Arizona Dranes

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Juanita "Arizona" Dranes (* 1889 or 1891 in Sherman (Texas) ; † 1963 ) was an American blues and gospel singer and pianist.

Arizona Dranes was born blind and had African American roots and attended the Texas Institute for Deaf, Dumb and Blind Colored Youth in Austin from 1896 to 1910 . As a teenager she learned to play the piano. As a preacher, she belonged to a Pentecostal congregation , the Church of God in Christ (COGIC).

With her rough voice and her energetic, syncopated piano playing, she was one of the first Afro-American musicians who - mediated by COGIC founder Bishop Charles Harrison Mason - had the opportunity to record. In her rhythmic playing she used barrelhouse blues and ragtime piano. There are only sixteen songs by Dranes from 1926 to 1929 that she recorded for Okeh Records , such as “Crucifixion”, “I Shall Wear a Crown”, “I'm Going Home on the Morning Train”, “It's All Right Now ”,“ Lambs Blood Has Washed Me Clean ”and“ My Soul's a Witness for the Lord ”. Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Jerry Lee Lewis said they were influenced by Dranes. In later years she continued serving as a minister for Bishop Mason's COGIC Church.

The album He Is My Story: The Sanctified Soul of Arizona Dranes by Arizona Dranes (compilation producer: Josh Rosenthal; technology: Bryan Hoffa, Christopher King) received a Grammy nomination in 2013 for the best historical album category .

Discographic notes

  • 1926-1929 (Herwin, 1976)
  • Complete Recorded Works: 1926-1929 (Document, 1994)
  • He Is My Story: The Sanctified Soul of Arizona Dranes (Tompkins Square, 2012)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ = The Sanctified Soul of Arizona Dranes in Oxford American ( Memento of the original from December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.oxfordamerican.org
  2. ^ Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1994
  3. ↑ Swing Gals
  4. ↑ http://www.grammy.com/nominees?year=2012&genre=All
personal data
SURNAME Dranes, Arizona
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dranes, Juanita
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American blues and gospel singer and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH 1889 or 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Sherman (Texas)
DATE OF DEATH 1963