BHM: A White Girl's Belated Education to Detroit's Black Bottom Women In Music
From Della Reese and Aretha Franklin to The Satin Doll Revue
Inside This Issue
My Belated Education to Detroit's Black Bottom & Its Music Scene
Black Bottom’s Rev. Dr. Della Reese
Satin Doll Revue
Black Women Who Write About Black Women in Music
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BHM: A White Girl's Belated Education to Detroit's Black Bottom Women In Music
Writers have the enormous responsibility and honor of ensuring that music history is presented and preserved through a crafted balance of curiosity, fact, and perspective. Sometimes, all three come later in life.
As a Gen X white girl who grew up in the Detroit suburbs, Chaka Khan, Sheila E., The Pointer Sisters, Whitney Houston, Sade, Tina Turner, Donna Summer, Klymaxx, Aretha Franklin, and Motown acts like Martha Reeves and The Vandellas and The Supremes were a huge influence on my musical tastes. Yet, I was too young and inexperienced to understand their cultural and influential significance in the grand scheme of music history. All that mattered was they were amazing artists whose lyrics and melodies uplifted me.
Part of my ignorance was due to the fact that black women in music rarely got the press coverage that their white counterparts received in mainstream media. As an avid subscriber of Rolling Stone Magazine, the undisputed music media source of the 1970s and ‘80s, it never occurred to me that that my music education was completely skewed toward stories about white men. MTV offered wider inclusion in a visual delivery, but not from an educational standpoint. You would have to venture into Ebony or Essence magazines to find regular features on black entertainers. Neither targeted my demographic, and it never occurred to me to seek them out.
In 1987, I left the area for college and never looked back. In 2021, my husband and I made the surprising choice to leave Austin, Texas and moved to the Detroit metro area.
Two weekends ago, I drove down Woodward Avenue through snow and slush to the Detroit Historical Museum. They have a permanent Detroit Music History room that I hadn’t seen since moving back to Michigan. The added incentive was the “10 Years Black, 10 Years Forward” exhibit celebrating the Black Bottoms Archives’ 10-year anniversary. The BBA’s mission is to document the neighborhood’s voices through storytelling while current city renaissance threatens to whitewash history.
The BBA effectively educated me. The Black Bottom neighborhood was named such because of the dark, rich soil nurtured by the Detroit River— not because of anyone’s skin color. It became a popular destination during the Great Migration for blacks looking for jobs in the automotive industry and supporting residential businesses in the early 1900’s. By the 1940s, Black Bottom and the Paradise Valley adjacent neighborhoods were home to more than 300 black-owned businesses, according to the BBA.
Between the 1950s and 1970s, the City of Detroit demolished the neighborhood to build the Chrysler Freeway and Lafayette Park, a white residential district.
During their heyday, the neighborhoods attracted musical heavy hitters like Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Sammy Davis, Jr., and other touring acts. Former resident Earnest Wagner likened the Black Bottom/Hastings Street scene to New Orleans/Bourbon Street in this WDIV Channel 4 Interview. Live music filled either clubs or homes 24/7. Wagner says that as a child he fell asleep listening to John Lee Hooker playing the blues next door.
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Black Bottom’s Della Reese
Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) is perhaps the most famous person from Black Bottom. Yet I just discovered that singer, actor, author, and minister Rev. Dr. Della Reese (1931-2017) grew up in the area at the height of its popularity. Neither were mentioned in the WDIV interview. Franklin is prominently featured in the DHM exhibit, but Reese is simply named on a label as a headliner at the Flame Showbar. In fact, I missed it the first time around and had to call the museum to confirm there was some mention of Reese. The male-dominated bands and orchestras are the main focus for that time period.
Reese grew up singing gospel music and joined Detroit’s famed The Meditation Singers. When the pay for gospel music proved lacking, she turned to secular music. She got a gig at the Oriel Bowling Alley and won first place in its talent competition with her rich, smokey vocals. The prize was an appearance at The Flame in New York City. Audiences loved Reese so much that her appearance turned into an 18-week engagement, according to Wikipedia.
Reese went on to record 26 albums, with her first hit single “And That Reminds Me” in 1957.
Her biggest hit was “Don’t You Know” and her currently highest streamed song on Spotify is “Come On-A My House,” written by Ross Bagdasarian and William Saroyan and originally recorded by Rosemary Clooney in 1951.
In 1960, her performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” made Reese the first black music artist to perform at an All-Star game.
Reese’s stage presence and vocal talent attracted the eyes of Hollywood with appearances on a variety of shows. The leap to acting was a small one as she felt it was based on the same skills needed to sing in front of an audience. This clip of Reese singing “Ease On Down The Road” live on the Sanford & Son set with Red Foxx sneaking in for a quick dance is my favorite.
In 1994, Reese (then in her 60’s) was offered a role on the prime time show Touched By An Angel. According to the New York Times, God spoke to her clear as day and told her to take the part and she could retire within 10 years. Who was she to argue? Reese held a press conference three years into the show’s success announcing that CBS had given her costar Roma Downey a 100% salary increase, but only gave her a 12.5% increase. She and the station settled their dispute and her salary increased from $40k to $100k per episode. The show lasted nine years and she might have retired as God predicted she could, but she continued working anyway.
Reese went on to star in big screen and small screen movies as well, such as her role alongside Queen Latifah in Beauty Shop (2005). She finally retired in 2014 before passing in 2017. This clip with Reese, Latifah, and Alicia Silverstone is comedy gold.
Reese’s love life was quite the journey. Her first husband was abusive. Her next two husbands were still legally married to their previous wives - can you imagine finding that out two marriages in a row? Her final and lasting marriage to music promoter and manager Franklin Lett. She had one adopted daughter, who died in 2002.
Reese went on to write four books, including her autobiography Angels Along The Way. She also returned to her gospel roots, and became an ordained minister who founded her own church called Understanding Principles for Better Living. Reese died at her home in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles on November 19, 2017, at the age of 86 after a long struggle with Type 2 diabetes.
That snowy, gray afternoon at the BBA and Motor City Music exhibits led me to discover Reese’s Detroit roots, and my cup runneth over with music history nostalgia. But what about the Black Bottom and Paradise Valley scene today?
The Satin Doll Revue
Celebrating the spirit of Black Bottom’s musical history, a group of Detroit women formed the Satin Doll Revue. It is defined as “a retrospective display of the songs and spirit that defined America’s beloved First Ladies of Jazz.”
If you know about my upcoming book First Ladies of Music: A Rockin’ Activity & Coloring Book, you’ll know that I’m a bit obsessed with the first ladies of any genre and the first to kick through any glass ceilings in the music biz. Naturally, the Satin Doll Revue excites me.
Local chanteuse Sky Covington leads the charge in spotlighting jazz singers and their songs. Covington said she was inspired to create the revue after hearing that local female jazz singers didn’t get along. In a 2023 interview with The Detroit News, she said women were reaching out and asking to join the fun for their Black History Month event. Here is an interview and performance with Covington from last year’s BHM event feature on Live In The D.
The Doll’s next event is Monday, February 24th, and I can’t wait to see the lineup. Here’s the promo from Facebook. It’s possible I may follow this show up with a review, but sometimes I like to keep a live experience to myself… like writing about it may somehow alter the magic. Weird hearing that from a writer, yes?
Grab tickets here if you’re in the area.
Black Women Who Write About Black Women in Music
In honor of BHM, I’d like to introduce you to a few writers who are broadening my knowledge of black music history. Please subscribe to them if you find yourself wanting to better understand the rich contributions that black women and men have made in shaping modern music. Names link to their Substack profiles so you can browse their publications.
Please refer other female writers covering black women in music in the comments so I can further expand my Herizons.
Danyel Smith. Writer, producer, and editor at large, Smith is author of Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women In Pop, and creator/host of the Black Girl Songbook podcast. She also writes for the New York Times Magazine.
Harmony Holiday. Holiday is working on her version of the American songbook that will evolve into a memoir through song called Love is War for Miles. She writes about what she hears in a song, a voice, an echo, a phrase, a movement style that is also an acoustic sensation, etc. She interviews and profiles some of her favorite musicians in her Substack “Black Music and Black Muses.”
Aailiyah Humphrey. Humphrey’s Substack “The Hourglass Melody” is only a few months old, and showing lots of promise. Her write up on British artist Linda Lewis shows you what Humphrey has in store for us.
Thank you for joining our band of dreamers, rule breakers, and rockstars.
That’s a wrap!
Thea 🎶
Fabulous! What an intro to those who don't remember Della Reese. The Satin Doll Revue sounds very inviting and promising. Thank you for another great letter and education.
I knew Della from TV but didn't know her as a singer, so thanks for the overview of that. The comedy clip was really fun.