[Dixielandjazz] Sister Rosetta

[Harry Callaghan]

It seemed like I must have had something by her so I went and checked my
cardfile.  Came up with a 45 on Mercury from I don't know when......"When
They Ring the Golden Bell" b/w "Jericho"....I'll have to play it in a little
while to refresh my memory as to what she sounded like

Was she any relation to the Indian olympic athlete?   Oh no, I guess that
was Thorpe.

HC.
On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 4:11 PM, Marek Boym <marekboym at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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