{{short description|American jazz pianist and singer (1897–1983)}} {{More citations needed|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Sweet Emma Barrett | image = | background = solo_singer | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1897|3|25|mf=y}} | birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, United States | death_date = {{death date and age|1983|1|28|1897|3|25}} | death_place = Metairie, Louisiana, United States | genre = Jazz, Dixieland | occupation = Singer, musician | instrument = Vocals, piano | years_active = 1920s–1983 | label = Riverside | past_member_of = Papa Celestin | alias = Bell Gal }} thumb|Sweet Emma Barrett '''"Sweet Emma" Barrett''' (March 25, 1897 – January 28, 1983)<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1983|title=('Sweet') Emma Barrett|journal=The Black Perspective in Music|volume=11|page=223}}</ref> was an American self-taught jazz pianist and singer who worked with the Original Tuxedo Orchestra between 1923 and 1936,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.redhotjazz.com/tuxedo.html |title=Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra |publisher=Redhotjazz.com |access-date=2014-07-12}}</ref> first under Papa Celestin, then William Ridgely. She also worked with Armand Piron, John Robichaux, Sidney Desvigne and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
==Biography== Born March 25, 1897, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father was Capt. William B. Barrett, who she said fought for the North in the Civil War.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nola.com/300/2018/10/sweet_emma_barrett_jazz_piano.html|title=The unlikely jazz giant who jingled her way to stardom|last=Scott|first=Mike|date=2018-10-13|website=nola.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-25}}</ref> At age seven, she began to play the piano.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=1983-01-30 |title=Emma Barrett Is Dead at 85; Preservation Hall Piano Star |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/30/obituaries/emma-barrett-is-dead-at-85-preservation-hall-piano-star.html |access-date=2019-03-25 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In the early 1920s, Barrett joined Oscar Celestin's Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra.<ref name=":0" /> In 1928, when the Celestin's band split, she began intermittently playing music with Bebe Ridgeley's Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra, which continued for the next 10 years.<ref name=":0" />
In 1947, she accepted a steady job at Happy Landing, a local club in Pecaniere, Louisiana, but it was her recording debut in 1961, with her own album in the Riverside Records ''New Orleans: The Living Legends'' series, that brought her recognition. Although most of the songs on the album were instrumentals, others featured vocals by Barrett that the liner notes described as her first recordings as a vocalist.
She was nicknamed "Bell Gal" because she wore a red skull cap and garters with Christmas bells that jingled in time with her music.<ref name="LarkinJazz">{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1995|edition=Second|isbn=0-85112-674-X|pages=39/40}}</ref> She was featured on the cover of ''Glamour'' magazine, and written about in publications in the United States and Europe. She toured with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band domestically and internationally, including a stint at Disneyland in 1963.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}
Despite the popular exposure she received at concerts and overseas appearances, Barrett continued to feel most comfortable in her native New Orleans, especially the French Quarter.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}
In 1963, on her album ''The Bell Gal and Her Dixieland Boys Music'', Barrett sings on four of the eight songs and heads two overlapping groups. She is joined throughout by banjoist Emanuel Sayles, bassist Placide Adams, and drummer Paul Barbarin; and four songs feature trumpeter Alvin Alcorn, trombonist Jim Robinson and clarinetist Louis Cottrell Jr; the remaining four numbers have trumpeter Don Albert, trombonist Frog Joseph and clarinetist Raymond Burke. Overall, this set gives listeners a good sampling of the sound of New Orleans jazz circa 1963, and is one of the few recordings of Barrett mostly without the regular members of what would become the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Robinson and Sayles excepted). The ensemble-oriented renditions of numbers such as "Big Butter and Egg Man", "Bogalusa Strut" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" are rendered with fun and joy.<ref>{{cite web|author=Scott Yanow |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/sweet-emma-barrett-and-her-new-orleans-music-mw0000722456 |title=Sweet Emma Barrett and Her New Orleans Music – Sweet Emma Barrett | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=2014-07-12}}</ref>
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band made a brief appearance in the 1965 film ''The Cincinnati Kid'', which featured Barrett as vocalist and pianist for the band and included a close-up of her.
In 1967, she suffered a stroke that paralyzed her left side,<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> but she continued to work, occasionally recording.<ref name=":0" /> She played music until her death in 1983 at age 85. She died at Metairie's Bonnabel Hospital.<ref name=":1" /> She was funeralized at St. Raymond Catholic Church in New Orleans.<ref name=":0" />
==Discography== {| class="wikitable" |- !Year !Title !Genre !Label |- |1968 |''Sweet Emma Barrett And Her Original Tuxedo Jazz Band At Dixieland Hall'' |Jazz |Riverside |- |1964 |''Sweet Emma Barrett and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band'' |Jazz |Preservation Hall |- |1963 |''Sweet Emma Barrett and Her New Orleans Music'' |Jazz |Southland |- |1961 |''The Bell Gal and Her Dixieland Boys'' |Jazz |Riverside |- |1960 |''Sweet Emma'' |Jazz |Riverside |- |1970 |''Sweet Emma Barrett with Papa French'' |Jazz | |}<ref name="LarkinJazz"/>
==See also== * Preservation Hall Jazz Band * Women in jazz
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p54553|label=Sweet Emma Barrett}} *[http://www.preservationhall.com/2.0/album_view.php?id=502 Preservation Hall] *{{Find a Grave|id=159977042|name=Sweet Emma Barrett}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, Sweet Emma}} Category:1897 births Category:1983 deaths Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans Category:American jazz pianists Category:American women jazz singers Category:American jazz singers Category:Riverside Records artists Category:20th-century American women pianists Category:20th-century American pianists Category:Singers from Louisiana Category:20th-century American women singers Category:Preservation Hall Jazz Band members Category:20th-century American singers