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I meant to write something about Odetta's passing when I heard about it on December 3rd, but it's taken me this long to process it. Time Magazine and the New York Times wrote wonderful obituaries and reviews of her work, her music and the people it influenced, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Harry Belafonte. She sang mostly gospel, spirituals and folk music, but she sang them in such a way that she sounded like a voice for an entire race, a race that was proud, had a long history in America, but was going to demand change. No wonder Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks called her their favorite singer.
Maya Angelou summed up her talent this way:"If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta's would come along, the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would hardly recognize time"
I first heard Odetta as a middle class white kid living in the North with limited, if any exposure, to African American culture. My babysitter, a rabid folkie, used to bring Odetta records over to play on my Dad's stereo. I remember chills going down my spine as Odetta's rich contralto filled the room. You could almost feel her voice reverberating inside your rib cage, even though she never "shouted" her songs.
Then, when my family moved to the South, in the midst of the turmoil of the Civil Rights Movement and George Wallace's racially charged 1968 run for President, I still remembered those Odetta songs. My eight year old self used to wonder how African Americans could be denied anything if they had Odetta on their side. From the power of her voice, I imagined her to be about 10 feet tall with superhuman powers. Especially when she sang God's Gonna Cut You Down.
Continued here.
