Rosetta Tharpe on Loudoun Square in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, 1957. (via Yasmin)
Rosetta Tharpe, stage name Sister Rosetta Tharpe, was born in March, 1915. Her birth name may have been Rosetta but this isn’t entirely known. She adopted her stage name after a short marriage to preacher Thomas Thorpe. She then moved to New York City with her mother in 1938 and began recording at the age of 23, and soon became a successful gospel and jazz singer, who influenced many later rock ‘n’ roll acts, though some of her music is also seen as early rock ‘n’ roll.
Her guitar playing was also highly influential. Influencing many British acts of the 1960s, she was a pioneer in her guitar technique. She was told she could “play like a man” as guitar playing was then associated with manliness. Rosetta was queer and is thought to have had a relationship with Marie Knight, a gospel singer she met in 1946 and traveled and performed with until 1951. Friends of Rosetta’s, after her death in October 1973, have spoken more openly about her relationships with women and her bisexuality.
Press clippings (via Martin Johnes) show Rosetta Tharpe visited the Cardiff docks before a performance at Sophia Gardens Pavilion, on the 28th of November, 1957 - she “showered money into a crowd of admiring children, who had gathered to hear her sing for them.” (Read some more about her visit to Wales here.)
When she returned to her Cardiff hotel room, she found a hand-painted Christmas card, as a “Thank you” from the children of Cardiff’s Dockland. 12-year-old Neil Sinclair of Francis Street painted the “Thank you” card after she had left, from the children of the Rainbow Club, and delivered it to the hotel.
