Sippie Wallace
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| Sippie Wallace | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Beulah Thomas |
| Also known as | The Texas Nightingale[1] |
| Born | November 1, 1898 |
| Origin |  Houston, Texas, USA |
| Died | November 1, 1986 (aged 88) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
| Genre(s) | Blues, Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, Pianist, Organist, Songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Piano, Organ |
| Years active | 1923 – 1986 |
| Label(s) | Okeh, Alligator, Storyville, Atlantic |
Sippie Wallace (born as Beulah Thomas, November 1, 1898 in Houston, Texas; died November 1, 1986 in Detroit, Michigan) was an American Texas-styled blues singer, and songwriter. Although her recording career stretched throughout most of the '20s, her best work was done from 1923 to 1927 when she was recording with Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, and Clarence Williams. She recorded over 40 songs for Okeh Records, many written by herself or her brothers, George and Hersal Thomas.[2] Among the top female blues vocalists of her era, Wallace ranked with Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, and Bessie Smith.
Wallace was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1982, and was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.[3]
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[edit] Biography
Wallace was born Beulah Thomas in 1898 in Houston, one of 13 children.[4] In her youth Wallace sang and played the piano in Shiloh Baptist Church, where her father was a deacon, but in the evenings the children took to sneaking out to tent shows. By her mid-teens, they were playing in those tent shows. By performing in the various Texas shows, she built a solid following as a spirited blues singer.
Wallace came from a musical family; her brothers George W. Thomas, became a notable pianist, bandleader, composer, and music publisher, and Hersal Thomas, pianist and composer, and her niece was Hociel Thomas, pianist and composer (daughter of brother George).
In 1915 Wallace moved New Orleans, Louisiana with brother Hersal; two years later she married Matt Wallace, and changed her name. After following her brothers to Chicago, Illinois in 1923, Wallace worked her way into the city's bustling jazz scene. Her reputation led to a recording contract with Okeh Records in 1923. Wallace's first recorded songs, "Shorty George" and "Up the Country Blues," the former written with her brother George, sold well enough to make Wallace a blues star in the early '20s.[5] Other successful recordings followed, including "Special Delivery Blues" (with Louis Armstrong), "Bedroom Blues" (written by George and Hersal Thomas), and "I'm a Mighty Tight Woman." Her younger brother Hersal died of food poisoning in 1926 at age sixteen.
Wallace moved to Detroit in 1929, her husband Matt and brother George both died in 1936. Wallace for some forty years was a singer and organ player at the Leland Baptist Church in Detroit. Mercury Records reissued "Bedroom Blues" in 1945. Aside from an occasional performance or recording date, Wallace did little in the blues until she launched a comeback in 1966 after her longtime friend Victoria Spivey coaxed her out of retirement and on the folk and blues festival circuit.
In 1966 recorded an album on Halloween night, Copenhagen, Denmark, Women Be Wise, with Roosevelt Sykes and Little Brother Montgomery sharing the piano stool, Sippie clearly shows that the intervening years had, indeed, been kind to her, belting out one great tune after another. Listing highlights is superfluous, simply because every track's a gem. The no-frills production is warm and cozy enough to make you feel like you're hearing the world's greatest one-woman concert right in your living room. And you're glad you bought a ticket.[6] Another 1966 album Sings the Blues, on the latter song, Wallace accompanied herself on piano; otherwise she is backed by either Roosevelt Sykes or Little Brother Montgomery on piano. Includes Wallace's signature song, "Women Be Wise", "Don't Advertise Your Man," The album helped inspire blues-pop singer Bonnie Raitt to take up the blues in the late '60.[7] In 1971 Raitt recorded a rendition of Sippie Wallace's "Women Be Wise" on her self-titled album Bonnie Raitt. Wallace toured and recorded with Raitt in the 1970s and 1980s, while continuing to perform on her own.[8] The bond between Wallace and Raitt helped bridge the gap between two generations of blues queens.
Wallace recorded on Louis Armstrong album, Louis Armstrong and the Blues Singers (1966), singing "A Jealous Woman Like Me" "Special Delivery Blues", "Jack O'Diamond Blues", "The Mail Train Blues" and "I Feel Good". Wallace also recorded an album of old blues standards with her friend Victoria Spivey, called Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey, which came out in 1970 on Spivey's own self-named label. In 1981, Wallace recorded an album Sippie for Atlantic Records, which earned a her a 1983 Grammy nomination,[9] and also won the 1982 W. C. Handy Award for Best Blues Album of the Year.[10] Sippie's backup group on were pianist Jim Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band, consisting of cornetist Paul Klinger, trombonist Bob Smith and Russ Whitman and Peter Ferran on reeds. Sippie Wallace revives some of her best-known 1920s numbers ("Woman Be Wise," "Up the Country Blues," "Mighty Tight Woman" and "Suitcase Blues") and performs a few vintage standards too.
In 1966 and 1967 she appeared at the Newport Folk Blues Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark performance in 1966, the Chicago Blues Festival, 1967, the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, 1972, and appeared at Lincoln Center in New York, 1977. She played herself in the documentary "Jammin' with the Blues Greats" (1982).[11]
Then in Ann Arbor, Michigan she got together with German boogie woogie pianist Axel Zwingenberger, with whom she recorded a studio album in 1983. Wallace included many of her own groundbreaking compositions as well as other classic blues songs, on his album, And the Friends of Boogie, Vol. 1: Sippie Wallace, released in 1992. In 1983 and 1984 she traveled to Germany to tour with Axel.
[edit] Death
In March 1986, following a concert in Mainz, Germany, she suffered a severe stroke, hospitalized, returned to the US, and died on her 88th birthday at Sinai Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.[12] She is buried at Trinity Cemetery, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, USA.[13]
Producer Roberta Grossman, Rhapsody Films "Sippie Wallace: Blues Singer and Song Writer" a 1986 documentary about Sippie Wallace, she is represented in this film portrait by means of concert footage, interviews, historic rare recordings and photographs.[14]
[edit] Selective discography
| Year | Title | Genre | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Sippie | Blues | Atlantic | |
| 1970 | Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey | Blues | Spivey | |
| 1966 | Sings the Blues | Blues | Storyville | |
| 1966 | Women Be Wise | Blues | Alligator | |
| 1923 | 1923-1929 | Blues | Document |
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Find a Grave: Headstone marker for Beulah Wallace "Sippie"
- ^ Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues, Penguin Books, page 486, (2001) - ISBN 0141001453
- ^ Michigan Women's Hall of Fame
- ^ Gates, Professor Henry Louis. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Basic Civitas Books, page 1956, (1999) - ISBN 0465000711
- ^ Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues (2001), page 486
- ^ Billboard: Women Be Wise
- ^ Dicaire, David. Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century, McFarland & Company, page 204, (1999) - ISBN 0786406062
- ^ All About Jazz: Sippie Wallace
- ^ Grammy Awards Database
- ^ The Blues Foundation 1982
- ^ imdb: "Jammin' with the Blues Greats"
- ^ Sippie Wallace bio
- ^ Trinity Cemetery
- ^ California State University Video Tape Library: "Sippie Wallace: Blues Singer and Song Writer"
[edit] External links
- Sippie Wallace on RedHotJazz - Biography with audio files of some of her early recordings.
- Handbook of Texas online biography
- Videos on YouTube
