Etta James RIP

[Robert Goren]

Although her most famous recording is "At Last", I think this is her best.

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[maddog42]

Although some critics ripped it for not being authentic, the movie Cadillac Records with Adrien Brody and Beyonce as Etta was very good.

[LottaKash]

This thread popped up after I had posted as much, in another thread (took the thread off course as well, heehee)..

.Sad to hear that POT, she was one of my faves in her genre.....Man, she could sing jazz blues all day long....I have much of her work...I still listen to her and smile about it, from time to time....

best,
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[Red Knave]

Although her most famous recording is "At Last", I think this is her best.

I hadn't heard Almost Persuaded for a while, thanks for the link.

This is my favorite
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[Grits]

Truly, one of the great female voices in all of American music; one of my favorites. In Etta, I loved not only the blues in her, the soul in her, but too, the range of it. Not many have made it in the Rock and Roll HOF, the Blues HOF, and the Grammy HOF. She did.

Take your pick, gentlemen, I'll can dance with you all night. ;)

Rest in peace, Etta. Your music's your legacy, your gift. I'm grateful.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1uunRdQ61M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH57e-KU_Ug

[Red Knave]

Take your pick, gentlemen, I'll dance with you all night. ;)

So, it's not just me ... it IS warm in here. :p



And, yes, I would rather go blind ...

[Grits]

I'm looking at my above post again . . . . there wasn't supposed to be a can in my sentence. I hate it when I can't correct typos.

Its not really warm, RK, its just that one can listen to voices like Etta's and be comfortable. And smile. Admittedly though, its hard to not want to dance when one did so for many, many years. ;)

[The Judge]

Etta James and Johnny Otis what a lost, died days apart.

Etta grew-up in the Fillmore in San Francisco she went to Girls High along with Maya Angelou and another great but little known blues singer "Sugar Pie Desanto". I think Etta and Sugar Pie were in the same singing group. Sugar Pie is still alive. Etta got her 1st big break from "Johnny Otis" who was Greek but everyone though he was black .
Johnny's story is also an amazing one. Traveling in the South as with all black bands the good ole boys just assumed he was a light skin negro. Johnny died a few days before Etta on 1/17/2012.

Etta also studied under the late "Earl Father Hines" who was also a Bayarea legend.

Minnesota Fats

From answers.com

"Sang Gospel at Age Five"

James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California, on January 25, 1938. Dorothy, her mother, was just fourteen years old when she gave birth to James, and she never overtly named the father. In her 1995 autobiography, Rage to Survive, James expressed her suspicion that her father was pool shark Minnesota Fats. "
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/etta-james#ixzz1k6xKZDuH

From wikipedia:
Jamesetta Hawkins was born on January 25, 1938, in Los Angeles, California to Dorothy Hawkins, who was only 14 at the time. Her father has never been identified, but was rumored possibly to be white (Caucasian).[6] James speculated that her father was the pool player, Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, and met him briefly in 1987.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etta_James

There is much more Google Etta James and Minnesota Fats if you are interested in more on why she thought Fats was her father. Etta's book tells how this all came up "Rage to Survive."

Johnny Otis:

Was rightfully called the Godfather of Rythm and Blues one of his biggest hits was "Willie and the Hand Jive". He worked with the legends of the business.

USA Today:
Otis produced and played on the original Hound Dog by Thornton in 1952, four years before it became a hit for Elvis Presley.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2012-01-19/johnny-otis-dies/52680518/1

Otis, who was white, was born John Veliotes to Greek immigrants and grew up in a black section of Berkeley, where he said he identified far more with black culture than his own. As a teenager, he changed his name because he thought Johnny Otis sounded more black.

"As a kid, I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black," he once explained.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jxiKv5lRjzhLU_n055E-Jh5diRFQ?docId=9d242dc0528648719ebd46ae177dc9a1