Fontella Bass - Rescue Me / Night Music with David Sanborn & Jools Holland

Fontella Marie Bass was born in 1940 in St Louis, daughter of Gospel singer Martha Bass. She was an accomplished pianist by age 5 and toured with her mother and grandmother until 16. She started her professional career at 17 and played piano in clubs. After some moderate success with Chess records she scored a million seller hit with Rescue Me which she co-wrote but got no credit and little royalty for. She and her husband Lester Bowie moved to France where she worked on some of his movies. She retired from music in 1972 to concentrate on the four children they had. In 1990 she heard her song being used in an advert without permission and sued the company. She was awarded USD50,000. Her interest in her music was revitalised and so was her career. She received a star on the St Louis Walk of Fame in 2000 and toured with her younger brother David until she fell ill, having a number of strokes, breast cancer and a leg amputation. She died in 2012.RIP Fontella. The clip shown here is her biggest hit done with Jools Holland and David Sanborn's Night Music. David is on alto sax. This is in her newly awakened years but she still has tremendous Soul power!