[Dixielandjazz] Sister Rosetta

[Steve Voce]

The BBC 4 television channel is presenting a one hour documentary on Sister Rosetta Tharpe at 9 pm
this Friday.
This is a quote from a liner that I wrote for a recent Calligraph CD featuring Marie Knight and
Humphrey Lyttelton.
The attached photograph (if it works) was taken in April 1957 and has from l to r Ottilie Paterson,
me and Sister Rosetta.
Steve Voce.



Although himself of secular
persuasion Humph was particularly fond of what we used to call Black Gospel
music. One of the first examples of the genre that we heard in Britain was on a
Melodisc 78 by a devout lady called Sister Ernestine B Washington who recorded
four songs with Bunk Johnson's band in 1946. Whilst Sister Ernestine's voice
sounded like one of those machines used for slicing open pavements, she had an
inspired swing that would have rocked the Statue of Liberty. Humph was very
moved by the singer, and shaped one of her songs, Does Jesus Care?, into an
instrumental for the band.

  This became a feature
for the leader's trumpet and for the delicate clarinet of Wally Fawkes. The
band recorded it at one of the Parlophone sessions in 1950, a time when less
liberal attitudes prevailed.

   "What was it
called?" asked the producer after the take was done. "Does Jesus Care?" said
Humph.

   "Good God!" cried
the producer. "You can't have a title like that for a jazz record!"

    After much arguing
Humph agreed to rename the piece DJC Blues.

   He was amused by the
irony of the title that eventually appeared on the label -- "DJC Blues (Does
Jesus Care?)".

    Following on after
Sister Ernestine, Brunswick began releasing tracks by the duo of Sister Rosetta
Tharpe and Marie Knight. Described as "sanctified shouters" they were probably
the most effective gospel partnership and certainly the closest to hot jazz.
Full of fire, hard swing and conviction, their records became big sellers
across the world.

    Both were on the
face of it devout gospel singers, but I was never completely sure about Sister Rosetta.

   Established on the
gospel scene in the Thirties she caused controversy and rage amongst her
followers in the church when she sang and recorded jazz with Lucky Millinder,
Cab Calloway and the swing bands. When she came over here during the Fifties
she sang only gospel at Liverpool's cellar club The Cavern.

    "You might wonder
what a woman of God like me is doing in a place like this," she told the
audience. "Well, Our Lord went down into the highways and bye-ways and if it
was good enough for him it's good enough for me."

   Afterwards I went
back with her to her hotel room where she gave me a glass of brandy. As I left
she gave me a hearty kiss on the cheek and said "Don't take any wooden nickels,
darling!"   Her husband, who she referred
to as Lazy Daddy, was unique amongst visiting Americans in having a complete
grasp of the English licensing laws within half an hour of disembarking from
the boat.

   So Sister Rosetta
was rather more worldly than your average spreader of The Word.