Barbara Dane
Barbara Dane | |
|---|---|
Dane performing in 1960 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Barbara Jean Spillman |
| Born | May 12, 1927 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | October 20, 2024 (aged 97) Oakland, California, U.S. |
| Genres |
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| Occupation | Singer |
| Instruments |
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| Labels | Smithsonian Folkways |
| Website | barbaradane |
Barbara Jean Spillman (May 12, 1927 – October 20, 2024), known professionally as Barbara Dane, was an American folk, blues, and jazz singer, guitarist, record producer, and political activist. She co-founded Paredon Records with Irwin Silber.
"Bessie Smith in stereo," wrote jazz critic Leonard Feather of Dane in the late 1950s. Time wrote of Dane: "The voice is pure, rich ... rare as a 20-carat diamond" and quoted Louis Armstrong's exclamation upon hearing her at the Pasadena jazz festival: "Did you get that chick? She's a gasser!" On the occasion of her 85th birthday, The Boston Globe music critic James Reed called her "one of the true unsung heroes of American music."