The Grande Dame des Rhythm and Blues celebrates a round birthday. Of course we won’t tell you what she’s like. We only know that she was born on 26.11.1939 in Nutbush as Anna Mae Bullock, Tennessee (us). Wikipedia also tells us that little Anna Mae made her first experiences as a singer in the church choir of Nutbush (Tennessee). After a difficult time when her parents separated and she lived with her grandmother Roxanne, she moved in 1955 to mother Zelma Bullock and sister Alline in St. Louis.
In 1958 she met Ike Turner in St. Louis with his band “Kings of Rhythm” and became their background singer. In 1960 she recorded the song A Fool in Love. She took over as a solo singer for a short time, because the planned singer Art Lassiter was cancelled. The title made it to number 27 in the US charts in August 1960. For promotion reasons Ike gave her the stage name Tina and renamed his band “Ike & Tina Turner”. Tina and Ike, who meanwhile also had a love affair, went on tour with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, first in the USA, later also in Europe and Australia.
Her exciting life, marked by highs and depths, has been filmed several times and there are numerous books and autobiographies. If you want to include works from Tina Turner’s work in your programme, here is an offer:
- for wind orchestra
- for BigBand
- for choir
