Rosa King

Rosa King (March 14, 1939^[1] – December 12, 2000) was an American jazz and blues saxophonist/singer who made her fame in Amsterdam and recorded many albums under a variety of labels.

Career

Rosa King was born in Macon, Georgia. Her professional career found her playing with everyone from Ben E. King and Cab Calloway to Eric Burdon and Sly Hampton. Stealing the show at the 1978 North Sea Jazz Festival during a tenor sax battle with the likes of Stan Getz did much to catapult her into stardom. She has appeared in Sesame Street and various European television shows, as well as the cult film Comeback by Eric Burdon. Many careers were launched in her band, including those of Candy Dulfer, Saskia Laroo, and Alex Britti. She died from a heart attack in Italy shortly after a televised performance with Alex Britti in December 2000. Though quite the icon in Europe, King had little exposure in America during her life except for a few stints in New York City, where she maintained an apartment for many years (even while living in Amsterdam).

However, the year before her death King returned to her home state of Georgia to play a handful of gigs with fellow Georgians and friends J. Lyon Layden and Eric Layden (guitar and bass respectively), Kristina Train (vocals and violin), Jeff Evans (drums), and Dan Walker (keyboards) under the name "Rosa King and The Looters".

That year she also played a huge jazz festival in South Africa and several dates in the Netherlands before her very last performance in Italy, which was a reunion with her former guitarist Alex Britti in a nationwide televised concert with nearly 100,000 people in attendance.

Despite having suffered several small heart attacks the previous week (which Dutch doctors told her was only indigestion), King was wheelchaired to the foot of the audience for this last performance. She was pronounced dead within 12 hours after this performance.

A Rosa King Foundation has been established in the Netherlands to help young female artists, and a memorial concert was conducted at the Melkweg concert house in Amsterdam in order to pay tribute to her.

Discography

Album	Tracks	Tracks
Rosa King & Upside Down^[2] 1974 Blue Elephant – PE 877072 Dureco* Vinyl, LP Netherlands	1 Up Side Down 2 Don't Make Me Wait In Vain 3 Feet Freak 4 I Got To Feel Free 5 Ghetto Of Peoples Minds 6 Do You Wanna	7 Understanding 8 Fame And Fortune 9 Blues For You 10 Chicken Legs 11 Foot Steps 12 Troubles
Live at the Milky Way:Vrowenfestival 1979 Vrowenfestival (women's festival) with various female performers Vinyl, LP Milky Way Records Netherlands recorded live at the Melkweg, Amsterdam	1 So Far To Go 6:32
So far to go^[3] So Far To Go (LP, Album) Caribbean Circle F.C. 30505 Netherlands 1980 Summertime (LP, Album) Балкантон ВТА 2095 Bulgaria 1979	1 Change Is Gonna Come 3:15 2 So Far To Go 6:35 3 When Your Love Is Gone 6:15 4 No Tears 3:15	5 Summer Time 4:00 6 Do You Love Me Because 3:30 7 Hello Lover 3:10 8 All In The Name Of Love 5:00
Too busy^[4] 1980/1984 Pop Eye Label PE 105 Vinyl, LP, Mini-Album Netherlands	1 Too Busy (Loving You) 3:40 2 Can't Go Through Life 3:55 3 I Never Knew 4:02	4 You've Changed Your Mind 5:43 5 Sometimes 4:28
Rosa King's favourite blues Live^[5] Live LP 1981 Paradise + 1991 Riff Rosa Kings Favourite Blues (LP, Album) Paradise SMC 100.005 1981 The Rosa Kings Favorite Ballads (LP, Album) Paradise SMC 100.005 1981 Rosa King's Favourite Blues (CD, Album, Liv) D&K CD 860037 1991 Netherlands	1 Gotta Be Free 4:30 2 So Many Nights And Days 5:00 3 St. James Infirmary 4:47 4 Please Send Me Someone To Love 5:00	5 Gonna Find A New Love 4:20 6 Georgia On My Mind 4:45 7 Going Down Slow 12:15 8 Trouble In My Mind 4:44
Under the cover^[6] 1987 Under The Cover (LP) D&K D&K 87011 Netherlands 1987 Under The Cover (LP) AVC AVL-2006 Spain 1989	1 Baby I Didn't Know 4:05 2 Hello Lover 3:37 3 The Every Best 6:19 4 Who's Playing A Joke On Who 4:06	5 You're In Love 6:07 6 It Wasn't Easy 4:49 7 Test Of Time 5:15 8 You Love Me To Much 5:26
Jazz out of Harlem LP 1986 EMI
Who's playing a joke on who?^[7] Maxi single 1988 Metropole 1987 Who's Playing A Joke On Who (12") Metropol Records MRP-109-MX Spain 1988 Who's Playing A Joke On Who (7") D&K 787011 Netherlands 1987 Who's Playing A Joke On Who (7", Promo) Metropol Records MRP- 109-S Spain 1988	1 Who's Playing A Joke On Who 4:06	2 You Love Me To Much 5:26
It just happened Live Cafe Alto^[8] 1992 Riff – 85009-2 CD, Album Netherlands	1 Why 7:54 2 It Just Happened 7:05 3 Gonna Find Me A New Love 10:04 4 Own Decision 4:33 5 Big Mistake 8:11	6 Don't Activate My Love Decease 8:47 7 Taking Me A Chance 5:11 8 Cold Cold Feeling 10:13 9 Do You Feel Like Some Times 6:47 10 Lonely Me 6:58
Salsa Carnaval Live
Cheating on Me * CD 1992 Bloomdido Productions/ live recording in Le Duc des Lombards, Parijs on 23/24 June 1992 with guest the American guitarist Luther Allison	1. Cheating On Me (2:58) 2. Trouble Free (3:00) 3. Don't Activate My Love Disease (6:07) 4. I Ain't Nobody's Fool (6:18) 5. I Got To Be Free (6:02)	6. Lay Down Beside You (7:15) 7. T/he Perfect Love (7:57) 8. Living And Loving (9:13) 9. So Far To Go (5:02) 10. Gonna Find Me A Love (9:08)
The best of Rosa King & Upside Down 1995 June Riff CD	1 You've changed your mind 5:43 2 Georgia on my mind 4:43 3 I never knew 4:01 4 Why 7:53 5 Lonely me 3:00	6 Can't go through life 3:56 7 The very best 6:20 8 Too busy (Loving you) 3:42 9 Cheating on me 6:55 10 I ain't nobody's fool 6:18
25 Years Still Going Strong^[9] Riff – 85054-2 CD Netherlands 1997 okt 1996 Recorded at Studio 88 Hilversum	1 Still Going Strong 3:29 2 Catch 22 5:55 3 When Love Is Gone 3:39 4 Digging Them Potatoes 3:26 5 Come In, Sit Down 4:50 6 Bad Case Of The Blues 4:17	7 Have YoU Ever Loved A Woman 7:05 8 It's Over 3:53 9 No Time To Shop Around 3:17 10 Bayerisher Hof 5:50 11 I Keep Hurting 6:12
Rosa King And Up Side Down^[10] Frans Peters Studio – 6802 137 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Stereo Netherlands 1974 Maybe never official released. Misspelling in the title (Wanne) is on sleeve and record. Rosa King And Upside Down on this single without the crowd sound that appears on the LP that Frans Peters recorded in 1974.	1 Do You Wanne	2 Understanding
Rosa King & Up Side Down: Baby, I didn't know^[11] AVC, S.A. – AVC 206 Vinyl, 7", Single Spain 1989	1 Baby I Didn't Know 4:05	2 You Love Me To Much 5:26
Summertime^[12] ВТА 2095 Vinyl, LP, Album Bulgaria 1979 So Far To Go (LP, Album) Caribbean Circle F.C. 30505 Netherlands 1980	1 Change Is Gonna Come 2 So Far To Go 3 When Love Is Gone 4 No Tears	5 Summertime 6 Do You Love Me 7 Hello Lover 8 All In The Name Of Love

Trivia

King went to school with Richard Penniman (Little Richard).^[13]

References

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 283952378 BPN: 74338408 MusicBrainz: a264f50b-309f-4517-b67f-2ac819ec9ed7

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