Marva Wright

Louisiana audiences knew Marva Wright by the title Blues Queen, while admirers of her vigorous stage shows and studio work often added other affectionate labels such as “Marvalous Marva.” The “bluesiana” material she preferred highlighted the power of her voice, which drew deeply from gospel traditions. A single hearing typically revealed those strengths to listeners, an impression made more striking because the singer entered the profession only in 1987, when she was approaching her fortieth birthday. Even at that point she took up performing merely as a second source of income to help support her household. Work along Bourbon Street in New Orleans opened doors far beyond her expectations, carrying her to stages across Europe and farther abroad in France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Brazil, as well as to U.S. cities that included Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York together with dates in Texas, California, Vermont, Colorado, and Florida.

Although her professional path began late, Wright had started singing far earlier, at the age of nine. Her earliest public performances, like those of many other vocalists, took place in church, where her mother served as pianist. She soon earned top prizes in a school singing contest. In later years she named her mother—who played piano and sang in a gospel quartet—as a central influence, and she recalled that famed gospel artist Mahalia Jackson had been a family friend from early on. During a 1989 live appearance at Tipitina’s in New Orleans, Wright captured her first recording, “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean.” National television exposure arrived in 1991 when a Super Bowl-themed special was filmed in her hometown. Later the same year her debut full-length album, Heartbreakin’ Woman, earned the Louisiana Music Critics Association’s nod for Blues Album of the Year, while The Times-Picayune listed it among the city’s ten best records.

Wright’s 1993 album Born with the Blues first appeared in France; Virgin Records then issued it worldwide three years later. A 2006 reissue on the U.K. label Shout! carried the new title Do Right Woman. Her 2007 release After the Levees Broke confronted the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina—which had swept away her house and possessions—through fresh interpretations of Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” and Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is.” She also contributed backing vocals to Allen Toussaint, Glen Campbell, and Joe Cocker, and the roster of additional artists with whom she shared bills encompassed Harry Connick, Jr., Bobby McFerrin, Aaron Neville, Fats Domino, Lou Rawls, and Marcia Ball. In May and June 2009 Marva Wright endured two strokes from which she never completely recovered; on March 23, 2010, she died at her eldest daughter’s New Orleans residence just days after turning 62.