[Dixielandjazz] Sister Rosetta

[Marek Boym]

Gee, Sister Rosetta Tharpe!
Just read what George Melly had to say about her in "Owning UP."  I
had to read the book twice in a row - the second time for the passages
I missed the first time due to tears caused by hard laughing!.
Cheers

On 11 January 2011 19:35, Steve Voce <stevevoce at virginmedia.com> wrote:
> 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.
>
>
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