Folk Singer, Civil Rights Activist Odetta Dead at 77

Odetta (Holmes) Gordon, known to the world as simply “Odetta,” died of a heart attack in New York yesterday, December 2. She was 77 years old.

Odetta sang folk songs, ballads, blues, Civil Rights anthems, spirituals, showtunes, gospel…really just about any style of music was fodder for her straightforward delivery. Her booming contralto could cut through the densest of fog. Artists such as Tracy Chapman, Alicia Keys, and Bernice Johnson Reagon all have traces of Odetta’s style in their voice.

Spirituals historian Lyvonne Chrisman of San Francisco had alerted me to Odetta’s flagging health a couple of weeks ago. She sent me a story from www.pollstar.com that read, “Odetta apparently went to the Lenox Hill Hospital [in New York] over the weekend [ca. Nov. 7-8] for a simple IV treatment but had kidney failure Nov. 9 and is listed in critical condition. An active supporter of President-elect Barack Obama, Odetta is determined to sing at his inauguration in January, according to manager Doug Yeager.”

Yeager continued:

“Odetta believes she is going to sing at Obama’s Inauguration, and I believe that is the reason she is still alive. She has a big poster of Barack Obama taped on the wall across from her bed. Her old heart has already outperformed and lasted far beyond the expectations of the heart specialists who treated her in January-March 2007 when she had her last health crisis while touring out West. Now compounded with the kidney failure, the doctors at the hospital are trying to do everything possible to stabilize her system and prevent the weakening of her other organs. They have her on dialysis now to rid the body of the toxic poisons that have built up, and it seems to be slowly working. She is sleeping a lot, but after a dialysis treatment and some food, she is coherent and talking. She is not in pain. We are told that she will be in the ICU Unit for at least another week, and that we’ll just have to wait and see after that.”

I’m sure that somewhere over the rainbow, Odetta will be singing for Barack Obama.

I had the good fortune to see “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement” perform in the 1990s at the Abbey Pub in Chicago. Besides marveling that her battered acoustic guitar, with as many battle scars as Willie Nelson’s guitar, still sounded great, I was impressed by how powerful and strong her voice still was, thirty years or more after she sang for the 1963 March on Washington. Odetta’s voice was distinctive. I can hear it in my head right now.

Those who did not grow up during the 1960s may not realize the importance of Odetta Gordon and Miriam Makeba, and how much of a loss their passing is to the world. They broke down gender and racial barriers with the power of their voice and the wisdom of their message.