MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2018 Regular Session
To: Rules
By: Senator(s) Jackson (11th), Horhn, Barnett, Blackmon, Butler, Dawkins, Frazier, Jackson (32nd), Jordan, Norwood, Simmons (12th), Simmons (13th), Turner-Ford, Witherspoon, Burton, Clarke
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION MOURNING THE LOSS AND COMMENDING THE MUSIC CAREER OF MISSISSIPPI BLUES AND SOUL LEGEND DENISE LASALLE.
WHEREAS, it is with sadness that we note the passing of renowned Mississippi R&B Singer, Songwriter and Record Producer Denise LaSalle (78) on January 8, 2018. Denise LaSalle was a durable Blues and Soul Singer and Songwriter who in a half-century-long career delved into song, love, cheating, pleasure and heartache, mixing romance with fun; and
WHEREAS, Ms. LaSalle was born Ora Denise Allen on July 6, 1939, near Sidon in Leflore County in the Mississippi Delta. She moved with her family to the Delta Town of Belzoni when she was seven. She sang in church and listened to country music and blues on the radio. At the age of 13, she moved on her own to Chicago, where she sang with a Gospel Group, the Sacred Five. Hoping to be a writer, she had a story published in Tan Magazine. But after magazines rejected her other fiction, she turned to writing poems and songs; and
WHEREAS, she took her stage surname, LaSalle, from a French character in a newspaper comic strip. Her first single, in 1967, was "A Love Reputation," a boast about man-stealing skills; and
WHEREAS, Chess Records released her next singles before she and her husband at the time, Bill Jones, started their own production company, Crajon, in 1969. For her next singles, Ms. LaSalle chose a Memphis Producer, Willie Mitchell, who also produced Al Green's hits. "Hung Up, Strung Out" got her signed to a Detroit label, Westbound, in 1970, and in 1971 she wrote and sang the biggest hit of her career, the million-selling No. 1 R&B single "Trapped by a Thing Called Love." It also reached No. 13 on the Billboard Pop Chart, her only Top 40 crossover in the United States. She returned to the National R&B Charts in the 1970s with songs including "Now Run and Tell That," "Man Sized Job," "Love Me Right" and "Married, But Not To Each Other," a song that also became a country hit for Barbara Mandrell in 1977. She met Disc Jockey James E. Wolfe, Jr., who would found the Radio Station WFKX in Jackson. They married in 1977; he survives her, along with their children: Ray Kight, Dawn Beard and Bridgette Wolfe; and
WHEREAS, in 1982, Ms. LaSalle eased her music slightly toward blues and signed to the Mississippi-based Malaco Label, where she recorded for most of the next three decades and wrote songs for other performers, including Z.Z. Hill. On her 1980s Malaco albums, she was often backed by the renowned Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. "My Tu-Tu," her 1985 version of the Rockin' Sidney Zydeco hit "My Toot Toot," was a hit in the United States and in Europe, reaching No. 6 on the British Top 10. Ms. LaSalle made gospel albums from 1999 to 2001, but she returned to secular music in the 2000s with albums like "Pay Before You Pump" (2007); and
WHEREAS, she toured steadily, largely in the Southeast, with occasional trips to Europe. In recent years, she made efforts to start a school for young musicians in Jackson. She was nominated by the Blues Foundation for a Blues Music Award in the Soul Blues Female Artist Category, alongside Mavis Staples and Bettye LaVette, and she was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2015; and
WHEREAS, she appeared in Marks, Mississippi, and regularly performed at the Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival, the longest-running authentic blues fest in the nation celebrating 40 years in 2017, sponsored by Mississippi Action for Community Education in Greenville, Mississippi. Denise LaSalle held fundraisers, raising thousands of dollars for the Mississippi Delta tornado victims; and
WHEREAS, it is with great pride that we recognize the music and cultural contributions of this Mississippi legend who has served as "The R&B Queen Ambassador for the State of Mississippi":
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby mourn the loss and commend the career of Mississippi Blues and Soul Legend Denise LaSalle.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to the surviving family of Ms. LaSalle, and made available to the Capitol Press Corps.