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Biography
Infobox musical artist| name = Sippie Wallace| image =| caption =| image_size =| background = solo_singer| birth_name = Beulah Thomas| birth_date = birth date|1898|11|1|mf=y| birth_place = Houston , Texas , United States | death_date = death date and age|1986|11|1|1898|11|1| death_place = Detroit , Michigan , United States| instrument = Piano , organ (music)|organ | genre = Blues , jazz | occupation = Singing|Singer , pianist , organist , songwriter | years_active = ca. 1918–1986| label = Okeh Records|Okeh , Victor Records|Victor , Alligator Records|Alligator , Storyville Records|Storyville , Atlantic Records|Atlantic Sippie Wallace (born as Beulah Thomas , November 1, 1898 – November 1, 1986) was an United States|American singer-songwriter. Her early career in local tent shows gained her the billing "The Texas Nightingale". Between 1923 and 1927, she recorded over 40 songs for Okeh Records , many written by herself or her brothers, George W. Thomas|George and Hersal Thomas .Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues , Penguin Books, pg. 486, (2001) - ISBN 0-14-100145-3 Her accompanists included Louis Armstrong , Johnny Dodds , Sidney Bechet , King Oliver , and Clarence Williams . Among the top female blues vocalists of her era, Wallace ranked with Ma Rainey , Ida Cox , Alberta Hunter , and Bessie Smith .
In the 1930s, she left show business to become a church organist, singer, and choir director in Detroit, Michigan|Detroit , and performed secular music only sporadically until the 1960s, when she resumed her career. Wallace was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1982, and was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. http://hall.michiganwomenshalloffame.org/ Michigan Women's Hall of Fame
Biography
Wallace was born in Houston , Texas , one of 13 children.Gates, Professor Henry Louis. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience , Basic Civitas Books, page 1956, (1999) - ISBN 0-465-00071-1 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. Citation needed|date=August 2011 Wallace came from a musical family: her brother George W. Thomas became a notable pianist , bandleader , composer , and music publisher (sheet music)|music publisher ; her other brother Hersal Thomas was a pianist and composer ; and her niece (George's daughter) Hociel Thomas was a pianist and composer . Citation needed|date=August 2011
Marriage
In 1915 Wallace moved to New Orleans, Louisiana with brother Hersal; two years later she married Matt Wallace, and changed her name.
Career
After following her brothers to Chicago, Illinois|Chicago 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 1920s.Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues (2001), page 486 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 16.
Wallace moved to Detroit, Michigan|Detroit in 1929. Her husband Matt and brother George both died in 1936. Wallace for some 40 years was a singer and Organ (music)|organ player at the Leland Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan|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 Wallace recorded an album on Halloween night, Copenhagen, Denmark , Women Be Wise , with Roosevelt Sykes and Little Brother Montgomery sharing the piano stool. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/discography/index.jsp? pid=1438& aid=82143 Billboard: Women Be Wise 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 1960.Dicaire, David. Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century , McFarland & Company, page 204, (1999) - ISBN 0-7864-0606-2 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. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php? id=11142 All About Jazz: Sippie Wallace 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, http://theenvelope.latimes.com/factsheets/awardsdb/env-awards-db-search,0,7169155.htmlstory? searchtype=all& query=Sippie& x=9& y=7 Grammy Awards Database and also won the 1982 W. C. Handy Award for Best Blues Album of the Year. http://www.blues.org/handys/pastyears.php4? YearId=24 The Blues Foundation 1982 Wallace'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.
In 1966 and 1967 she appeared at the Newport Folk Festival , toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival , e.g. Copenhagen, Denmark 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). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298942/ imdb: "Jammin' with the Blues Greats"
On July 22, 1982 at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Sippie shared the stage with the King of the Blues, B.B. King, which was filmed and later broadcast.
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 1984. In 1984 she traveled to Germany to tour with Zwingenberger, where they also recorded the only complete live album she ever did: An Evening With Sippie Wallace for Vagabond Records.
Death
In March 1986, following a concert in Germany at Burghausen, Altötting|Burghausen Jazz Festival, she suffered a severe stroke, was hospitalized, returned to the US, and died on her 88th birthday at Sinai Hospital in Detroit , Michigan . http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3435000203.html Sippie Wallace Encyclopedia Biography She is buried at Trinity Cemetery, Detroit , Wayne County, Michigan . http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi? page=gr& GRid=6894516 Trinity Cemetery
Documentary
In 1986, Rhapsody Films and producer Roberta Grossman released Sippie Wallace: Blues Singer and Song Writer , a documentary about Sippie Wallace, who is represented in this film portrait by means of concert footage, interviews, historic rare recordings and photographs. http://class.csueastbay.edu/music/MRC/VHS/VHS.htm California State University Video Tape Library: "Sippie Wallace: Blues Singer and Song Writer"
http://www.redhotjazz.com/wallace.html Sippie Wallace on RedHotJazz - Biography with audio files of some of her early recordings.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/WW/fwaal.html Handbook of Texas online biography
http://www.youtube.com/results? search_query=sippie+wallace Videos on YouTube
Persondata | NAME =Thomas, Beulah | ALTERNATIVE NAMES =Wallace, Sippie | SHORT DESCRIPTION =American blues and jazz singer | DATE OF BIRTH =November 1, 1898 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Houston , Texas , United States | DATE OF DEATH =November 1, 1986 | PLACE OF DEATH = Detroit , Michigan , United States DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, Sippie Category:Classic female blues singers Category:1898 births Category:1986 deaths Category:African American musicians Category:American blues singers Category:American female singers Category:Blues Hall of Fame inductees Category:Deaths from stroke Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Disease-related deaths in Michigan Category:Musicians from Houston, Texas
