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{{Infobox musical artist
| Name = Sippie Wallace
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| Background = solo_singer
| Birth_name = Beulah Thomas
| Alias = The Texas Nightingale<ref>[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&GRid=6894516&PIgrid=6894516&PIcrid=176774&PIpi=339987& Find a Grave: Headstone marker for Beulah Wallace "Sippie"]</ref>
| Born = {{birth date|1898|11|1|mf=y}}
| Origin = {{flagicon|USA}} <small> [[Houston, Texas]], [[United States|USA]]
| Died = {{death date and age|1986|11|1|1898|11|1}}<br><small>[[Detroit, Michigan]], [[United States|USA]]</small>
| Instrument = [[Piano]], [[Organ]]
| Genre = [[Blues]], [[Jazz]]
| Occupation = [[Singer]], [[Pianist]], [[Organist]], [[Songwriter]]
| Years_active = [[1923]] – [[1986]]
| Label = [[Okeh Records|Okeh]], [[Alligator Record|Alligator]], [[Storyville Records|Storyville]], [[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]]
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}}
'''Sippie Wallace''' (born as '''Beulah Thomas''', [[November 1]], [[1898]] in [[Houston, Texas]]; died [[November 1]], [[1986]] in [[Detroit, Michigan]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[Texas blues|Texas-styled blues]] [[singer]], and [[songwriter]]. Although her recording career stretched throughout most of the '20s, her best work was done from [[1923]] to [[1927]] when she was recording with [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Johnny Dodds]], [[Sidney Bechet]], [[King Oliver]], and [[Clarence Williams]]. She recorded over 40 songs for [[Okeh Records]], many written by herself or her brothers, [[George W. Thomas|George]] and [[Hersal Thomas]].<ref>Santelli, Robert. ''The Big Book of Blues'', Penguin Books, page 486, (2001) - ISBN 0141001453</ref> Among the top female blues vocalists of her era, Wallace ranked with [[Ma Rainey]], [[Ida Cox]], [[Alberta Hunter]], and [[Bessie Smith]].
Wallace was nominated for a [[Grammy Award|Grammy Award]] in [[1982]], and was inducted into the [[Michigan Women's Hall of Fame]] in [[1993]].<ref>[http://hall.michiganwomenshalloffame.org/ Michigan Women's Hall of Fame]</ref>
==Biography==
Wallace was born Beulah Thomas in [[1898]] in [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], one of 13 children.<ref>Gates, Professor Henry Louis. ''Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience'', Basic Civitas Books, page 1956, (1999) - ISBN 0465000711</ref> In her youth Wallace sang and played the [[piano]] in Shiloh Baptist Church, where her father was a [[deacon]], but in the evenings the children took to sneaking out to [[tent shows]]. By her mid-teens, they were playing in those tent shows. By performing in the various [[Texas shows]], she built a solid following as a spirited blues singer.
Wallace came from a musical family; her brothers [[George W. Thomas]], became a notable [[pianist]], [[bandleader]], [[composer]], and [[music publisher]], and [[Hersal Thomas]], [[pianist]] and [[composer]], and her niece was [[Hociel Thomas]], [[pianist]] and [[composer]] (daughter of brother George).
In [[1915]] Wallace moved [[New Orleans, Louisiana]] with brother Hersal; two years later she married Matt Wallace, and changed her name. After following her brothers to [[Chicago, Illinois]] in [[1923]], Wallace worked her way into the city's bustling jazz scene. Her reputation led to a recording contract with [[Okeh Records]] in [[1923]]. Wallace's first recorded songs, "Shorty George" and "Up the Country Blues," the former written with her brother George, sold well enough to make Wallace a blues star in the early '20s.<ref>Santelli, Robert. ''The Big Book of Blues'' (2001), page 486</ref> Other successful recordings followed, including "Special Delivery Blues" (with [[Louis Armstrong]]), "Bedroom Blues" (written by George and Hersal Thomas), and "I'm a Mighty Tight Woman." Her younger brother Hersal died of food poisoning in [[1926]] at age sixteen.
Wallace moved to [[Detroit, Michigan|Detroit]] in [[1929]], her husband Matt and brother George both died in [[1936]]. Wallace for some forty years was a singer and [[organ]] player at the Leland Baptist Church in [[Detroit, Michigan|Detroit]]. [[Mercury Records]] reissued "Bedroom Blues" in [[1945]]. Aside from an occasional performance or recording date, Wallace did little in the blues until she launched a comeback in [[1966]] after her longtime friend [[Victoria Spivey]] coaxed her out of retirement and on the folk and blues festival circuit.
In [[1966]] recorded an album on Halloween night, [[Copenhagen, Denmark]], ''Women Be Wise'', with [[Roosevelt Sykes]] and [[Little Brother Montgomery]] sharing the piano stool, Sippie clearly shows that the intervening years had, indeed, been kind to her, belting out one great tune after another. Listing highlights is superfluous, simply because every track's a gem. The no-frills production is warm and cozy enough to make you feel like you're hearing the world's greatest one-woman concert right in your living room. And you're glad you bought a ticket.<ref>[http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/discography/index.jsp?pid=1438&aid=82143 Billboard: Women Be Wise]</ref> Another [[1966]] album ''Sings the Blues'', on the latter song, Wallace accompanied herself on piano; otherwise she is backed by either [[Roosevelt Sykes]] or [[Little Brother Montgomery]] on piano. Includes Wallace's signature song, "Women Be Wise", "Don't Advertise Your Man," The album helped inspire blues-pop singer [[Bonnie Raitt]] to take up the blues in the late '60.<ref>Dicaire, David. ''Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century'', McFarland & Company, page 204, (1999) - ISBN 0786406062</ref> In [[1971]] Raitt recorded a rendition of Sippie Wallace's "Women Be Wise" on her self-titled album ''Bonnie Raitt''. Wallace toured and recorded with Raitt in the [[1970]]s and [[1980]]s, while continuing to perform on her own.<ref>[http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=11142 All About Jazz: Sippie Wallace]</ref> The bond between Wallace and Raitt helped bridge the gap between two generations of blues queens.
Wallace recorded on [[Louis Armstrong]] album, ''Louis Armstrong and the Blues Singers'' ([[1966]]), singing "A Jealous Woman Like Me" "Special Delivery Blues", "Jack O'Diamond Blues", "The Mail Train Blues" and "I Feel Good". Wallace also recorded an album of old blues standards with her friend [[Victoria Spivey]], called ''Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey'', which came out in [[1970]] on Spivey's own self-named label. In [[1981]], Wallace recorded an album ''Sippie'' for [[Atlantic Records]], which earned a her a [[1983]] [[Grammy]] nomination,<ref>[http://theenvelope.latimes.com/factsheets/awardsdb/env-awards-db-search,0,7169155.htmlstory?searchtype=all&query=Sippie&x=9&y=7 Grammy Awards Database]</ref> and also won the [[1982]] [[W. C. Handy Award]] for Best Blues Album of the Year.<ref>[http://www.blues.org/handys/pastyears.php4?YearId=24 The Blues Foundation 1982]</ref> Sippie's backup group on were pianist Jim Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band, consisting of cornetist Paul Klinger, trombonist Bob Smith and Russ Whitman and Peter Ferran on reeds. Sippie Wallace revives some of her best-known [[1920]]s numbers ("Woman Be Wise," "Up the Country Blues," "Mighty Tight Woman" and "Suitcase Blues") and performs a few vintage standards too.
In [[1966]] and [[1967]] she appeared at the [[Newport Folk Blues Festival]], [[Copenhagen, Denmark]] performance in [[1966]], the [[Chicago Blues Festival]], [[1967]], the [[Ann Arbor Blues Festival]], [[1972]], and appeared at [[Lincoln Center]] in [[New York]], [[1977]]. She played herself in the documentary "Jammin' with the Blues Greats" (1982).<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298942/ imdb: "Jammin' with the Blues Greats"]</ref>
Then in [[Ann Arbor, Michigan]] she got together with German [[boogie woogie]] pianist [[Axel Zwingenberger]], with whom she recorded a studio album in [[1983]]. Wallace included many of her own groundbreaking compositions as well as other classic blues songs, on his album, ''And the Friends of Boogie, Vol. 1: Sippie Wallace'', released in [[1992]]. In [[1983]] and [[1984]] she traveled to Germany to tour with Axel.
In March [[1986]], following a concert in [[Mainz|Mainz, Germany]], she suffered a severe stroke, hospitalized, returned to the US, and died on her 88th birthday at Sinai Hospital in [[Detroit, Michigan]].<ref>[http://www.answers.com/topic/sippie-wallace?cat=entertainment Sippie Wallace bio]</ref> She is buried at Trinity Cemetery, [[Detroit]], [[Wayne County, Michigan]], [[United States|USA]].<ref>[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6894516 Trinity Cemetery]</ref>
Producer Roberta Grossman, Rhapsody Films "Sippie Wallace: Blues Singer and Song Writer" a [[1986]] documentary about Sippie Wallace, she is represented in this film portrait by means of concert footage, interviews, historic rare recordings and photographs.<ref>[http://class.csueastbay.edu/music/MRC/VHS/VHS.htm California State University Video Tape Library: "Sippie Wallace: Blues Singer and Song Writer" ]</ref>
==Selective discography==
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Title
!Genre
!Label
|-
|1982
|''Sippie''
|Blues
|Atlantic
|<br>
|-
|1970
|''Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey''
|Blues
|Spivey
|<br>
|-
|1966
|''Sings the Blues''
|Blues
|Storyville
|<br>
|-
|1966
|''Women Be Wise''
|Blues
|Alligator
|<br>
|-
|1923
|''1923-1929''
|Blues
|Document
|<br>
|}
==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://www.redhotjazz.com/wallace.html Sippie Wallace on RedHotJazz] - Biography with audio files of some of her early recordings.
* [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/WW/fwaal.html Handbook of Texas online biography]
* [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sippie+wallace Videos on YouTube]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, Sippie}}
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