"If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta's would come along, the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would hardly recognize time" – Maya Angelou, Poet Laureate

Her name is simply Odetta. Over the course of the last half-century, she has become one of the most celebrated figures in music and an American cultural icon.

Odetta has sung for American Presidents, walked arm-in-arm with great leaders of the Civil Rights movement and served as an inspiration to several generations of musicians, most famously Bob Dylan. She is one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century, with countless artists indebted to her pioneering ways. Before Odetta, no solo woman performer, or African American woman, singing blues, folk, work and protest songs had recorded or toured.

Today, at 75, Odetta is still singing, still working for social justice, still celebrating the enduring spirit of humanity. 

Odetta was born on New Year's Eve in 1930 in Birmingham, Alabama as America entered the second year of the Great Depression, segregation and disfranchisement remained in place, and the droughts of the Dust Bowl forced poor families off the land. As a child in Alabama and then in Los Angeles, California, she knew difficult times and for a time cleaned houses. But her singing talent was spotted early on and led to formal voice lessons at 14. She dreamed of being a classical singer however she was aware that even the great Marian Anderson couldn't break through the segregationist barriers of the major opera companies. She joined an ensemble cast headed by Elsa Lancaster at Hollywood's Turnabout Theatre and then, at age 19, became a member of the chorus for West Coast productions of Finian's Rainbow and Guys and Dolls.

Odetta found her way into the folk music scene in the early 1950s , singing at the famed Hungry i and the Tin Angel in San Francisco and the Blue Angel in New York City.   Word spread like wildfire across the country, of this powerful black woman singing Negro folk songs that could shake the rafters with her voice, touch your soul with her words and move you with her dramatic presence. She began to attract the attention of those already legends – Big Bill Broonzy and Josh White, for example – as well as those who were already influential. Early on, Pete Seeger and Harry Belafonte became champions of her remarkable talent. She was breaking ground, for black women and for women musicians.

During this time, Odetta explored vast landscapes of music and developed a passion for American folk music which, for Odetta, encompasses "more than folk songs handed down from the generations. It includes work songs, game songs, children's songs, gospel and blues….songs from people who had to entertain themselves outside of their daily work and songs for people and their emotional needs."  Much of her research and her eventual repertoire came from The Archives of Folk Music at The Library of Congress.

By the civil rights movement of the 1960's, Odetta had already cut two vastly influential LPs, Odetta at Carnegie Hall and Odetta at Town Hall.  Perhaps not surprisingly, she became the vocal backdrop for the movement.  She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma and it was Dr. King who dubbed her "the Queen of American Folk Music."  With Dr. King she marched on Washington D.C. in 1963 and sang for the masses from the podium. Years later when Rosa Parks was asked by her biographer, Douglas Brinkley,  which songs of the civil rights movement mattered most to her, she replied, "Essentially, all of the songs Odetta sings."

Odetta was having a major influence – on American society and on American music. She performed for President Kennedy and his cabinet on the nationally televised civil rights special "Dinner with the President," brought the houses down at the Newport Festival and at her triumphant Carnegie Hall concerts, appeared on national TV Specials, and toured the world's greatest stages.  She also became the first major influence on the future careers of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin.  Dylan reported that he traded in his electric guitar and amp for an acoustic guitar in 1956 after hearing Odetta's new release. Janis Joplin wrote that she first learned to sing by copying Odetta, citing Odetta as her earliest influence alongside the legendary Bessie Smith. In the 1950s and 60s Odetta's classic recordings of "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands," "Kumbaya," "Goodnight Irene," "This Little Light of Mine" and "Amazing Grace," became folk and spiritual classics throughout the world and inspired an entire generation of listeners as well as artists.  

Odetta also has numerous film credits to her name from the 50's, 60's and 70's.  She appeared in an adaptation of William Faulkner's Sanctuary with Yves Montand and Lee Remick, the wide-screen spectacular Cinerama Holiday, and the Emmy Award-winning television presentation of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman with Cicely Tyson. She also appeared as a guest on the groundbreaking Tonight with Belafonte television special, acted in the prestigious Stratford stage production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible and sang in the Gian Carlo Menotti opera The Medium.

Odetta's legacy continued throughout the 1970's, 80's and 90's. In 1972, along with Marian Anderson,  Paul  Robeson and  Eubie Blake, she  was among  the first  group of recipients of the Duke Ellington Fellowship Award. She toured world stages, appeared in film and stage productions, and kept on recording and performing. In 1999 she was honored by President Bill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton at the White House with the National Medal of Arts & Humanities.

In 2000, Odetta returned to the studio for the first time in fourteen years and recorded Blues Everywhere I Go on M.C. Records as a tribute to the female African-American singers and songwriters who created the historic urban blues of the 1920's and 30's: Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Ma Rainey, and others. The release received immediate critical acclaim, including in The New York Times "Top Ten Albums of the Year" list, and was nominated for a Grammy award.

2001 saw the release of Lookin' For A Home, also on M.C. Records.  Comprised of songs celebrating the work of the legendary Leadbelly, Odetta brings new interpretations to tunes from the American songbook. The release won accolades both for its musical achievement and its powerful reflection on the social commentary woven into Leadbelly's songs.

In 2003, Odetta received two more prestigious honors: the Kennedy Center's first-ever "Visionary Award" (along with Ray Charles, Dick Gregory, Jimmy Heath, Geoffrey Holder, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee), and the "Living Legend Award" from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., only the fourth individual ever so honored by this national institution. She also took time out to record two songs for an all-star tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Shout, Sister, Shout!, on M.C. Records. Sister Rosetta is perhaps America's most famous sanctified singer, a pioneering African-American woman in her own right, whose songwriting and performing set the stage for the gospel explosion.

In 2005, amid a hectic schedule of performances, appearances, and European tours, Odetta continued her work with M.C. Records and recorded Gonna Let It Shine, a live performance with the Holmes Brothers and accompanied by Seth Farber on piano. Here Odetta chose to return to the African-American spirituals, especially those connected to the Christmas season, which gave inspiration to generations. In explaining her choice, Odetta simply said, "These songs come out of difficult times, and since the difficult times haven't been fixed, the songs are still here for us."

But more than the difficult times, what shines through is the jubilation of these songs, "the joy…the way of teaching and of passing on information" from generation to generation, as Odetta notes in her rap with the audience throughout her performance with explanatory notes and stories of the songs' origins and meanings.  In this light, the inclusion in this concert, and CD, of the so-called "Freedom Trilogy" – songs she performed and which became as a clarion call during the civil rights movement -- makes sense and brings Odetta's powerful contribution to American arts and humanities full circle.

Looking back over the years, Odetta said in 2005, "Paul Robeson is a hero of mine. He taught me that it's not only possible but necessary to be responsible to our brothers and sisters throughout the world."

Perhaps this is why one journalist once wrote of Odetta, "if the voice of the people had a name, that name would be Odetta."

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