Good morning and Happy Hump Day P.O.U. Fam!
The Chicago Soul series continues today with the legendary Etta James — one of the most dynamic jazz, gospel, r&b, rock, and soul singers in music today.
Etta James was born Jamesette Hawkins in Los Angeles in 1938. Though brought up in the church, she was drawn to rhythm & blues and rock and roll. By her mid-teens, James had formed a vocal trio that caught the attention of bandleader Johnny Otis. Her first hit “The Wallflower” topped the R&B chart for four weeks in 1955. James toured the R&B circuit with Otis and other artists and recorded for Modern Records until 1958.
It was at the Chicago-based Chess label (where she recorded for Chess and its Argo and Cadet subsidiaries) that she molded her identity as a singer of both modern blues and R&B ballads. She was signed by Leonard Chess in 1960.
Etta James crossed over to the pop market as an interpreter of soulful, jazz-tinged ballads such as “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “My Dearest Darling,” “Trust in Me” and “Don’t Cry, Baby.” In 1968, she adapted a grittier Southern-soul edge, cutting “Tell Mama” and “I’d Rather Go Blind,” which remain among the most fiery vocal performances of the era. All totaled, James launched thirty singles onto the R&B singles chart and placed a respectable nine of them in the pop Top Forty as well.
With suggestive stage antics and a sassy attitude, James continued to perform and record well into the 2000s. Always soulful, her extraordinary voice has been showcased to great effect on her recent private releases, including Blue Gardenia, which rose to the top of the Billboard jazz chart. In 2003, Etta James released Let’s Roll, which won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Her sons, Donto and Sametto James served as producers on the recording. The team regrouped for her next effort, Blues to the Bone (2004), which brought James her third Grammy Award—this time in the Best Traditional Blues Album category.
Ms. James has faced a bevy of health issues including leukemia over the past year. During a hospitalization, her son Donto revealed that James was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2009, and attributed her previous comments about Beyoncé Knowles to the disease. Etta James is currently undergoing treatment for leukemia.
