大象传媒

Clare Teal celebrates the world's greatest female jazz performers.

2/5. Dinah Washington

One of the most versatile and gifted vocalists in American popular music history, Dinah Washington made extraordinary recordings in jazz, blues, R&B and light pop and could have done the same in gospel had she chosen to record in that mode.

She remains the biggest influence on most black female singers, particularly in R&B and soul, who have come to prominence since the mid-1950s. She was only 39 and still in peak musical form when she died from an accidental overdose of diet pills and alcohol in 1963.