Who is rosetta tharpe

I play better than a man. For long stretches, she might gaze not toward the audience in the seats, but upwards towards the heavens, her greatest audience. In her time, she was something of a household name. About 20, people attended the event, which included the ceremony followed by a concert featuring Tharpe and her backing group, The Rosettes, and was later released on an LP. You gotta move In the late 40s, Tharpe formed a very successful and popular duet with a young gospel singer and pianist named Marie Knight.

However, in she had a career revival when she began touring Europe and playing to audiences who had never experienced the authenticity of gospel and the blues in person. Sister Rosetta became a trailblazer again and became one of the first artists to take those sounds across the Atlantic.

She was joined in subsequent years by Muddy Waters and other American blues giants for package tours that inspired the young Keith Richards , Eric Clapton and others to create the British blues scene that transformed them into the torchbearers of the mids British Invasion. People may be starting to appreciate Sister Rosetta Tharpe after all. The biographer Gayle Wald noted that it is unclear if Rosetta truly wanted to sing Jazz lyrics with Millinder's band, or not; but eventually having gained enough fame in her own rite, Rosetta turned back to Gospel songs, delivered in an upbeat, Jazz style.

In the s, Rosetta was famous and toured widely, usually singing with male Gospel quartets, such as the Dixie Hummingbirds. Tharpe continued to tour during World War II and after the war to even larger audiences. One of her best known songs carried a witty, ironic political theme, "Strange Things Happening Every Day.

Their relationship was known inside the music industry, but Rosetta kept it a secret from the public. Marie was traumatized and drifted away, leaving Rosetta on her own. Several months later Rosetta agreed to participate in a publicity stunt, a wedding ceremony to be held in Washington's Griffith Stadium, with proceeds and recording rights going to Decca Records.

The unusual problem was, however, that there was no one for her to marry. Soon before the wedding day she found Russell Morrison, who agreed to be her third spouse and manager.

On the day of the ceremony, the wedding party stood on the pitcher's mound for the exchange of vows, followed by a concert and fireworks. Again, the marriage was not a smooth one, but they remained together for 22 years. Let alone one who could command one to make such noises. Both controversial and respected for her undeniability, SRT brought gospel music to mainstream popularity every night she performed. Blending the sounds of her childhood with jazz, blues, and the genre she was inventing all her own.

Even when this ostracized her from the gospel community. It is considered by some to be the first rock song, ever. Utterly spellbound by Marie Knight, Tharpe tracked her down and the two set out to perform together. While Knight sang and played piano, SRT did both, plus guitar.

The two became lovers and creative partners through the rest of the decade. Sister Rosetta Tharpe continued to tour and make new music throughout the fifties and into the sixties. Born Rosetta Nubin in Cotton Plant, Arkansas in , the young prodigy was performing gospel music with her mother at churches and revivals by age six, when the two moved north to Chicago. In her teens, she married a preacher, who she soon left, heading to New York CIty. There, she played with Duke Ellington and other top musicians.

A year later, she met the singer Marie Knight. The concert and promotional stunt drew 25,, many with gifts. In , as the folk revival was cresting, she was booked for the Folk Blues and Gospel Caravan tour in England, and she played a famous gig in an abandoned railroad station that was broadcast nationwide by Granada television.