Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Already subscribed? Log in. Forgotten your password? Want an ad-free experience? View offers. After graduating from Soldan high school in St Louis, she took her first professional jobs with the bands of Little Milton and Oliver Sain. Among her colleagues was the trumpeter Lester Bowie , whom Bass married in The final song of the session was Rescue Me.
The arrangement was improvised on the spot by the producer Billy Davis and the musicians. The bass guitar player Louis Satterfield came up with the hypnotic figure that opens the track, while Davis created the memorable ending in which each instrumentalist drops out in turn, leaving Bass to complete the song a capella. Rescue Me rose quickly to No 4 in the American charts.
Another single, Recovery, also sold well the following year, but only made No 32 in the UK. Bass became embroiled in an argument about money with the record company and unsuccessfully sought to be recognised as the co-writer of Rescue Me. At that point, according to Newsweek 's Karen Schomer, "She was broke, tired and cold; the only heat in her house came from the gas stove in the kitchen.
Bass recorded one more moderate hit for Checker titled "Recovery," but felt that the label was simply trying to create a formula out of "Rescue Me. By this time, Lester Bowie was ensconced in the jazz avant-garde of Chicago with his band the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Bass traveled with the band to Paris for a three-year stint.
She returned to the United States to raise her children in the s, and divorced Bowie in She recorded sporadically throughout the s and even re-teamed with Oliver Sains for a spell, but with little success. She signed with Nonesuch Records in and recorded No Ways Tired, a gospel album with jazz and blues overtones. Dougherty described Bass's performance on the album: "Just because she's gone upper case and holy doesn't mean she has lowered the flame.
This collection rocks. Singing her perfect-pitch praises of the Lord as fervently and enticingly as she ever called a lover, Bass gives traditional sounding gospel numbers like 'You Don't Know What the Lord Told Me,' 'All My Burdens,' and 'Everlasting Arms' an irresistible, head-over-heels swing.
After several more gospel releases, Bass performed guest vocal duties on the Cinematic Orchestra's album and tour. In the Westside label released Free, a collection of recordings Bass made on the Paula label in the s. Les Stances a Sophie soundtrack , Nessa, Louis nightspot the Showbar, and in she joined local blues great Little Milton Campbell , later marrying the band's trumpeter, fledgling jazz titan Lester Bowie.
And when she wasn't performing with Sain and his group, she moonlighted as a solo act, playing gigs across East St. Louis under the alias "Sabrina. The single proved a Top Ten hit, and even after Bass left the group to mount a solo career, Sain remained a close collaborator.
She relocated to Chicago in and late that same year scored the biggest hit of her career with her solo debut, "Rescue Me. One of the biggest-selling records in Chess' storied history, "Rescue Me" remains an unqualified classic of the era and is a staple of oldies radio to this day, although many listeners now mistake the record as the work of Aretha Franklin , who ironically enough did not even enter the popular consciousness until two years later.
Worse, Bass never received proper credit or financial remuneration for co-writing the song, and her subsequent battles with Chess execs earned her a reputation as a malcontent.
With her career mired in neutral, Bass exited Checker in and with husband Bowie -- now a renowned avant-garde player best known for his work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago -- relocated to Paris. There she collaborated with the group on an LP, the acclaimed The Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass , but otherwise focused on raising a family until returning to St. Louis in , renewing ties with Oliver Sain and signing to the Shreveport, Louisiana-based Paula label.
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