Fitting for a memorial to a legendary singer and musician, the Fontella Bass tribute began with two musicians working on a cue. They were not calling across a stage, but across the vast sanctuary at Shalom Church (City of Peace). The cue was for drums.
Once the cue was worked out, Fontella Bass’ fabulous extended family was led into the sanctuary by the Normandy High School Marching Band, playing rolls on the rims of their drums. These fine, uniformed youth were following the Bosman Twins, Fontella’s dear friends and bandmates.
The Twins, however, were built out into a brass quartet. These consummate showman were reaching down for their hardest blues and deepest soul. People were still being led to their seats, and already the music was intense and piercing.
Before any of the oratory and eulogies were offered from the pulpit, a saint sitting out in the sanctuary cried out all that really needed to be said about Fontella’s soul: “Safely in your arms. Thank you, Lord.”
The intense musical genius and warm spiritual conviction hit their peak at the start and never let up. In a video tribute produced by a son, Fontella said she loved her children because they didn’t try to change her. This ceremony was just like her, then – never-changing. All love and soul. All the time.
As host Pastor Freddie J. Clark said, we were not in church, but we were in a church. There was a strong spiritual contribution, provided by Pastor Clark and Rev. E.G. Shields Sr., pastor of Fontella’s home church, Mount Beulah MB Church.
In his opening remarks, Pastor Clark set up the inevitable finale, “Rescue Me,” with a funny, moving story about needing to be rescued. An elementary school bully got his hooks into the young Freddie one day while the teacher was out of the classroom. Freddie knew the bully could lick him, so his strategy was to clench up and hold on.
“It seemed like that teacher was taking forever, but finally she came in and rescued me,” Pastor Clark said, and the sanctuary celebrated at his punch-line.
He brought the parable home to the family. He told them illness was a bully to their mother, and all she could do was clench up and hold on. He said, “She held on until her Creator came back into the room and rescued her.”
Later in the ceremony, Fontella’s pastor also connected faith to her signature song. “Mount Beulah Church was where Fontella came for refuge and to be rescued,” Rev. Shields said.
He also used humor to lighten the mood for the family. Rev. Shields remembered a revival where his own spirit was low, but Fontella revived him. She had R&B musicians with her, and they delivered a “jazzed up” version of “Precious Lord.” “I could hardly contain myself,” Rev. Shields said. “I wanted to grab a dance partner, too.”
He said Fontella walked up to him at the end of the service and said, “Reverend, you were in Hog Heaven.” Then he made the connection: “Perhaps tonight is Hog Heaven.”
Evangelist Ruth Latchison Nichols delivered a more prophetic flavor. She started testifying before she reached the pulpit microphone and continued with her testimony as she returned to the sanctuary.
She reminded the family of the mother they have lost, and also of their uncle, the great gospel singer David Peaston (who passed last February), and their grandmother, the even greater gospel singer Martha Bass. “Your mother was somebody, your uncle was somebody and your grandmother was somebody,” Sister Nichols said.
She then sang Martha Bass’ signature song, “I Am So Grateful” with deep reverberations of the old sanctified style.
Fontella was remembered with other forms of oratory as well. The program was shrouded in poetry, from scripture delivered in the profound voice of Pastor Clark’s son, Terrence G. Clark, to original poems written about Fontella over the years.
Her son Larry Stevenson recited a poem he directed to his mother. “You were there for us when we cried to the world,” he recited. “You were there, Mama.” She was there enough so they would know what to do when she needed them. “We were there for you, Mama,” he recited. “You showed us how to be there for you.”
Fontella’s close friend Shirley LeFlore recited perhaps her greatest poem, “My Song For You,” which the family also reprinted in the program. “Tomorrow hang your tears out to dry, for all is well with my soul,” Shirley recited. She also expressed a common feeling, that Fontella will always be with us: “Know like the grace as amazing as God’s eye on the sparrow, I will always be watching you …”
Marsha Cann, a younger close friend of Fontella, recited a poem with a scat style. The poem is a deep portrait of “a little St. Louis girl with wit, style and smile” that includes Fontella’s response to an early version of the poem. “She’d say, ‘Live on, baby,’” Marsha recited. “‘Remember what you want to keep.’”
Marsha, like everyone who spoke or sang, also addressed the legacy. She recited, “You raised your sons and daughters loving, fearless, focused and for real.”
The family legacy was everywhere, in the band and on the vocals. Pastor Clark wondered aloud who is the next family star. “We know you’re in here,” he said, and he meant that literally – a future star of gospel or soul descended from Fontella Bass was in his church at that moment.
“May God bless you, may God keep you, is my prayer,” Pastor Clark said to that future star and to all of Fontella’s family.
Amen.
