling the arrangements. Jones was young, ambitious, and hungry to prove himself as an arranger, and Washington gave him room to work. The result sits somewhere between the lush orchestral jazz that was popular at the time and something more direct. Jones didn't overcomplicate things. He built arrangements that let Washington's voice be the thing you listened to, which was always the smartest choice.
The album works because Washington doesn't disappear into the strings and horns — she moves through them. Her phrasing was already mature by this point, that effortless control she had, and the arrangements match that confidence rather than trying to smooth it over or dress it up for commercial radio. Jones's charts give her space to breathe and somewhere interesting to land. It's a solid, professional piece of work from both of them, not a desperate grab for hits but not aloof either.
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars, which feels about right — it's genuinely good, the kind of album that works every time you play it, but it doesn't reinvent anything. Washington had stronger records; she had stranger, more adventurous records. This one is exactly what it promises to be: Washington with Jones handling the arrangements, both of them doing their jobs well. If you want to hear Washington in a moment when she was in control and working with someone who respected her voice, this delivers that cleanly.
