Gail Ann Dorsey

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Gail Ann Dorsey with electric bass, 2008

Gail Ann Dorsey (born November 20, 1962 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) is an American musician . In addition to electric bass , the singer also plays guitar , clarinet , drums and keyboard and has released three music albums of her own . As a studio musician , she has played with numerous well-known musicians and bands. She was best known as the vocalist and bassist for David Bowie 's bandknown, to which she belonged for 18 years. She has also been a regular in Lenny Kravitz 's band since 2011 . Dorsey's musical style in her playing and composition is broad and includes influences from rock , funk , country and pop .

life and work

early years

Dorsey was raised by her mother in West Philadelphia, the youngest of five children. The father died when Gail Ann was six and the family lived on welfare. Self-taught, she learned to play the guitar at the age of nine on a Kay Parlor instrument that her godmother had given her for her birthday. At the age of five she had wanted a guitar. When she was 12, her eldest brother bought her her first electric guitar , and she formed a band in the basement of her mother's house with two boys who lived across the street—a drummer, 14, and a bass player, 12 rehearsed. It was there that she tried out a bass guitar for the first time. She bought her first bass guitar shortly after her 14th birthday. Dorsey credited Grand Funk Railroad 's Mark Farner , Chicago 's Terry Kath , Jimi Hendrix , and Heart 's Nancy Wilson as early musical influences . Other influences came from Tony Maiden of the band Rufus , Chaka Khan , Sly & the Family Stone and Earth, Wind & Fire . By the age of fifteen, she had been writing her own songs and joined a local Top 40 cover band, led by Jay Medley, as the bass guitarist, with whom she performed during her high school years.

Dorsey has written feature-length screenplays for some of her own musical compositions. From September 1980 she attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia (California) , where she took film and video courses. She had received a full scholarship for her screenplays and Super 8 short films. Dorsey was the only woman in her freshman class and the youngest woman to be accepted into the live-action department up to that point. After three semesters, however, she gave up her studies because she could not come to terms with the specifications and requirements of the film industry and turned to music again. In early 1982 she went to New York and tried to get a record deal there. Here she worked in two record stores.

In London

In the summer of 1983, Dorsey had the opportunity to join the family of a friend from college in London, where she initially played in pubs for a living. Here she worked, among other things, as a singer in the original line-up of the Charlie Watts Big Band at their premiere in 1985 at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club . By 1986 she had already established herself as a fixture on the London music scene. At the Theater of Black Women that year, she provided the music for Jackie Kay's play Chiaroscuro , which premiered on March 19 on the Soho Theater Company 's stage at Soho Poly .

She has also accompanied artists and bands such as Boy George , Ann Pigalle, The Thrashing Doves, The Kane Gang, Donny Osmond , Julia Fordham and Concrete Blonde with vocals and bass guitar. She appeared on the British music show The Tube , hosted by Jools Holland and Paula Yates , in 1987 with her rendition of Bobby Womack's Stop On By , to which she accompanied herself on bass guitar. With this highly acclaimed TV debut, she also attracted the attention of record companies.

In December 1987 Dorsey signed to WEA Records in London and released her first solo album in 1988 entitled The Corporate World . The album, produced by Nathan East , had Dorsey recorded with musicians such as Eric Clapton , Anne Dudley , Andy Gill and Steve Ferrone . The Corporate World placed in London magazine's list of the 50 best albums of the year , where it also received a 5-star rating. With the released single Where Is Your Love she reached the top 10 in the Netherlands. A music video was created for this title and for the piece Wasted Country .

Dorsey and her band of five played sold out clubs and theaters across the UK and mainland Europe, including Amsterdam's Paradiso , Ancienne Belgique in Brussels and Große Freiheit 36 in Hamburg. She opened the Aztec Camera concert at the Royal Albert Hall and played to a packed house at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. In 1991 she switched to Island Records and in 1992 presented a second album, Rude Blue , in which she was supported by musicians Mark Pender, Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg, Carla Azar, Carol Steele, Maceo Parker , Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis .

After her second album, Dorsey worked with numerous artists and bands as a studio and touring musician, including The The , God's Home Movie, Affinity, Mall, Tears for Fears , Gang of Four , Jane Siberry , The National , Ayọ , Daphne Guinness, Olivia Newton-John , Bryan Ferry , Gwen Stefani , Seal , Dar Williams , Joan Osborne , Joan Baez , Nona Hendryx , Suzanne Vega , Ani DiFranco , Natalie Merchant , The B-52s , Indigo Girls , Sophie B. Hawkins , Faudel , Louise Goffin , Rachid Taha , Cheb Khaled , Zucchero , Catie Curtis, Toshi Reagon, Michael Hutchence and the Grand Union Orchestra.

In 1994, after almost 12 years in England, Dorsey moved to the artist community of Woodstock , New York . Her third solo album entitled I Used to Be... was released in 2003, this time on Sad Bunny Records.

In David Bowie's band

David Bowie's Heathen Tour, New York 2002, GA Dorsey → Second from right

Dorsey is best known for playing bass and singing in David Bowie 's band , a role she held for 18 years.

Bowie had first spotted her at a Charlie Watts Big Band gig in 1985 and on Dorsey's first TV appearance on The Tube in 1987. In 1989, while zapping through UK TV channels, he came across an interview with Dorsey promoting her debut album , The Corporate World , and decided to work with her on a suitable project. Six years later (1995), when Bowie was putting together a band for the Outside tour with Nine Inch Nails , he hired Dorsey as his bassist.

Since then, Dorsey has been a regular for his live band on six tours up to Bowie's last live performance in 2006, including the 112-date, global Reality Tour of 2003-2004, as well as Bowie's 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden (1997 ). There are numerous live recordings from this period.

She recorded the duet Planet of Dreams with Bowie, which appeared on the 1997 benefit album Long Live Tibet . Dorsey performed with Bowie in the 2001 concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden that they opened with his classic Heroes . Since the Outside tour, Bowie and Dorsey have sung the duet Under Pressure in live performances, based on the version of Bowie's duet with Annie Lennox at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in London. The two musicians sang other duets entitled Absolute Beginners , Oh Superman and Aladdin Sane (1913–1938–197?) . Dorsey played bass guitar on five of Bowie's albums, including Earthling (1997), Heathen (2002), Reality (2003) and The Next Day (2013). She plays the clarinet on the titles London Boys and I Dig Everything .

Following Bowie's death in 2016, Dorsey joined other members of the Bowie Band - Sterling Campbell (drums), Mike Garson (piano), Gerry Leonard (guitar), Catherine Russell (keyboards and guitar), Earl Slick (guitar) - and vocalist Lorde a tribute to Bowie at the 2016 BRIT Awards . The Sound and Vision of David Bowie - A Celebration is a band of former Bowie employees (including Dorsey) who have come together to perform David Bowie's music at New York's music club The Cutting Room every year since his death , most recently in January 2022 .

In Lenny Kravitz's band

The bass guitarist has been a regular in Lenny Kravitz 's live band since 2011. Dorsey has performed on the Black & White America Tour (2012), Strut Tour (2014) , Just Let Go (2014), Raise Vibration Tour (2018), and the North America Tour (2019), among others. She performed the Tribute to Prince with Kravitz at the 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony , and in 2019 she performed with his band at the Lollapalooza Festival in Argentina.

Dorsey and Kravitz work together regularly, including at many private, unannounced events, corporate shows , and special events such as weddings or festivals. However, the collaboration with Kravitz was put on hold as a result of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic .

Discography (solo albums)

  • The Corporate World (1988)
  • Rude Blue (1992)
  • I Used To Be… (2003)

private

In the mid-1990s, Dorsey had a four-year relationship with musician Sara Lee , who also executive produced her third album.

Dorsey currently (2020) lives in Kingston (City, New York) with her wife .

reception

In 2021, Dorsey received Bass Player magazine 's Lifetime Achievement Award . In the eulogy, the magazine wrote: "The incredibly talented Gail Ann Dorsey [...] is one of the most sought-after bassists in the world and more than deserves this award."

Brett Milano of music platform udiscovermusic.com ranked Dorsey 8th in his March 2021 ranking of the 25 best female bass guitarists and wrote: "Gail Ann Dorsey is one of the few bassists whose impressive technique is combined with a casual stylistic flexibility - and she respects embarrassingly accurate dosing of those enviable strengths so that the song always takes center stage, as it should.”

Lenny Kravitz described Gail Ann Dorsey as the "goddess on the bass" at their joint final concert of the Raise Vibration tour in the Lanxess Arena in Cologne on June 25, 2018. At a concert in Monterrey that same year, Kravitz introduced the bass guitarist as follows: "The member of the band who keeps us grounded, who gives us this superior feminine energy [...] she holds us together, the lovely Miss Gail Ann Dorsey! "

Guitar Exchange 's Paul Rigg called Dorsey "a woman of style and substance" in 2017.

In 1996, in an interview with him and Dorsey on the French music show Taratata , conducted by Nagui Fam, David Bowie commented on the quality of his bass player: "Oh, she's really good, [...] she's great."

The web platform Society of Rock commented on a live performance by David Bowie and his band at the De Kuip Theater in Amsterdam on January 29, 1996, singing Under Pressure with Dorsey : "[...] before this live performance we didn't know that it was possible to outshine Bowie himself. Bowie was superb as always, but his bassist, Gail Ann Dorsey, was remarkable. She basically stole the spotlight from him, doing two jobs at once [bass and vocals] and doing both jobs spectacularly! She has acted alongside Bowie for nearly two decades and it's not hard to see why he enjoyed working with her!"

literature

web links

Commons : Gail Ann Dorsey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

itemizations

  1. ↑ a b Ron Hart: Gail Ann Dorsey: Bowie's Bottom End. In: Team JamBase, April 1, 2010.
  2. ↑ Products Used by Gail Ann Dorsey. ( Memento of 21 January 2015 at the Internet Archive ) In: tcelectronic.com, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Allyson McCabe: Sound & Vision: Gail Ann Dorsey. In: therumpus.net of 11 July 2014.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Robert Gourley: Gail Ann Dorsey: Life before and after Bowie. In: pleasekillme.com on August 20, 2020.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Craig Harris: Biography Gail Ann Dorsey. In: AllMusic .
  6. ↑ AD Amorosi: Once a punk, always a punk, but so much more: Philly guitarist Jay Medley dead at 58. In The Philadelphia Inquirer , February 3, 2017.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Gail Ann Dorsey ( Memento of September 21, 2013 at the Internet Archive ) In: ufomusic.com, 2005.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h Robert Gourley: Under Pressure: Gail Ann Dorsey on playing bass for David Bowie. In: pleasekillme.com of December 20, 2017.
  9. ↑ Craig Garber: Gail Ann Dorsey Interview: David Bowie 21 yrs, Lenny Kravitz "It wasn't fun, but it changed my life." (from 0:34:15) on YouTube .
  10. ↑ Jackie Kay: Chiaroscuro. Oberon Modern Plays, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019, ISBN 1-78682-973-8 , p. 25.
  11. ↑ Gail Ann Dorsey - Stop on By - The Tube on YouTube .
  12. ↑ Gail Ann Dorsey - Where Is Your Love? (Official Music Video) on YouTube .
  13. ↑ Gail Ann Dorsey - Wasted Country on YouTube .
  14. ↑ Craig Garber: Gail Ann Dorsey Interview: David Bowie 21 yrs, Lenny Kravitz "It wasn't fun, but it changed my life." (from 1:27:35) on YouTube .
  15. ↑ a b Alex James Taylor: Golden Years. Bowie's resident bassist Gail Ann Dorsey reveals stories about the icon. In: hero-magazine.com from May 11, 2021.
  16. ↑ Gail Ann Dorsey - Pioneering Bass With David Bowie and Lenny Kravitz (from 0:00:17) on YouTube on June 10, 2021.
  17. ↑ "Maybe I was one of the guinea pigs of 'Can this person be an ally if she is not a lesbian.' I wanted to write songs that made my friends feel that they were part of the mix.” In: The Advocate , 6 November 2001, p. 64.
  18. ↑ a b Craig Garber: Gail Ann Dorsey Interview: David Bowie 21 yrs, Lenny Kravitz "It wasn't fun, but it changed my life". In: Everyone Loves Guitar December 18, 2020.
  19. ↑ Duncan Heining: Grand Union Orchestra: The Song Of Many Tongues. In: allaboutjazz.com of 9 November 2014.
  20. ↑ Craig Garber: Gail Ann Dorsey Interview: David Bowie 21 yrs, Lenny Kravitz "It wasn't fun, but it changed my life." (from 0:57:24) on YouTube .
  21. ↑ Chris O'Leary: Outside Tour: The Nine Inch Nails Duets. In: bowiesongs.wordpress.com, 2013.
  22. ↑ Craig Garber: Gail Ann Dorsey Interview: David Bowie 21 yrs, Lenny Kravitz "It wasn't fun, but it changed my life." (from 0:59:13) on YouTube .
  23. ↑ Andy Greene: David Bowie bassist Gail Ann Dorsey: 'He Altered the Course of My Life.' In: Rolling Stone 25 January 2016.
    Original text: "Sometime back in 1989, David Bowie was flipping through the channels in England when he came across an interview with Gail Ann Dorsey promoting her debut album, The Corporate World . 'Years later, he told me he thought to himself: Wow, this woman is really interesting', says Dorsey. 'When I'm doing the right project, I would love to work with her.' It took six years, but when Bowie was putting together a band to go on tour with Nine Inch Nails, he phoned up Dorsey to see if she'd be willing to serve as his bassist."
  24. ↑ Andy Greene: David Bowie bassist Gail Ann Dorsey: 'He Altered the Course of My Life.' In: Rolling Stone , January 25, 2016.
  25. ↑ David Bowie 50th Birthday Concert Madison Square Garden (from 1:12:17) on YouTube .
  26. ↑ David Bowie & Gail Ann Dorsey "Absolute Beginners", Queens, New York, October 16, 2002 on YouTube .
  27. ↑ Talking with Gail Ann Dorsey. In: guitarsexchange.com, 2017.
    Gail Ann Dorsey & David Bowie - O Superman (Shepherds Bush Empire - August 12, 1997) on YouTube .
  28. ↑ David Bowie - Alladin Sane Live feat. Gail Ann Dorsey, 1997 on YouTube .
  29. ↑ Bowie band members' post-BRITs tributes. In: davidbowie.com, 2016.
    David Bowie Tribute | The BRIT Awards 2016 (from 0:10:02) on YouTube .
  30. ↑ "The Sound and Vision of David Bowie - A 75th Birthday Celebration" January 7th, 8th & 9th 2022 @ The Cutting Room NYC, Tickets Available Now! In: davidbowienews.com, 2021.
  31. ↑ Gail Ann Dorsey. In: Facebook , January 28, 2012.
  32. ↑ Gail Ann Dorsey. In: Facebook , October 22, 2014.
  33. ↑ Jay S. Jacobs: Just let go. Lenny Kravitz live. A popentertainment.com music video review. In: popentertainmentarchives.com from 2 November 2015.
  34. ↑ James Currie: Lenny Kravitz @ Ravinia. Lenny Kravitz: Raise Vibration Tour / 30th Anniversary. In: beintheloopchicago.com September 9, 2019.
  35. ↑ Lenny Kravitz Extends World Tour In North America With Gail Ann Dorsey on Bass. In: bassmagazine.com, 2019.
  36. ↑ Kevin Johnson: Lenny Kravitz with Gail Ann Dorsey: Prince Tribute. dated May 12, 2017.
  37. ↑ Corey Brown: Lenny Kravitz: Again (Lollapalooza Argentina 2019). In: notreble.com on April 6, 2019.
  38. ↑ Robert Gourley: Under Pressure: Gail Ann Dorsey on playing bass for David Bowie. In: pleasekillme.com December 20, 2017.
    Original text: “We work on a regular basis, even though it's not advertised, because we do a lot of private events. Corporate shows and special events, even very, very wealthy people's weddings and things sometimes. We do work a lot, so it's hard for me to say to another artist that I'll go on tour with them for 6 months or 3 months, because I'm not sure when I'm going to get called to do something with Lenny."
  39. ↑ Craig Garber: Gail Ann Dorsey Interview: David Bowie 21 yrs, Lenny Kravitz "It wasn't fun, but it changed my life." (from 1:30:11) on YouTube .
  40. ↑ Shirley Liu: Sara Lee: A Funk Phenomenon. In: Curve , Issue 7, 1997, p. 5.
  41. ↑ Michelle Kort: Free to be Sara Lee. In: The Advocate of 21 November 2000, pp. 75f.
  42. ↑ Craig Garber: Gail Ann Dorsey Interview: David Bowie 21 yrs, Lenny Kravitz "It wasn't fun, but it changed my life." (from 2:03:52) on YouTube .
  43. ↑ Craig Garber: Gail Ann Dorsey Interview: David Bowie 21 yrs, Lenny Kravitz "It wasn't fun, but it changed my life." (from 1:20:00) on YouTube .
  44. ↑ Joel McIver: Bass Player reveals 2021 Lifetime Achievement Awards. In: December 10, 2021.
    Original text: "Gail Ann Dorsey is one of the most sought-after bassists in the world, and she has earned this award many times over. The incredibly talented Gail Ann Dorsey has been an unstoppable force in our world since the Eighties, when she came tom prominence as a solo and session artist.” In: Article text on PressReader
  45. ↑ Brett Milano: Best Female Bassists: An Essential Top 25 Countdown. In: udiscovermusic.com , March 1, 2021.
    Original quote: “Gail Ann Dorsey is one of a precious handful of bassists whose formidable technique is matched with a nonchalant stylistic flexibility – and she scrupulously monitors the dosage of these enviable strengths so that the song , as it should, always comes first."
  46. ↑ Anna Peters: Lenny Kravitz and Curtis Harding: Soulful Prelude and Rock Climax. In: TV Movie of June 26, 2018.
  47. ↑ Lenny Kravitz introduces bass player Gail Ann Dorsey as “The Superior Female Energy” Monterrey 2018 on YouTube .
    Original quote: "The member of the band that holds us down, that gives us the Superior Female Energy [...], she keeps us together, the beautiful Miss Gail Ann Dorsey!"
  48. ↑ Talking with Gail Ann Dorsey. In: guitarsexchange.com, 2017.
    Original quote: "A woman of style and substance".
  49. ↑ Interview David Bowie / Gail Ann Dorsey (from 0:25:49) on YouTube , in: Live in Taratata of 28 January 1996.
    Original quote: Nagui Fam: "She plays seriously bass guitar... sounds good..." Bowie: "Oh , she's serious, [...] she is terrific."
  50. ↑ David Bowie interview at Dutch TV show 'Karel' • TopPop (from 0:36:11) on YouTube .
  51. ↑ David Bowie Performs "Under Pressure" But Keep Your Eyes On The Bassist. In: societyofrock.com
    Original text: "And for this live performance, we didn't know it was possible to outshine Bowie himself. Bowie was his usual excellent self but it's hard not to notice his bassist - Gail Ann Dorsey. She basically stole the spotlight because she's doing double duties here and she did both jobs spectacularly!"
personal data
SURNAME Dorsey, Gail Ann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician
BIRTH DATE Nov. 20, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States of America