Fontella Bass was born in 1940 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was a gifted musician from an early age, singing in church at the age of six and touring with her mother Martha, who was a member of the Clara Ward Singers. While still at high school, she took an interest in secular music and started singing and playing piano in local clubs.

Fontella Bass
Photo: Chess Records Trade Ad (Wikimedia Commons)
Fontella Bass started her professional career in 1961, working on Leon Claxton’s Carnival Show for two weeks and then being signed up to join Little Milton’s backing band as a pianist. Before too long she had an opportunity to sing too. That led to her first recording sessions in 1962, where she cut two singles for Bobbin Records. Bass then worked with Ike Turner, releasing two more singles on Turner’s labels. None of these songs made any great impression.

Her luck changed in 1965, when she signed for Chess and was allocated to the Checker subsidiary label. During her time in Little Milton’s band, she had sung with Bobby McClure, and he too was signed to Chess. They cut two singles together in 1965, the first of which, “Don’t Mess Up a Good Thing”, went to number five on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and number thirty-three on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. The follow-up, “You’ll Miss Me (When I’m Gone)”, also made the top thirty R&B.

Bass also made two solo singles in the Chess recording studio in 1965, which finally put her on the R&B map internationally, “Rescue Me” and “Recovery”. “Rescue Me” is credited to Chess songwriters Raynard Miner and Carl Smith, although Bass herself has also claimed some of the credit for the song. The band for the session was a strong line-up, including Maurice White (drums), Louis Satterfield (bass), Gene Barge (tenor saxophone), Pete Cosey (guitar), Gerald Sims (guitar), Leonard Caston (piano), Sonny Thompson (organ) and Charles Stepney (vibes). Minnie Riperton was one of the backing vocalists and Billy Davis was producer. The single went to number four on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and to number one on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, where it stayed for a month. In the UK, the song reached number eleven on the Pop chart. The single sold over a million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. The song was also nominated for a Grammy award.

The follow-up “Recovery” did less well, but still entered the charts, reaching number thirteen on the Billboard R&B chart and number thirty-seven on the Hot 100. Two more singles and an album, “The ‘New’ Look”, were released on Checker in 1966. The singles entered the R&B chart and the album sold quite well, but Bass was not happy at Chess. The failure of the company to give her a co-writing credit for her best song was a problem that was never resolved at the time and so she moved on.
She went to Paris with her husband Jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie in 1969. Whilst in France she was involved with only two recordings. The first was an album recorded with a band that included her husband, entitled “Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass”. The second was a soundtrack album for the film “Les Stances A Sophie”.
She later returned to the USA and tried to pick up her career in music, but things didn’t work out. An album, “Free”, was released on Paula Records in 1971, but it did not sell well. Fontella Bass then returned to her roots, making a series of Gospel albums, including two with her mother and brother.
Fontella Bass died in 2012 in St. Louis at the age of 72. She wasn’t able to build on her iconic 1965 hit, but maybe it was hard to improve on the perfection of “Rescue Me”.