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Etta James Dies At Age 73

January 20, 2012

The storms of life bring clarity to a song.

And music is where Etta James found shelter.

Mrs. James has died in California after a long and public fight with leukemia, her manager said Friday. She was 73.

Her best known song was the ballad “At Last,” recorded in 1961 just after she signed with Argo, a subsidiary of Chess Records. With her measured contralto, Mrs. James surrendered to the dynamics of an entire relationship: the wanting, the discovery and renewal. The journey was arduous. And she was at the finish line.

“At Last” was also a crucial record in the lexicon of Chess as it moved the label from a blues imprint (Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf) to pop.

Chicago’s Club De Lisa saxophonist Riley Hampton had been recruited to create the lush arrangements with string sections that had never been used at Chess. The label hit the jackpot, counterpointing Hampton’s sweet pop strings with Mrs. James’ direct blues-jazz style.

Her songs spanned generations. Earlier this year electro-rapper Flo Rida sampled Mrs. James 1962 hit “Something’s Got a Hold On Me” into his hit single “Good Feeling. In 2008 Beyonce’ Knowles portrayed her in the film “Cadillac Records,” which loosely depicted the early years of Chess. “One thing Etta taught me is her fearlessness,” Beyonce’ said while promoting the film. “She was Etta all the time. She did not try to change for anyone. If it weren’t for her crossing over — she was the first African-American woman to cross over on the radio — I wouldn’t have the opportunities I have.”

Mrs. James was born on Jan. 25, 1938 as Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, Ca. Her mother was a teenaged African-American. She never knew her father and liked to speculate he was the famous pool player Minnesota Fats.

Mrs. James was reared by her grandparents and caregivers. She grew up and toured with the late Johnny “Guitar” Watson and was discovered in 1951 by West Coast bandleader Johnny Otis.

Like the doo-wop singers of the era, Mrs. James was singing on street corners of Los Angeles and as an underage act in California nightclubs as a member of the Creolettes. The all-girl trio peformed in sparkling gowns with long fish tails, high hair, and big attitudes.

After seeing the group, the colorful Otis renamed them Peaches and turned Mrs. James first name around (from Jamesetta to Etta James).

He co-wrote her first hit, 1955’s seminal rock n’ roll classic, “Roll With Me Henry,” that was deemed too suggestive for radio airplay. Georgia Gibbs cleaned it up and had a 1955 pop hit. In 2008 Mrs. James received a Grammy for her version.

Mrs. James’ no-nonsense template had been set.

She would roll through life’s punches. Mrs. James would encounter leukemia, obesity, gastric bypass surgery, dementia and hepatitis C. Marshall Chess, son of Chess co-founder Leonard Chess was fascinated with Mrs. James cigarette burn tattoos. Her heroin addiction was so bad that when her veins collapsed she shot smack into her forehead.

“Music was a way for her to get away from the pain,” said Chicago-based Chess session man Gene Barge, who arranged and produced several of Mrs. James’ singles including her majestic 1970 ballad “Losers Weepers.” “There’s adversity, rejection and not getting some of the money you think you should get which was another reason for her to withdraw. It slowed her down, but she was a great singer that mattered.

“Etta should have been an actress and a comedian. She was very funny. She could impersonate almost anybody singing. She had Ray Charles down to a ‘T’. She knew what she wanted to do in the studio. I wanted her to establish the melody in the songs. She was more jazz and free style. She would chew up a producer if he was mild-mannered. I wouldn’t let her do that to me.”

Chicago gospel-soul icon Mavis Staples last shared a stage with Mrs. James in 2005 at a festival in Lansing, Mich. “When a person had a life like Etta had, you know that music was a refuge,” Staples said. “Singing was all she had to keep her afloat. We were the same in that we did not have voice coaching or music teachers. She probably knew what key she was singing in, I don’t even know that.

“Etta James was a soul singer. The other day (at the VH1-”Diva” tapings) they asked me to define soul. To me, soul is gut. Etta sang from deep down. She didn’t sing off the top of her head. With soul, you go within to bring out what you want to relate. I loved Etta James.”

Some called Mrs. James “The Billie Holiday of R&B.” According to the 1995 David Ritz biography,Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story, the owner of a boarding house in which she was raised would wake up Mrs. James up after his all night, drunken poker games. He would force her to sing and as a bed wetter, the young Mrs. James was traumatized. Ritz (who is working on the Buddy Guy biography) wrote that this led to Mrs. James’ life-long reluctance to sing on demand.

In her early years at Chess, Mrs. James boyfriend was the late Harvey Fuqua of the Moonglows. They recorded together at Chess, including covering a bawdy horn-laden version of Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful.” Even in the early 1960s at Chess, Mrs. James preferred the gritty rhythm and blues of Little Willie John and her mentor Johnny “Guitar” Watson. “I didn’t want to go into that Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf stuff,” she said in the liner notes to the 2000 “Etta James: The Chess Box.” “I thought that was a little too down-home and a little too old for young people.”

In 1969 Mrs. James married Artis Mills and they later were arrested together for heroin possession. He served a 10-year prison sentence. She was sentenced to drug treatment. They were married at the time of Mrs. James’ death.

On Dec. 19 a judge ruled that Mills would keep decision-making control over her finances and health care, but released only $350,000 for the singer’s medical costs from her $1 million estate instead of the $500,000 Mills requested. Mrs. James’ son Donto had requested a temporary conservationship because of concerns over the expenses.

Mrs. James was inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of fame in 1993 and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001. She won six Grammy awards.

She recorded for Chess between 1960 and 1978, having hits such as “Stop The Wedding” (1962) and the bouncy Beach Music classic “Pushover” (1963). In 1967 Mrs. James recorded for Chess’s Cadet imprint with Barge at Rick Hall’s Muscle Shoals (Ala.) studios and enjoyed crossover hits like “Tell Mama” and the blues ballad “I’d Rather Go Blind,” later popularized by Rod Stewart.

In 1997 she hosted the WTTW-Channel 11 documentary “Record Row: Cradle of Rhythm and Blues,” whch celebrated Chess, Vee-Jay and other labels that flourished from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s on the 10-block stretch of South Michigan Avenue, a neighborhood which is now making a comeback as a musical destination.

In a 1995 Q & A with the now-defunct Hear Music, Mrs. James shared the one song that brings her chills: “Shawn Page Rose, the gospel singer,” she said. “‘Forgive me Jesus.’

I think when I listen to her it just takes me back to really wanting.”

Mrs. James is survived by her husband and sons Donto and Sametto James, both of whom performed in her band.

Services are pending.

http://www.suntimes.com/9...-calif.htm

Nooooo

Just found out....

R.I.P.

Soooo sad. I can't believe she was only 73 though...she's been around forever! I really need to dig into her catalogue. I only know the basics of Etta James.

Too much death goin' on this month... R.I.P.

R.I.P.

AAAWWW i just found out...sad.

Now she is at peace!

R.I.P. Ms James

Just heard. RIP The First Lady Of Soul. If you get a chance read her autobiography.

[Edited 1/20/12 9:01am]

Sticky, Please.

May Etta James have eternal peace.

At last.

Rolling Stone

The Death of Etta James

Photo: Getty Images

January 20, 2012

Etta James, one of the great voices of the 20th century who fused R&B with gospel and blues, and scored landmark hits with "At Last," "Tell Mama" and "All I Could Do Was Cry," died today from complications related to leukemia.

She was 73. James had been battling health problems for many years.

James had an enormously turbulent personal life with numerous periods of drug addiction and poverty, but she channeled all of that heartache into her music. "There's a lot going on Etta James' voice," Bonnie Raitt told Rolling Stone in 2008. "A lot of pain, a lot of life, most of all, a lot of strength. She can be so raucous and down one song, and then break your heart with her subtlety and finesse the next. As raw as Etta is, there's a great intelligence and wisdom in her singing."

Born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles in 1938, James was largely abandoned by her teenage mother at a young age, and was raised by her grandparents and foster families. She formed the the doo-wop singing group Creolettes with her friends in the early 1950s, and they even scored a minor hit with "Roll Me Henry" in 1955.

James signed as a solo act to Chess Records in 1960, kicking off the first great period of her long career. Working with producers Harvey Fuqua and Ralph Bass, she landed on the charts with "My Dearest Darling" and "All I Could Do Is Cry." Leonard Chess heard tremendous potential in her voice, and in 1961 had her record the ballad "At Last" with a string section.

The song became a massive hit, and remained her signature song for the rest of her career.

Despite her incredible success, James started to use heroin in the mid-1960s and it began to have serious effects on her career. At various points she was committed to a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital, though she still occasionally scored hits – most notable the R&B classic "Tell Mama" in 1967.

In the 1970s, James hit the club circuit to support herself. The Rolling Stones took her on tour in 1978, which exposed her music to a whole new generation of rock fans. That same year she signed to Warner Brothers and cut the classic LP Deep in the Night with Jerry Wexler.

Her drug habit resumed in the 1980s, but a 1988 stay at the Betty Ford Clinic set her on a much better course. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

James continued to tour until illness sidelined her a couple of years ago. She made headlines in 2009 when she criticized Beyoncé's performance of "At Last" at President Obama's inauguration, but the public didn't realize that she was suffering from dementia at that point.

In 1997, James spoke with Rolling Stone about her life. "Life's been rough," she said. "But life's been good. If I had to go back and do it all over again, I would live it the exact same way."

Link

namepeace said:

Sticky, Please.

May Etta James have eternal peace.

At last.

R.I.P Etta. I don't know much of her music, but I love I Just Wanna Make Love To You and used to sing it a lot

Photographed between 1960 and 1965.

Photographed in 1987.

At the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Etta James in 2009.

R.I.P Etta

RIP

R.I.P Etta James

I knew this day was coming. Just four five days before she was to turn 74.

RIP Jamesetta "Etta James" Hawkins.

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RIP

Rest In Peace Etta

I had never even heard of Etta James until I saw her on that BB King concert back in '86 with Chaka, Gladys Knight and Billy Ocean. I never got into her music but I liked her spunk!!!!

RIP Etta

Heard it on the radio. RIP

OH MY GOD