Odetta
Odetta Holmes ( born December 31, 1930 in Birmingham, Alabama, † December 2, 2008 in New York City ), better known by her first name Odetta, was an American singer. Their repertoire consisted primarily of folk, blues and spirituals. Odetta's songs were from the U.S. Civil rights movement ( civil rights movement ) greatly appreciated.
Biography
Odetta Holmes is the daughter of Reuben Holmes, who even died during their childhood, and Flora Sanders, with whom she moved to Los Angeles in 1937. She studied classical music at City College in Los Angeles and gathered with the musical Finian 's Rainbow first professional experience with a touring theater company. It was artistically inspired by the blues singers Mahalia Jackson and Leadbelly. Your career as a folk singer began in San Francisco in 1953, she joined in a night club in New York. The first album she recorded in 1954.
Harry Belafonte invited her in 1959 in a TV show one. With the humorous song There's a Hole in the Bucket, the duo Odetta and Belafonte placed in 1961 to No. 32 of the British charts. Their album Odetta Sings Folk Songs was one of the best selling of the year 1963. At the march on Washington for work and freedom on August 28, 1963, she appeared with her song " I'm on My Way" and the slave laborers song " Oh Freedom".
In Germany she sang in 1968 at Waldeck Festival in the Hunsrück. It influenced a number of folk / rock artists, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Janis Joplin. Dylan confessed in an interview in 1978 that it was Odetta led him to folk singing. The civil rights activist Rosa Parks called Odetta's songs as the most important songs she knew.
In several films, such as in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman or confession of a sinner Odetta also participated as an actress.
Odetta should occur with the swearing in of the newly elected U.S. President Barack Obama on 20 January 2009.