ESPECIAL COVID-19
Amb la intenció de fer més amena l’estada durant aquest dies, us proposem la lectura de l’entrevista realitzada a Irma Thomas per Big Mama Montse i amb fotografies de Carme Barrera, durant el Festival de Blues de Lucerne (Suïssa), novembre de 2012, i que es va publicar en el seu moment a la revista francesa Blues & Co. L’entrevista es va poder realitzar gràcies a la intermediació de Peter Astrup, director del Festival de Blues de Frederikshavn (Blues Heaven on Earth) qui va aconseguir que la Reina del Soul de Nova Orleans accedís a respondre al qüestionari al mateix hotel on estava allotjada. Aquí la teniu, en versió original i tal i com es va publicar en francès. Desitjem que us agradi!
IRMA THOMAS
When we were at the Lucerne Blues Festival, we had the great pleasure to enjoy the show of the extraordinary singer Irma Thomas at the main stage of the Grand Casino. After that breathtaking concert and while she was signing her albums, we approached to her husband who greeted us with warmth and naturalness, accepting an interview for the next day at their hotel. We went there on the afternoon with great enthusiasm and found a wonderful artist with a brilliant mind. Here you can find what she told us…
B&C: You and your husband (Emile Jackson) managed a club called the Lion’s Den which was flooded when did the Katrina disasters…
Irma Thomas: We used to, yes, before the storm.
B&C: What kind of place was it?
I.T.: It was just a club.
B&C: With some live music?
I.T.: Yes, me!
B&C: Was it a restaurant too?
I.T.: I did the cooking, brought the food, etc.
B&C: Oh, we thought that you only cook when you had friends around…
I.T.: No, I did the cooking all the time.
B&C: We know that you are a good cooker…
I.T.: Ah, I’m Ok! Ha, ha!
B&C: The music you sing is like cooking a meal?
I.T.: Somewhat yes…
B&C: I mean, do you need patience to work with the musicians?
I.T.: Definitely yes! You need patience to do that! Ha, ha!
B&C: You have lived three times a hurricane…
I.T.: More than that!
B&C: Oh!… And we know that you have lost many material things because of these storms. However, your attitude is positive, thanking life and feeling optimistic.
I.T.: Yes, I’m always positive… it’s just stuff. You can get more stuff, you know. I can replace some of the things that I’ve lost. My children have grown and they have their children too. Some of our pictures are lost but we fortunately are well. You know, that’s life!
B&C: Maybe you’re a person whose faith in God keeps you going?
I.T.: Yes, nothing belongs to us, it’s all His. He gives it to you and He takes it away. He gives you more and then He takes it away… So I’m not worried about that…
B&C: You are an ambassador of New Orleans music, which has a rhythmic richness and expressiveness. What makes New Orleans music something really special?
I.T.: I’m from New Orleans and yes I sing!! Oh, I never thought myself as an ambassador but I thank you. I’m not officially an ambassador, you know… Oh, there are many things that makes New Orleans music special. The city itself is a kind of place that it’s a port city and the people who migrated there over the years they seem to have melt together their cultures, although in some other port cities they don’t… When people come to New Orleans, wherever the ethnics groups are, it seems that they into mingle. And that makes everything kind especial… It’s what we call the gumbo. That makes music sound a lot different than music of other port cities.
B&C: When you were a child you were used to sing at family gatherings… What do you remember of that time?
I.T.: Yes, it’s all we did! We just sang to entertain each other… It was just normal, that’s what we did and it was part of everyday’s life! You know, you sing when you’re working, you sing when you’re at home, you sing at church… I used to do it a lot because being an only child I was wondering to get a lot of attention! I use to visit both sides of my family, my father’s family and my mother’s. I had a brother who died that I never knew him. My father had a son before I was born but I’m the only child of my parents and so it was fun being the center of the community!
B&C: As a child visiting you grandparents and singing at these parties, have you ever imagined that you would be an artist known worldwide and that you would receive a Grammy Award in 2006 (for the album “After the Rain”)?
I.T.: That never entered in my mind! And even when I got the Grammy I wasn’t sure of it! Ha, ha! It was such a big surprise to me! At that time I had been nominated three times and I had not won up until then. I wasn’t expecting to win and I even got nothing written for the speech!… So everything I said came from the heart and I couldn’t tell you what I said again if I wanted to, because it was not prepared!! Ha, ha! I wasn’t expecting it! Well, as I child growing up, I never realized actually that you can make a living doing what you love, and my love is singing!
B&C: You have been working longtime with producer Scott Billington, from Rounder Records.
I.T.: Oh yes, since 1996.
B&C: What could you tell about this producer and his way of approaching to your music?
I.T.: Oh he allowed me to be who I am: me! And he approached to the way I felted… He was there to guide and if there was something that he thought I can do a little different, he would ask me to try what he had in his mind. We worked together in that way and we co-produced a lot of the things that I’ve done with Rounder. Yes, that’s the way we worked together: he didn’t try to change me, he just tried to enhance what he heard from me.
B&C: That’s very interesting… I knew about Scott Billington for the first time when I bought Johnny Adams’ albums, a brilliant artist from New Orleans that I admire a lot.
I.T.: He was a very beautiful man and a wonderful voice… Ah, unbelievable voice! He really started his popularity a few years before he died but he always had that beautiful voice! I remember him from the beginning of my career and he was a real nice guy and a great person… and he loved to dress!!
B&C: Yes, he was always very well dressed.
I.T.: He was impeccable dressed! And he was a sweet guy… unfortunately his career was just climbing at the time of his death.
B&C: I’ve read the book that his wife has written…
I.T.: She finally wrote it?
B&C: Yes, she has recently published a book about the difficult conditions that Johnny had lived and the problems he had with the labels. She says too that many artists suffer abuse in their copyrights and royalties… If you wish, you can use our magazine to denounce if something similar has happened to you…
I.T.: Oh, she didn’t say anything else that you don’t know… That’s what happened for years! That was a normal thing in the early R&B music or Blues music and a lot of artists didn’t get credit for things that they wrote. Some of the producers took the copyrights but when we became more business minded and more conscious of what was going on, that changed. It happened to all of us! I mean, you can dare very few from that time that it did not happen to! We were underpaid, some didn’t get paid at all, those who wrote songs didn’t get credit for them until years later when they can prove it…
B&C: For example, your friend Ruth Brown has fought to get her royalties from Atlantic Records and she has also helped some other people to get them…
I.T.: Oh, yeah! She went back and she sued her record company for the money that she knew she had earned and did not get. They finally have paid to her and when they did she has helped this fund called the Rhythm & Blues Foundation and little by little they brought to folks like myself and many others that had been around at that time, and they gave us a check for what they felt it could compensate for what we were supposed to get for that times. So we can give Ruth credit for that!
B&C: Yes, we agree, and for more things! We know that you loved and maintained a good friendship with Ruth Brown, whom we also admire greatly and have highlighted in our magazine Blues & Co. Can you tell us something else about her?
I.T.: Really? That’s good! I knew about Ruth Brown from the beginning of my career ’cause my dad used to play a lot of her music at home. But I started working with her off and on in 1996 on a tour that we did, called the R&B Tour. Ruth Brown and I became close friends from that date. I would keep in touch with her when she got sick and we would call her and check out what was she was doing… She was a very sweet person.
B&C: You are celebrating your 50th Anniversary with a memorable album… What are your wishes for the future?
I.T.: I’m still recording… I hope to do another CD and also to do a Christmas CD for the next year. I’m gonna start working on that in January. I’m still working on a book I started eight years ago… one of these days I’ll finish it!
B&C: You sing every Sunday at the 2216 Third Street Church but you sing Gospel music occasionally at big stages… Why you do not do Gospel tours?
I.T.: I don’t get called to do a lot of Gospel concerts. But I’ll be doing it on December 1rst (2012) in Detroit! I’ll be doing a complete Gospel concert in Detroit…
B&C: And this Christmas CD that you’ve mentioned will be a Gospel album?
I.T.: Yes, more than that there will be a Gospel Christmas album.
B&C: We wish you all the happiness in the world, good health and a lot of strength to continue reigning with your voice and soul! Thank you so much!
I.T.: My pleasure!
ITW – Big Mama Montse – Trad. Motown
Photos: Carme Barrera
