Many regard the 1965 classic "Rescue Me" as the finest recording Aretha Franklin never produced. Fontella Bass instead delivered the track, drawing on gospel roots much as Franklin did to shape standout soul music from the genre's classic period. Born July 3, 1940, in St. Louis, Missouri, Bass grew up as the daughter of gospel singer Martha Bass, who belonged for years to the Clara Ward Singers. Grandmother Navada Carter also performed professionally in gospel circles, so Fontella naturally began singing in church at age five. In the mid-1950s, however, she turned away from that tradition by slipping out to perform secular R&B at neighborhood fairs and clubs. At 16 she became the house pianist at the Showbar in St. Louis; in 1961 she joined blues artist Little Milton Campbell and later married the band's trumpeter, Lester Bowie, who would become a leading jazz figure.
Bass first gained attention through her vocals on Little Milton's 1962 hit "So Mean to Me," then issued her own Bobbin label debut, "I Don't Hurt Anymore." After Campbell and pianist Oliver Sain parted company, Bass left with Sain, who installed her as lead singer of the Oliver Sain Soul Revue. Her next single, the Ike Turner-produced "I Love the Man," appeared on Turner's Prann label in 1963. She also recorded the duet "Poor Little Fool" with Tina Turner for the Vesuvius imprint. Outside her work with Sain, she performed solo dates across East St. Louis under the stage name "Sabrina."
Following the 1964 release of the Oliver Sain Soul Revue's "Heavy Sugar," Sain brought Bass and vocalist Bobby McClure to Chicago and produced their Checker single "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing." The record reached the R&B Top Ten; even after Bass left the Revue to pursue a solo path, Sain stayed involved as a collaborator. She moved to Chicago in 1965 and late that year achieved her career peak with the solo debut "Rescue Me." The buoyant dance number stood out for Bass's gritty, impassioned delivery, the percolating bass line from Chess session player Louis Satterfield, and Gene Barge's horn arrangement. It held the top R&B spot for a full month, crossed over to the pop Top Five, and became one of Chess Records' biggest sellers. Although the track endures as an era-defining classic and a staple on oldies stations, many listeners now attribute it to Aretha Franklin, who did not reach the public eye until two years afterward. Bass also never received full credit or royalties for co-writing the song, and her disputes with Chess executives earned her a reputation as difficult. The follow-up "Recovery," issued in early 1966, climbed to the R&B Top 20, yet her string of hits proved brief; after the minor success of "Sweet Lovin' Daddy" later that year she never reappeared on the U.S. charts.
With her momentum stalled, Bass left Checker in 1969. She and husband Bowie, by then an acclaimed avant-garde musician known for the Art Ensemble of Chicago, moved to Paris. There she joined the ensemble for the well-received album The Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass, though she otherwise concentrated on raising her family until returning to St. Louis in 1971. She reconnected with Oliver Sain, signed with the Paula label based in Shreveport, Louisiana, and released the single "Who You Gonna Blame." The Sain-produced LP Free followed in 1972 and stands as the strongest album of her catalog, yet radio and retail interest remained slight. Subsequent Paula singles such as "Now That I've Found a Good Thing" and "It's Hard to Get Back In" failed to chart, so she departed the label in 1974. Three years later she resurfaced on Epic with "Soon as I Touched Him." Apart from occasional guest spots with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, she spent the rest of the 1970s and most of the 1980s devoted to family life and singing only in her Baptist church choir. In 1990 she rejoined her mother and brother David Peaston for the gospel album Promises: A Family Portrait of Faith. She continued exploring sacred music with the 1995 Nonesuch release No Ways Tired and toured Europe regularly before issuing the 2001 collaboration Travellin' with the Voices of St. Louis gospel choir on the Canadian label Justin Time. In later years she endured several strokes, then suffered a heart attack in early December 2012; she passed away December 26, 2012, in a St. Louis hospice at age 72.
