Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-73) was a unique and influential performer. Her mother was very active in the church and encouraged her daughter to develop into a singer and a guitarist. At six, Rosetta accompanied her mother in performances with a traveling evangelical troupe. After being married and divorced, she made her recording debut in 1938 when she was 23, having great success with “Rock Me” and “That’s All.” She appeared with Cab Calloway in 1938, gained notice for performing at that year’s Spiritual To Swing Carnegie Hall concert, and during 1941-43 sang secular songs with religious zeal while a member of the Lucky Millinder Orchestra.
While some in the religious community were not pleased that she was performing risqué songs at nightclubs, she gained fame that helped gospel music when she returned to performing religious songs after the Millinder period. A superior musician whose fluent electric guitar playing led the way to rock, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a passionate performer whose vocals were on the level of Mahalia Jackson.
The Amazing Grace Of Sister Rosetta Tharpe collects together some of her religious-oriented recordings of the 1944-53 period. 14 of the numbers have Tharpe joined by pianist-organist Sammy Price’s trio while most of the rest have accompaniment from the James Roots Quartet. Vocal groups (the Rosette Gospel Singers, the Anita Kerr Singers or the Southlands) participate on four numbers and one song co-features vocalist Lottie Henry. Most significantly, Marie Knight (who worked regularly with Tharpe for several years) sings on ten songs, often “battling” Sister Rosetta in power, intensity and passion to a draw. Their encounters are consistently stirring.
Even listeners who are far from religious will find much to admire on this collection. The often-flamboyant Sister Rosetta Tharpe could have been a success in several musical fields and her appeal is timeless.
The Amazing Grace Of Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Upbeat URCD 345
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Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings.
Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.
