Lucille, circa 1988, attending a celebrity charity event
SISTER ROSETTA THARPE GOSPEL LEGEND AND GODMOTHER OF ROCK AND ROLL
FULL NAME: Sister Rosetta Nubin Tharpe
BORN: MARCH 20, 1915, COTTON PLANT, ARKANSAS, U.S.A.
DIED: OCTOBER 9, 1973, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A.
NATIONALITY: AMERICAN
“She would sing until you cried and then she would sing until you danced for joy.”
FROM SISTER ROSETTA THARPE’S GRAVESTONE
MUSICAL PRODIGY
By all accounts, Rosetta Tharpe (born Rosetta Nubin) was a musical prodigy. Her mother was a talented singer, mandolin player, and preacher for the Church of God in Christ. This predominantly African-American Church encouraged music and the work of female preachers.
At the age of four, Rosetta started playing guitar and singing on stage with her mother. Two years later, little Rosetta was a regular performer with her mother’s group, traveling across the South before settling in Chicago. Rosetta gained fame as a musical prodigy, as well as for being a rarity as a black female guitarist. She would go on to become one of the greatest gospel singers of all time.
| FABULOUS FIRSTS | |
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FIRST COMMERCIALLY SUCCESSFUL GOSPEL SINGER |
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ROCK STAR BEFORE THERE WAS ROCK AND ROLL |
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| A 1998 U.S. postage stamp featuring the godmother of rock and roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe |
GODMOTHER ROSETTA OF ROCK
In 1938, at the age of 23, Rosetta became the first commercially successful gospel singer. She signed with the now-legendary Decca Records label and recorded four songs. These were the first gospel songs ever recorded for the label. The songs were instant hits and brought gospel to a wider audience. That same year, Rosetta was asked to perform with a group at the illustrious Carnegie Hall, New York City. Later, she also performed with such icons as Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, and Muddy Waters. At the time, it was new and incredible (and controversial) to see gospel music performed for a non-religious audience, especially by a female guitarist. Over the next decade, Rosetta continued to record and perform both gospel and secular (non-religious) music. Due to her upbringing, her style was unique, mixing together gospel, blues, folk, and jazz—and even using an early electric guitar. One of those first four hit songs, “That’s All,” is believed to have had a strong impact on later music legends Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley. Decades ahead of her time, the little black girl with a gospel voice and guitar in hand had created the earliest rock and roll. Rosetta’s appeal was wide: religious and non-religious, black and white, young and old. Search YouTube for videos of her tremendous performances. In 2015, Rosetta was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Rosetta sang, recorded, strummed, and performed for over 50 years. Today, she remains one of the most influential musicians of all time. Quite simply, she was a rock star before there was rock. So, regardless of which bands are currently on your playlist, chances are they owe a big “thank you” to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock and roll.
Rosetta was famous for playing a 1961 Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar, similar to this one.
BILLIE HOLIDAY LEGENDARY JAZZ SINGER AND ICON
FULL NAME: Eleanora Fagan
BORN: APRIL 7, 1915, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A.
DIED: JULY 17, 1959, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A.
NATIONALITY: AMERICAN
Billie’s signature flower: a white gardenia blossom
LADY SINGS THE BLUES
If you’ve ever heard a classic jazz ballad with a female vocalist, chances are you’ve heard Billie Holiday. Billie, also known as Lady Day, was a pioneer of American jazz and blues. Her distinctive, soulful voice is one of the greatest jazz sounds of all time.
In 1915, Eleanora Fagan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She grew up around neighboring Baltimore, a jazz-rich hotspot at the time. Eleanora had a tumultuous childhood, living with distant relatives and finding herself in reform school by the age of nine. She dropped out of school before she reached high school and spent time as a prostitute, as well as time in jail.
Throughout all this, Eleanora always found comfort in music. She was entirely self-taught, with no technical training. As a teenager, she sang in after-hours jazz clubs, eventually moving to New York City with her mother. It was there that Eleanora was hired for shows in a series of unknown Harlem nightclubs, and became Billie Holiday (“Billie” after the actress Billie Dove and “Holiday” using the last name of the father she never knew). At only 18, Billie was talent-spotted and cut a record with a group led by the soon-to-be-famous Benny Goodman.
BECOMING LADY DAY
As she continued to perform, Billie’s popularity grew. In 1935, she recorded four big hits, including the now-famous “What a Little Moonlight Can Do.” From there, she earned her own recording contract with Columbia Records. Soon, Billie was performing with big-name musicians and band leaders, including Lester Young, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw, making her one of the first black singers to perform with a white orchestra. In 1930s America, this was a huge achievement. Billie recorded with a number of major record labels, including Columbia, Decca, Commodore, and Verve, where she found mainstream success. Billie recorded and toured extensively throughout her short life, including a hugely successful 1954 European tour and star-studded shows at Carnegie Hall, in New York City.
U.S. postage stamp, circa 1994, commemorating the great songstress
ANGEL OF HARLEM
By her thirties and forties, Billie was struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and with abusive relationships, and she even found herself in prison for drugs offences. She continued to perform to sold-out venues, but her reputation began to deteriorate, as did her voice from all the strain. Sadly, Billie died at the young age of 44. However, the voice of Lady Day lives on. After her death, Billie was awarded four Grammy awards for Best Historical Album. In 1973, she was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2002 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. U2 recorded “Angel of Harlem” in tribute to her, and there is a statue of her in the center of Baltimore. Hailed as one of the greatest and most influential singers of all time, Lady Day remains an inspiration to musicians of all genres around the globe.
Billie was amazing at improvising. Now classics of jazz and blues, Billie’s