Music biography fontella bass

Fontella Marie Bass (July 3, 1940 – December 26, 2012) was an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter best known for her 1965 hit, "Rescue Me."

Early life

Fontella Bass was born in St.

Louis, Missouri, the daughter of gospel singer Martha Bass (a member of the Clara Ward Singers). In 1961, she auditioned on a dare for the Leon Claxton carnival show and was hired to play piano and sing in the chorus for two weeks, making $175 per week for the two weeks it was in town. The Oliver Sain Soul Revue featured Bass, singer Bobby McClure, and trumpet player Lester Bowie.

Sain was not amenable to allowing Bass such liberties, prompting Bass and her new husband, Bowie, to move to Chicago in 1965. She signed with Nonesuch Records in 1995 and recorded No Ways Tired, a gospel album with jazz and blues overtones. After her second album, Free, flopped in 1972, Bass retired from music and concentrated on raising a family; she had four children with Bowie.

They followed their early success with 'You'll Miss Me (When I'm Gone)' that summer, a song that had mild success, reaching the top 30 in R&B, but barely charting in pop.

After a brief tour, Fontella returned to the studio. For her last years she had to struggle due to her deteriorating health. Things were riding high for them, but when it came time to collect my first royalty check, I looked at it, saw how little it was, tore it up and threw it back across the desk.

Bass demanded a better royalty rate and artistic control; she approached her then manager Billy Davis about securing her writing credit on the song but was told not to worry about it.

Two years later she moved to Chicago after a dispute with Little Milton. Some sources credit the climate for racial discrimination and the treatment of women in the music business for these issues at that point in time. With the support of Bob Lyons, the manager of St. Louis station, Bass recorded several songs released through Bobbin Records and produced by Ike Turner.

She returned occasionally, being featured as a background vocalist on several recordings, including those by Bowie. When Little Milton and his bandleader, saxophonist and arranger Oliver Sain, parted ways, Bass followed Sain. The result was an original composition with an aggressive bass and drum work by Maurice White of the future Earth, Wind & Fire.

She was the older sister of R&B singer David Peaston. The song features both man and woman presenting a laundry list of each others' perceived slights and misbehaviors. Her first works with the label were several duets with Bobby McClure. Her mother would not allow Bass to tour with a carnival, however, so she stayed in St. Louis where she accepted work as a piano player for bluesman Little Milton Campbell.

After Little Milton was offered a recording contract with Chicago's preeminent blues label, Chess Records, Bass was given the opportunity to sing with the band as well as play piano.

In 1993 Bass sued American Express and Ogilvy & Mather for the unauthorized use of the song in a commercial for the credit card giant.

Later career and death

The next few years found Bass at a number of labels, but saw no notable successes. This collection rocks. A song in the classic Stax/Volt mode, with a driving bass line and crackling horn section, the song also features spine-tingling gospel call-and-response vocals.

The same year brought two more R&B hits, "I Can't Rest" (backed with "I Surrender)" and "You'll Never Know." Her only album with Chess Records, The New Look, sold reasonably well, but Bass soon became disillusioned with Chess and decided to leave the label after only two years, in 1967. Addresses: Record company--Justin Time Records Inc., 5455 Paré, Ste.

101, Montréal, Quebec H4P 1P7, Canada, phone: (514) 738-9533.

Fontella Bass may be best known for her recording, "Rescue Me," which became a number one rhythm-and-blues hit and reached both the British and American top 20 on the pop charts in 1965, securing her a place in the pantheon of classic pop female singers of the 1960s.