FOLK LEGEND ODETTA DIES

[JRL]

FOLK LEGEND ODETTA DIES

Odetta, the folk singer with the powerful voice who moved audiences
and influenced fellow musicians for a half-century, has died. She was
77. Odetta died Tuesday of heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital, said
her manager of 12 years, Doug Yeager. She was admitted to the hospital
with kidney failure about three weeks ago, he said. In spite of
failing health that caused her to use a wheelchair, Odetta performed
60 concerts in the last two years, singing for 90 minutes at a time.
Her singing ability never diminished, Yeager said.

"The power would just come out of her like people wouldn't believe,"
he said. With her booming, classically trained voice and spare guitar,
Odetta gave life to the songs by workingmen and slaves, farmers and
miners, housewives and washerwomen, blacks and whites. First coming to
prominence in the 1950s, she influenced Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan,
Joan Baez and other singers who had roots in the folk music boom.

[judih]

oh, she was something else.
Saw her once in Stratford, Ontario, on that wonderful procenium stage. Her huge presence, that voice filled up the Shakespearean Hall - i'll never forget that concert.

r.i.p.

[JRL]

She was part of the all the folk music I was raised on, that made me who I am. Big voice, big spirit.

RIP indeed!