Martha Bass (March 7, 1921September 21, 1998) was an American

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

singer. After migrating to

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

as a young girl, she joined the Pleasant Green Baptist Church, where she was a promising gospel vocalist. She came under the authoritative and watchful tutelage of Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith, the head of the Soloists Beareau in gospel composer

Thomas A. Dorsey Thomas Andrew Dorsey (July 1, 1899 – January 23, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and Evangelism, Christian evangelist influential in the development of early blues and 20th-century gospel music. He penned 3,000 songs, a third of them ...

's National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses and the founder of the St. Louis Chapter of the organization, and it was there that she developed into a "house wrecker" as they are called in gospel. With Mother Ford's teaching and a wealth of church singing experience under her belt, she left St. Louis in the early 1950s to travel with the great Clara Ward Singers, but left after one year. Only one recording, "Wasn't it a Pity How They Punished my Lord", remains of her time with the Clara Ward Singers. In the 1960s her album, "I'm So Grateful", established her as a gospel singer of the first rank. When her daughter

Fontella Bass Fontella Marie Bass (July 3, 1940 – December 26, 2012) was an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter best known for her number-one R&B hit " Rescue Me" in 1965. She has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice. Early life Fontella Bass was b ...

returned to her gospel roots, Martha Bass cut several tracks with Fontella and Martha's son, the gospel singer

David Peaston David Peaston (March 13, 1957 – February 1, 2012) was an American R&B and gospel singer who in 1990 won a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist. He was mostly known for the singles, "Two Wrongs (Don't Make it Right)" and ...

. She was married to James Peaston (1914-1981).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bass, Martha 1921 births 1998 deaths Musicians from St. Louis American gospel singers Checker Records artists Place of birth missing 20th-century American singers Singers from Missouri