Odetta, the folk singer who was an essential part of the soundtrack to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, died of heart failure yesterday in Manhattan. She was only 77, which is remarkable considering she seemed such a monumental, grown-up presence in contrast to youngsters like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez who knelt at her feet during the '60s folk revival. Here she is in a clip from the Newport Folk Festival, and below that, from Tavis Smiley's show in January.
Odetta played her last Philadelphia-area show in January at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, when she took part in a benefit to raise money to buy a gravestone for Sister Rosetta Tharpe's resting place in Northwood Cemetery. Inquirer reviewer David Stampone had this to say:
The regal Odetta, 77, followed, seated in a wheelchair but in full vocal command, accompanied by Seth Farber on piano (taking time off from his musical duties in Broadway's Hairspray). Odetta got the house singing along on "This Little Light of Mine" and charmed the crowd with earthy observations about the less dangerous sex back in the day, before doing her stately medley "Careless Love/St. Louis Blues. "
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