This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 28, 2012 - Say “Fontella Bass” within earshot of anyone of a certain age, and the listener will most likely respond, reflexively and often lyrically, “Rescue me.”
The sultry, angst-filled love song with a dance beat stormed the charts in 1965, was nominated for a Grammy Award the following year and remained forever anchored as one of the most recognized pop/soul songs ever recorded. Ms. Bass could never leave the stage without performing it.
“She did many things after 'Rescue Me',” said her daughter, Neuka Mitchell, who was born after the song came out, “(but) she never got tired of singing it. She was a true artist and she understood how things worked.”
Ms. Bass, a homegrown artist who became a household name in the U.S. and Europe, died Wednesday at Westchester House in Chesterfield of complications from a stroke she suffered Dec. 2. She was 72.
Ms. Bass had lived in Florissant for several years after having been a longtime resident of University City.
Her memorial service will be Fri., Jan. 4, at Shalom Church’s Lindbergh campus.
Destined to sing
She came by her voice the old-fashioned way: She inherited it. Her grandmother, Nevada Carter, was a gospel singer of some renown and her mother, Martha Bass Peaston, toured with the Clara Ward Singers, one of the nation’s most acclaimed black gospel groups.
Ms. Bass was singing in the church choir when she was still too small to be seen by people beyond the second or third pew and sometimes accompanied her mother on piano. As she got older, she began performing outside the church, singing at fairs and talent shows. An early foray into the secular world landed her in big trouble.
She told her mother she was going to the movies. Instead, she and friends went to compete in a talent show that preceded a Ray Charles concert at the old Club Riviera.
"We won the contest, and my picture came out in the Argus and all hell broke loose," Ms. Bass told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2004. "I got my ass whipped over Ray Charles."
Bass got her start at the old Showboat Club in St. Louis when she was just 17. After graduating from Soldan High School, she continued to sing and soon found steady work with the local Leon Claxton Show, part of a national revue. She played piano and sang in the chorus.
She also began playing piano for blues singer and guitarist “Little” Milton Campbell, who moved to the St. Louis area in the mid-‘50s and began recording with a small East St. Louis label, Bobbin Records. Bobbin became home to the likes of Ike Turner and Albert King, saxophonist Oliver Sain and Ms. Bass.
It was her steppingstone to the biggest blues label of its time, Chess Records. She met the company’s promoters while playing for Campbell. They were looking to branch out into other genres.
''They thought I was a good artist,” she modestly told the Post-Dispatch in 1989. “Eventually, they called on me, and I moved to Chicago.”
Her first hit, "Don’t Mess Up A Good Thing," a duet with Bobby McClure, was released by Chess in early 1965. It was followed that summer by "You’ll Miss Me (When I’m Gone)," which enjoyed modest success. Then, all alone, she stroke gold.
Rescue me
Her signature song was released in the fall of ’65.
It was a marriage of pure gospel and pure funk, courtesy of Ms. Bass’ sweet gospel voice and the distinctive bass line of Chess session drummer Maurice White, of the future Earth, Wind, & Fire.“'Rescue Me' put her on the map,” said Ms. Bass’s longtime friend and former producer, Bernie Hayes.
On Oct. 30, the song pushed Joe Tex’s "I Want to (Do Everything for You)" out of the top R&B singles spot, and remained firmly ensconced as No. 1 for four consecutive weeks, until it was nudged aside by Marvin Gaye’s "Ain’t That Peculiar." It rose to No. 4 on the pop charts.
The record went gold and earned Ms. Bass the first of three Grammy nominations. It was nominated in the category of Contemporary Rock & Roll Female Vocal Performance; it lost to Petula Clark’s less memorable, "I Know a Place."
She enjoyed more modest success with singles "Recovery," "I Can’t Rest" and "You’ll Never Know," and an album, "The New Look," before leaving Chess in 1967.
In 1970, Ms. Bass recorded two albums, "The Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass" and "Les Stances A Sophie." The Ensemble was an avant-garde jazz group co-founded by Ms. Bass’s then-husband, famed jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie. They later divorced and he died in 1999. She toured Europe with the Ensemble before returning to St. Louis in 1972 to raise her family.
With a career on hiatus, Ms. Bass had more time to fight for the royalties she never received for one of the most popular songs of all time. She claimed co-authorship of the song; Chess denied it.
“She didn’t get royalties until 1980,” Hayes said ruefully. The radio veteran met Ms. Bass in Chicago when she was recording for Chess. “It’s a dog-eat-dog business,” he said.
It was a lesson Ms. Bass learned belatedly. She had pinned her hopes on a verbal agreement that never materialized.
"Rescue Me" has been covered by many top artists, including Pat Benatar, Cher, Melissa Manchester, Linda Ronstadt and Aretha Franklin.
To Ms. Bass’s chagrin, Pizza Hut hired Aretha Franklin to sing "Deliver Me" to the tune of "Rescue Me" in a 1991 television ad.
In 1993, she won an undisclosed settlement from American Express and the credit card’s ad agency for unauthorized use of "Rescue Me" in a commercial.
“She was an activist for her artistry,” Mitchell said. “She fought for freedom for herself and other artists.”
‘Oh Lord; oh baby’
Of course, Ms. Bass never left music completely. She continued to perform at charitable events, at music festivals, in cathedrals and, on occasion, in local clubs.
That’s where she met two young, rising jazz saxophonists the Bosman Twins in 1980.
“We were playing in a place across from the Sheldon (Concert Hall), a shotgun club called For Adults Only,” said Dwight Bosman. “I made the mistake of calling 'Rescue Me' Aretha Franklin’s tune. I don’t know how we were able to become the best of friends after that.”
The Bosmans began touring with Ms. Bass as part of the Voices of St. Louis in the ‘90s, recording two albums with her: "Live in Italy," which was never released in the U.S., and "Travellin," her last album, recorded in 2001. The Voices of St. Louis also included Ms. Bass’s younger brother, R&B artist and former "Showtime at the Apollo" winner, David Peaston, her son Bahnamous Bowie on keyboards and her son-in-law Tracy Mitchell on electric and acoustic guitars. Rounding out the ensemble was famed pianist Ptah Williams, Jimmy Hinds on bass guitar, Curtis Fondren on bass and Marsha Evans on backup vocals.
“She had perfect pitch and she had her own thing,” said Dwayne Bosman. “I was infatuated with the sound of her voice and the quality of her musicianship; her gift as a musician was phenomenal.”
The Bosmans discovered they had grown up in the same block of Euclid as Ms. Bass and shared musical roots.
“We came up playing gospel music as well,” Dwayne Bosman said, then juxtaposed the two. “Gospel says ‘oh, Lord;' the blues says ‘oh, baby.'”
“Foni came from the church, but she did R&B and jazz and the blues,” Dwight Bosman said. “Her voice was soulful, earthy; she knew just want to do to put that groove on the music and get the audience aroused.”
She had returned to her gospel roots, the music she truly believed she did best, in the mid-‘90s, and received Grammy nominations for two gospel CDs, "No Ways Tired" and "Speaking in Tongues."
"I want to let folks know that I chose gospel when I came into Christ in 1990. God gave me a talent," she told the Post-Dispatch in 2001, with the debut of "Travellin,’" "but I'm sure he didn't mean for me to do it in one area. I do secular music, too, and work with other people who aren't gospel. You can carry Christ in your heart, but you gotta work. You gotta live."
Ms. Bass was keenly aware that local artists did not always get their due, but sometimes they did.
She received a proclamation from Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. on behalf of St. Louis in 1995. She got her star on the vaunted St. Louis Walk of Fame in 2000, the same year as Olympic track star Jackie Joyner Kersee and former "Benson" TV star Robert Guillaume. Her star is at 6600 Delmar Blvd., just east of Kingsland Avenue in University City.
Ms. Bass performed at the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's 12th annual Pioneer Awards at the Apollo Theatre in New York in 2001, where she was an award winner. Other honorees included Al Green and Sly & the Family Stone.
Fontella Bass was born July 3, 1940, the daughter of Walter and Martha Bass. Big hair, big, beautiful eyes and a big voice gave Ms. Bass a big presence.
“You could feel it when she was on stage or when she entered a room,” Mitchell said. “When I traveled with her, I would see how she touched people when she performed.
“She had a natural ability to reach out to people, even when it wasn’t in English. I witnessed my mother reach people in a Harlem jazz club at 2 a.m.”
Ms. Bass was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, David Peaston, who died last February.
In addition to her daughter Nueka (Tracy) Mitchell of St. Louis and son Bahnamous (Gaylin) Bowie of New York, her survivors include another son and daughter, Larry (Marina) Stevenson and Ju’lene Coney, both of St. Louis, and 10 grandchildren.
A memorial service and musical tribute for Ms. Bass will be at 7 p.m., Fri., Jan. 4, at Shalom Church, 5491 North Highway 67 (Lindbergh), in Florissant.