Dakota Staton

Described by the noted critic Leonard Feather as “a dynamic song stylist recalling at times elements of Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan,” Dakota Staton never attained the broad popularity or sales figures achieved by those two vocalists, yet she stands among the most expressive and forceful jazz singers to emerge after World War II.

She entered the world near Pittsburgh on June 3, 1930, and began performing songs and dances while still a youngster before enrolling at the Filion School of Music. At sixteen she took the lead in the production Fantastic Rhythm; two years afterward she became a vocalist with the Pittsburgh-area band directed by Joe Wespray. Staton next enjoyed an extended run at Detroit’s celebrated Flame Show Bar and spent several seasons working clubs throughout the Midwest. She eventually made New York her base, and a stint at the Baby Grand in Harlem drew the notice of Capitol Records executive Dave Cavanaugh, who promptly offered her a recording contract. Her first single, “What Do You Know About Love?,” surfaced in 1954, and the following year DownBeat magazine named her its Most Promising Newcomer.

Although jazz formed a central part of her repertoire, Staton also delivered brash, assertive R&B and appeared with Big Joe Turner and Fats Domino at the earliest Rock ’n’ Roll Party presentations staged by disc jockey Alan Freed. Freed frequently spun her track “My Heart’s Delight” on WINS, and when her debut album, The Late, Late Show, arrived in 1957 it became a major pop success, climbing to the fourth position on the Billboard chart. Its successor, The Dynamic Dakota Staton!, reached number 22 in 1958 and marked the start of her extended partnership with arranger Sid Feller.

After wedding trumpeter Talib Ahmad Dawud in 1958, Staton embraced Islam and performed for a period under the name Aliyah Rabia. She also joined Dawud’s organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, which sought to counter the separatist doctrines advanced by Elijah Muhammad. The group became embroiled in public dispute when Muhammad declared, “they should be ashamed of trying to make fun of me and my followers while serving the devil in the theatrical world.” The resulting publicity slowed her commercial progress, and although Crazy He Calls Me charted in 1959, she never regained the broad crossover audience her earlier releases had attracted.

Following ten albums for Capitol that concluded with the 1961 live recording Dakota at Storyville, she moved to United Artists and issued From Dakota with Love in 1963. Two further UA projects, Live and Swinging and Dakota Staton with Strings, appeared before she left the label and remained silent on record for eight years. After settling in Britain in 1965 she performed in hotels and on cruise ships; by the time she resettled in the United States in the early seventies she had largely faded from view. A 1972 Groove Merchant session, Madame Foo Foo, reunited her with organist Richard “Groove” Holmes, and subsequent dates for Muse and Simitar followed. In 1999 she concluded her studio career with the High Note release A Packet of Love Letters.

Her health gradually weakened over the ensuing years, and Staton passed away on April 10, 2007, at the age of seventy-six.