Etta James, Powerful Voice Behind Dies At 73.Etta James, whose powerful, versatile and emotionally direct voice may lead the raunchiest blues and subtle love songs, most indelibly in his signature pipe, "At Last", died Friday morning at Riverside, California, she was 73.
Her manager, Lupe De Leon, said the cause was complications of leukemia. Ms. James, who died at Riverside Community Hospital, was treated for some time for a number of conditions, including leukemia and dementia. She also lived in Riverside.
Ms. James was not easy to classify. It is most often referred to as a rhythm and blues singer, and that's how it has made a name in the 1950s with recordings such as "Good Rockin 'Daddy." It is both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.
She was as comfortable and convincing, singing pop standards, as it did in 1961 with "At Last" which was written in 1941 and originally recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. And one of its four Grammy Awards (including a great honor for life-achievement in 2003) was one of the best jazz vocal performance, she won in 1995 for the album "Mystery Lady:. Songs of Billie Holiday"
No matter how it was classified, she was admired. Expressing a common sentiment, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote in 1990 that she had "one of the great voices of American popular music, with a huge range, a variety of tones and vast reserves of volume."
For all his accomplishments, Ms. James had a career up and down, in part because the evolution of public taste, but mainly because of drug problems. She developed a heroin addiction in the 1960s, after she overcame in the 1970s, she began using cocaine. She candidly describes his struggles with addiction and his many trips to rehab in his autobiography, "Rage to survive," written with David Ritz (1995).
Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles January 25, 1938. His mother, Dorothy Hawkins was 14 years old when his father was long gone, and Mrs. James never knew exactly who he was, although she recalled her mother saying he was the famous player Rudolf Wanderone pool, better known as Minnesota Fats. She was raised by adoptive parents and moved to San Francisco with her mother when she was 12.
She began singing at St. Paul Baptist in Los Angeles at 5 and turned to secular music as a teenager, forming a vocal group with two friends. She was 15 when she made her first recording, "Roll with Me Henry," which established his own words to the tune of Hank Ballard and the Midnights' hit recent "work with me Annie." When some disc jockeys complained that the title was too suggestive, the name was changed to "The Wallflower", although the recording itself was not.
"The Wallflower" rose to No. 2 in rhythm and blues charts in 1954.As was often the case these days with records by black artists, a watered down version was immediately recorded by a white singer has found a wide audience: Georgia Gibbs version with the title and lyrics changed to "Dance With Me, Henry, "was a No. 1 pop hit in 1955. (His success was not all bad news for Ms. James. She shared songwriting royalties with Mr. Ballard and the bandleader and talent scout Johnny Otis, who organized the recording session. (Mr. Otis died Tuesday.)
In 1960, Ms. James was signed by Chess Records; the label of Chicago was home to Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and other top names in black music. It quickly developed a series of hits including "All I could do was Cry," "Trust in Me" and "At Last", which established his as the first major female star Chess.
She stayed with many failures in the 1970s, only to reappear on the charts after a long absence in 1967 with the funky and fiery "Tell Mama." In the late 70's and early 80's, she was an opening act for the Rolling Stones.
After decades of touring, recording for various labels and drifting in and out of the public eye, Mrs. James ended up in the news in 2009 after Beyoncé Knowles recorded a version of "At Last" modeled on his own. (Mrs. Mrs. James Knowles played in the 2008 film "Cadillac Records", a fictionalized account of the rise and fall of failures.) Ms. Knowles has also made "At Last" at an inaugural ball of President Obama in Washington.
When the film was released, Ms. James has had kind words for the representation of Ms. Knowles. But in February 2009, referring specifically to the performance of Washington, she said to an audience, "I cannot stand Beyoncé," and threatened to "whip" the young singer to sing "At Last." Later, she said she was joking, but she did add that she wanted; she was invited to sing the song itself for the new president.
Ms. James Survivors include her husband of 42 years, Artis Mills, two son, and DONTO Sametto James, and four grandchildren.
Although his life has had its share of trouble at the end - her husband and son were locked in a long battle over control of his estate, which was resolved in favor of her husband just weeks before his Death - Mrs. James said she wanted her music to transcend the disaster rather than to think.
"Many people think the blues is depressing," she told the Los Angeles Times in 1992, "but it's not that I sing the blues. When I sing the blues, I sing of life. People who cannot stand to listen to the blues; they have got to be impostors. "
Her manager, Lupe De Leon, said the cause was complications of leukemia. Ms. James, who died at Riverside Community Hospital, was treated for some time for a number of conditions, including leukemia and dementia. She also lived in Riverside.
Ms. James was not easy to classify. It is most often referred to as a rhythm and blues singer, and that's how it has made a name in the 1950s with recordings such as "Good Rockin 'Daddy." It is both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.
She was as comfortable and convincing, singing pop standards, as it did in 1961 with "At Last" which was written in 1941 and originally recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. And one of its four Grammy Awards (including a great honor for life-achievement in 2003) was one of the best jazz vocal performance, she won in 1995 for the album "Mystery Lady:. Songs of Billie Holiday"
No matter how it was classified, she was admired. Expressing a common sentiment, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote in 1990 that she had "one of the great voices of American popular music, with a huge range, a variety of tones and vast reserves of volume."
For all his accomplishments, Ms. James had a career up and down, in part because the evolution of public taste, but mainly because of drug problems. She developed a heroin addiction in the 1960s, after she overcame in the 1970s, she began using cocaine. She candidly describes his struggles with addiction and his many trips to rehab in his autobiography, "Rage to survive," written with David Ritz (1995).
Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles January 25, 1938. His mother, Dorothy Hawkins was 14 years old when his father was long gone, and Mrs. James never knew exactly who he was, although she recalled her mother saying he was the famous player Rudolf Wanderone pool, better known as Minnesota Fats. She was raised by adoptive parents and moved to San Francisco with her mother when she was 12.
She began singing at St. Paul Baptist in Los Angeles at 5 and turned to secular music as a teenager, forming a vocal group with two friends. She was 15 when she made her first recording, "Roll with Me Henry," which established his own words to the tune of Hank Ballard and the Midnights' hit recent "work with me Annie." When some disc jockeys complained that the title was too suggestive, the name was changed to "The Wallflower", although the recording itself was not.
"The Wallflower" rose to No. 2 in rhythm and blues charts in 1954.As was often the case these days with records by black artists, a watered down version was immediately recorded by a white singer has found a wide audience: Georgia Gibbs version with the title and lyrics changed to "Dance With Me, Henry, "was a No. 1 pop hit in 1955. (His success was not all bad news for Ms. James. She shared songwriting royalties with Mr. Ballard and the bandleader and talent scout Johnny Otis, who organized the recording session. (Mr. Otis died Tuesday.)
In 1960, Ms. James was signed by Chess Records; the label of Chicago was home to Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and other top names in black music. It quickly developed a series of hits including "All I could do was Cry," "Trust in Me" and "At Last", which established his as the first major female star Chess.
She stayed with many failures in the 1970s, only to reappear on the charts after a long absence in 1967 with the funky and fiery "Tell Mama." In the late 70's and early 80's, she was an opening act for the Rolling Stones.
After decades of touring, recording for various labels and drifting in and out of the public eye, Mrs. James ended up in the news in 2009 after Beyoncé Knowles recorded a version of "At Last" modeled on his own. (Mrs. Mrs. James Knowles played in the 2008 film "Cadillac Records", a fictionalized account of the rise and fall of failures.) Ms. Knowles has also made "At Last" at an inaugural ball of President Obama in Washington.
When the film was released, Ms. James has had kind words for the representation of Ms. Knowles. But in February 2009, referring specifically to the performance of Washington, she said to an audience, "I cannot stand Beyoncé," and threatened to "whip" the young singer to sing "At Last." Later, she said she was joking, but she did add that she wanted; she was invited to sing the song itself for the new president.
Ms. James Survivors include her husband of 42 years, Artis Mills, two son, and DONTO Sametto James, and four grandchildren.
Although his life has had its share of trouble at the end - her husband and son were locked in a long battle over control of his estate, which was resolved in favor of her husband just weeks before his Death - Mrs. James said she wanted her music to transcend the disaster rather than to think.
"Many people think the blues is depressing," she told the Los Angeles Times in 1992, "but it's not that I sing the blues. When I sing the blues, I sing of life. People who cannot stand to listen to the blues; they have got to be impostors. "
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