Bessie Griffin

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Bessie Griffin (July 6, 1922 – April 10, 1989) was an African American gospel singer.

Born Arlette B. Broil in New Orleans, Louisiana, she was steeped in church music as a child. She sang for a while with the Southern Harps, had her own radio show in New Orleans, and later appeared in night clubs, on Broadway and in 1962 on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Griffin performed briefly with "Queen of Gospel" Albertina Walker & The Caravans in 1953 but spent most of her career as a solo artist. While often compared to Mahalia Jackson, Griffin had a lighter contralto that allowed her to achieve more vocal pyrotechnics --- holding a note for long periods of time, continuing a song for as long as twenty minutes and ranging through three octaves.


[edit] Recording Career

Griffin began her known recording career with the Gospel Consolators, an a'capella group in New Orleans, in the late 1940's. They issued several 78 rpm shellac records with her billed as lead vocalist. She later recorded several singles on various labels. After moving to Chicago, she recorded briefly with the "Caravans" led by Albertina Walker. After she married Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, she recorded an album on the Decca label with an orchestra: "It Takes A Lot of Love"; "Portraits in Bronze" on the Liberty label, and joined the lucrative night club circuit singing and recording gospel albums in night clubs in the 1960's. She recorded a mono solo album on the Savoy label which was unremarkable except as a great example of her voice and Savoy's engineering ability with their mono channeling. The Nashboro label released an album recorded live in concert in stereo and Griffin continued to tour and record as her health allowed, up to her death. There is an album on the SpiritFeel label which samples her four-decade long recording career.


On her passing in 1989, Bessie Griffin was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

[edit] Further reading

  • Boyer, Horace Clarence; How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel; Elliott and Clark; 1995; ISBN 0-252-06877-7.


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