Just listend to a collection of her singles from the 60s and 70´s. Incredible stuff. I have to admit, that I never heard of Etta James before ( Shame on me!) It`s really something to discover. Any opinion, anyone seen her live?
Etta seemed an anomoly at Chess. She sounded like she belonged at Stax/Volt instead. I like her gritty soul singing though. I know Janis Joplin patterned her vocal stylings after Etta, but Im sorry, Janis never came near having the vocals that Etta did. I like Etta's "Tell Mama", "Id Rather Go Blind", the very early "Wallflower (aka Roll With Me Henry) and her cover of Jimmy Reed's "Baby What You Want me To Do". In the latter its clear where Janis gets her vocal styling from, because Etta just groans growls, and moans the song.
Sadly she cancelled all gigs because of recovering from pneumonia. I´ll go to the north sea jazz festival, she cancelled this one too, but still some nice acts to come ( Buddy Guy, Paul Simon, Tower of power, Alicia Keys, Bootsy Collins, Sharon Jones, Maceo Parker .....) Really looking forward to.
It came out a few years ago that her dad was Minnesota Fats! Sounds like a joke, but it's not...
The one and only time I saw her, and I never heard of her prior to this, was at the Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll show in St. Louis, after her song, she was leading the entire band through some great blues standards while they were changing film reels, was great! Richards, Claption, Cray, Chuck, all up there jamming away with her!