Barbara Dane (born May 12, 1927) is an American folk, blues, and jazz singer. She co-founded Paredon Records with Irwin Silber.
Barbara Dane's parents arrived in Detroit from Arkansas in the
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1920s. Out of high school, Dane began to sing regularly at demonstrations for racial equality and economic justice. While still in her teens, she sat in with bands around town and won the interest of local music promoters. She got an offer to tour with Alvino Rey's band, but she turned it down in favour of singing at factory gates and in union halls.
1920s. Out of high school, Dane began to sing regularly at demonstrations for racial equality and economic justice. While still in her teens, she sat in with bands around town and won the interest of local music promoters. She got an offer to tour with Alvino Rey's band, but she turned it down in favour of singing at factory gates and in union halls.By 1959, Louis Armstrong had asked Time magazine readers: "Did you get that chick? She's a gasser!" and invited her to appear with him on national television. She appeared with Armstrong on the Timex All-Star Jazz Show hosted by Jackie
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Gleason on January 7, 1959. She toured the East Coast with Jack Teagarden, appeared in Chicago with Art Hodes, Roosevelt Sykes, Little Brother Montgomery, Memphis Slim, Otis Spann, Willie Dixon and others, played New York with Wilbur De Paris and his band, and appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as a solo guest artist.
Gleason on January 7, 1959. She toured the East Coast with Jack Teagarden, appeared in Chicago with Art Hodes, Roosevelt Sykes, Little Brother Montgomery, Memphis Slim, Otis Spann, Willie Dixon and others, played New York with Wilbur De Paris and his band, and appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as a solo guest artist.
Other national TV work included The Steve Allen Show, Bobby Troup's Stars of Jazz, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1961, the singer opened her own club, Sugar Hill: Home of the Blues, on San Francisco's Broadway in the North Beach district, with the idea of creating a venue for the blues in a tourist district where a wider audience could hear it. There Dane performed regularly with her two most constant musical companions: Kenny "Good News" Whitson on piano and cornet and Wellman Braud, former Ellington bassist.
In her speech to the GI Movement of the Vietnam War Era Barbara Dane said, "I was too stubborn to hire one of the greed-head managers, probably because I'm a woman who likes to speak for herself. I always made my own deals and contracts,
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and after figuring out the economics of it, I was free to choose when and where I worked, able to spend lots more time with my three children and doing political work, and even brought home more money in the end, by not going for the 'big-time.' I did make some really nice records, because I was able to choose and work with wonderfully gifted musicians."
and after figuring out the economics of it, I was free to choose when and where I worked, able to spend lots more time with my three children and doing political work, and even brought home more money in the end, by not going for the 'big-time.' I did make some really nice records, because I was able to choose and work with wonderfully gifted musicians."
In 1970, Dane founded Paredon Records with husband Irwin Silber, a label specializing in international protest music. She produced nearly 50 albums, including three of her own, over a 12-year period. The label was later incorporated into Smithsonian-Folkways, a label of the Smithsonian Institution, and is available through its catalogue In 1978, Dane appeared with Pete Seeger at a rally in New York for striking coal miners.
When she was in her late 70s, Philip Elwood, jazz critic of the San Francisco Examiner, said of her: "Dane is back and beautiful...she has an immense voice, remarkably well-tuned...capable of exquisite presentations regardless of the material. As a gut-level blues singer she is without compare." Blues writer Lee Hildebrand calls her "perhaps the finest living interpreter of the classic blues of the 1920s."
In a 2010 profile on Barbara produced by Steven Short of KALW in San Francisco, Bonnie Raitt said "she’s always been a role model and a hero of mine, musically and politically. I mean, the arc of her life so informs mine that I really can’t think of anyone I admire [more], the way that she’s lived her life." The interview is archived on KALW's website.
Barbara continues to share her legacy of song well into the 21st Century. In celebration of her 90th year, Barbara did concerts at SFJAZZ, UCLA's Royce Hall, Berkeley's Freight & Salvage and Joe's Pub in NYC. (Edited mainly from Wikipedia)