Denise Lasalle

Denise LaSalle stood apart from countless blues singers who merely performed songs supplied by outside writers, for she possessed genuine skill as a composer in her own right. Though her soul-blues approach sometimes incorporated contemporary urban elements, she is best understood as a present-day counterpart to Bessie Smith, which accurately captures her essence. She crafted witty numbers brimming with bold attitude, an outlook she projected during live performances. Away from the spotlight, LaSalle cheerfully signed autographs for fans and readily assisted reporters along with radio disc jockeys.

Based in Jackson, Tennessee, LaSalle grew up in Belzoni, Mississippi—the same town that had earlier been home to Joe Willie "PineTop" Perkins—and began singing in neighborhood churches throughout Leflore County. Born Denise Craig on July 16, 1939, she absorbed Grand Ole Opry broadcasts during her childhood while living across from a juke joint in Belzoni. Her formative influences, drawn from local jukeboxes and radio airplay, encompassed Ruth Brown, Dinah Washington, and LaVern Baker.

In her early twenties LaSalle relocated to Chicago, where she frequented performances at the Regal Theater and returned home afterward to compose material. She became acquainted with blues players and started supplying them with her songs until a Chess Records executive visited Mixer's Lounge, the establishment where she worked as a barmaid. After hearing one of her compositions, he brought it to the label, which eventually signed her as a vocalist yet never committed her to tape. Two years later she cut and oversaw her own session with assistance from Billy "The Kid" Emerson, the Chess staffer who had first taken notice. Once the single gained traction on local stations, Chess acquired the master and issued it overseas. Throughout this period LaSalle kept writing and sitting in with blues artists at Chicago venues.

Her breakthrough arrived in 1971 when "Trapped by a Thing Called Love" gained airplay first in Chicago and then Detroit. Issued on the Westbound label, the track prompted a 1975 move to ABC Records, for which she completed three albums across three years before the imprint was acquired by MCA. MCA ended the association citing the company's "difficulty in promoting Black acts" at that time, after which LaSalle maintained an active schedule of shows in Chicago and Memphis. In 1980 a Malaco executive reached out requesting a song for Z.Z. Hill. The connection proved fruitful, leading LaSalle to record eleven albums for the label: Lady in the Street (1983), Right Place, Right Time (1984), Love Talkin' (1985), Hittin' Where It Hurts (1989), Still Trapped (1990), Still Bad (1994), and Smokin' in Bed (1997).

Although the Malaco catalog represents her most significant body of work aside from the original early-1970s version of "Trapped," she also issued notable gospel-inflected projects such as This Real Woman (2000) and There's No Separation (2001) on Ordena Records before returning to secular recordings with Pay Before You Pump (2007) on Ecko Records and 24 Hour Woman (2010) back on Malaco. LaSalle passed away in Jackson, Tennessee, during January 2018 at age 78, following serious complications from an earlier fall from which she had never fully recovered.