Linda Tillery facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Linda Tillery
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Tillery (center) performing with The Cultural Heritage Choir in July 2008
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Linda Joyce Tillery |
| Born | September 2, 1948 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1968–present |
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Linda "Tui" Tillery (born September 2, 1948) is an American singer, musician, and producer. She started her music career at age 19. She is known for being an important artist in music made by and for women. Her second solo album, Linda Tillery, was released in 1977. She also helped produce some of the first albums for Olivia Records, a record label focused on women artists.
Linda Tillery has been a professional musician her whole adult life. She has sung backup for many famous artists like Santana and Bobby McFerrin. In the early 1990s, she started exploring the traditional music of African Americans. She then formed a group called The Cultural Heritage Choir. In 1997, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for a children's music album.
Contents
Early Life and Music Beginnings
Linda Tillery was born in 1948 in San Francisco, California. Her parents moved there from Texas. Her father was a carpenter, and her mother was a seamstress.
Even though her parents were not musicians, they loved music. They had a big collection of old records. Linda grew up listening to many types of music, from jazz to blues. By age 2, her favorite singer was Dinah Washington. Linda says she learned to read by looking at the labels on her parents' records.
Linda taught herself how to sing. When she was 13, she started formal music lessons. She studied the classical bass at Lowell High School. Her teachers saw her talent and let her play drums and other instruments too. Around the same time, she saw a musician named Vi Redd play the saxophone. This inspired Linda to play any instrument she wanted and to be a unique singer.
After high school, Linda worked for a year and went to college briefly. But she quickly found college boring. She decided to leave and become a professional singer.
The Loading Zone Years
Linda Tillery became well-known as the lead singer for a San Francisco band called The Loading Zone. She joined them in 1968 when she was 19. The band had just signed with RCA Records. They put an ad in the newspaper looking for a "soul singer."
The band's founder, Paul Fauerso, remembered hiring Linda. He said she called first to make sure she was what they needed. When she arrived for the audition, she was wearing a post office uniform. He knew right away she was the right person.
The Loading Zone often played at popular clubs in the Bay Area. They were also a popular opening act for bigger bands. They toured with groups like Vanilla Fudge and The Jeff Beck Group. They also opened shows for The Who, Jethro Tull, and Cream. One time, they opened for Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin. Linda's performance was so good that Janis Joplin reportedly said Linda should not open for her again!
The Loading Zone's music was a mix of rock, R&B, and jazz. Their first album, The Loading Zone, came out in 1968. It sold about 100,000 copies. Linda stayed with the band for a few years. She left the group for good in 1972.
Solo Work and Studio Musician
As early as 1968, Linda Tillery also performed on her own. She signed with CBS Records and released her first solo album, Sweet Linda Divine, in 1970. The album got good reviews but did not sell many copies. Still, it earned Linda two "Jammies" (Bay Area Jazz Awards) for Best Female Vocalist.
Throughout the 1970s, Linda worked as a session musician. This means she was hired to sing backing vocals or play drums on other artists' albums. She worked with artists like Santana and Boz Scaggs. She sang on Santana's hit song "Everybody's Everything" in 1971.
During this time, Linda was also part of other bands. She was a member of the jazz fusion band Cesar 830. She was also the lead singer for Coke Escovedo's band. Linda described this time as her "education as a hard-working singer." She said she was a "9-to-5 musician," playing with many bands and doing club work.
Olivia Records and Music for Women
In 1975, Linda Tillery started working with Olivia Records. This record label was known for creating music by and for women. Linda produced, arranged, and sang on the album for the band BeBe K'Roche in 1976. This was one of Olivia's first releases.
Linda joined the Olivia collective, a group of women who ran the label. She helped recruit Sandy Stone as a recording engineer. Olivia Records became a very important label for female musicians, engineers, and producers.
In 1977, Linda produced Teresa Trull's first album. She also played drums and sang on it. That same year, Olivia released a special album called Lesbian Concentrate. Linda contributed a song called "Don't Pray For Me" to this album. This song is recognized as one of the first to directly challenge prejudice.
Later in 1977, Olivia Records released Linda's second solo album, also called Linda Tillery. Linda was the main producer. All the musicians and technical staff on the album were women. The album included "Don't Pray For Me" and other songs about women's experiences and strength. One song, "Freedom Time," talked about the challenges of being Black and female. This album helped Linda win a Bammie (Bay Area Music Award).
In 1978, Olivia Records organized a national tour called "Varied Voices of Black Women." Linda Tillery was part of this tour. It brought jazz, blues, and poetry to audiences.
Linda left Olivia Records in 1979. She said she was happy to work in an environment where she could learn from other women. Before that, she had mostly worked with men in bands. Linda has called herself the "queen mother" of music for women.
Later Music and Collaborations
After leaving Olivia, Linda Tillery remained a key figure in music for women. She performed at many music festivals, sharing her unique blend of African American blues and R&B. She started a project called "A Tribute to Black Women in the Blues." She also led a gospel choir at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.
In 1985, Linda released her third solo album, Secrets. It was a mix of R&B, gospel, pop, jazz, and soul. The album received good reviews and some radio play. A young singer named Tracy Chapman opened for Linda at one of her concerts in 1985.
Linda continued to work as a session musician for mainstream artists. She sang backing vocals for Bobby McFerrin and Santana. She was also a main singer in the Bay Area music scene. Many people considered her one of the best vocalists since the 1960s.
In the 1980s, Linda also worked with guitarist Ray Obiedo. She sang in his soul/jazz bands. She also sang with her younger brother Calvin Tillery in a house band at a San Francisco nightclub. In the early 1990s, Linda formed an all-woman R&B/blues/pop band called Skin Tight Motown Revue.
The Cultural Heritage Choir
In 1991, Linda Tillery watched a TV special featuring opera singers singing spirituals. This moment deeply moved her. She felt it was a new path for her music. Around the same time, she received a tape of traditional Black folk songs. She loved the music and felt "reborn."
Linda began to research Black roots music. She studied spirituals, work songs, and slave songs. She ordered recordings from the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. She also traveled to the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia to learn about traditional Gullah music.
After this research, Linda gathered some musician friends. They put on a concert of spirituals in Oakland, California. The audience loved it. In 1992, Linda formed The Cultural Heritage Choir. The group started with six women and then settled into a five-member group. The original members included Linda Tillery, Rhonda Benin, Elouise Burrell, Melanie DeMore, and Emma Jean Foster-Fiege.
The Cultural Heritage Choir often performs songs, chants, children's play songs, folk tales, and field hollers. They also use hand drums, tambourines, gourds, and bells. Linda calls their music "survival music" because it helped African Americans endure hard times. She believes these songs can help people today too.
Linda says that the Choir's music is 100 percent Black. She notes that most of their audience is white. She finds the art that came from the time of slavery to be very exciting. Linda also wanted the educational part of the Choir to be important. She wanted people to learn about the origins of important American music.
The Choir started as an all-female group. But over time, men joined the group. In 2003, Lamont Van Hook became the first male member. In 2005, Simon Monserrat joined, adding his knowledge of Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The Choir has also added more modern music to their performances.
The Cultural Heritage Choir has performed all over the United States and in 13 other countries. They are a popular group at many folk festivals. Linda loves international music festivals because they let her hear music from around the world.
Recordings
Linda Tillery and The Cultural Heritage Choir have released several albums. Linda produced or co-produced most of them.
Their first CD, Good Time, A Good Time, came out in 1995. Carlos Santana called it a "landmark project with historical value." They also released Front Porch Music (1997) and a live album called Say Yo' Business (2001).
The group also made two children's albums. Shakin' a Tailfeather (1997), with Taj Mahal and Eric Bibb, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children. Their album Hippity Hop (1999) also featured Taj Mahal and Eric Bibb, along with Sheila E. and Maria Muldaur.
Other Projects and Teaching
Linda Tillery has worked on many projects beyond her solo career and the Cultural Heritage Choir. She has been involved in theater, radio, film, and television. She also teaches classes and workshops.
In 1987, Linda performed with actor Danny Glover in a live radio musical. She was also a founding member of Bobby McFerrin's vocal group, Voicestra. She performed with them for seven years. Bobby McFerrin said Linda was the "soul" of Voicestra. Linda also studied voice with McFerrin.
Linda appeared in music videos and a Burger King TV commercial in 1990. She performed on the soundtracks for several films by director Marlon Riggs.
In 1992, she became a special consultant for Redwood Records' New Spirituals Project. This project asked female composers to create new spiritual songs each year. Linda sang in concerts for this project.
Linda also created music for a dance performance called Invisible Wings. This dance told the story of a place called Jacob's Pillow, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad. She also worked with the Zaccho Dance Theater on a performance about the history of the tango.
Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir were artists-in-residence at the Cache Valley Arts Festival in Utah in 2004. In 2005, Linda was a featured singer at a concert celebrating the 100th birthday of composer Harold Arlen.
In 2011, Linda was the musical director for a play called Seven Guitars. Also in 2011, she started a new project called "Hills to Hollers" with musicians Barbara Higbie and Laurie Lewis. They explored traditional American roots music.
In 2017, Linda worked on the music for a play called black odyssey. This play was a modern version of the Greek story Odyssey, but with an African-American twist. In July 2017, Linda reunited with musicians from her 1977 Olivia Records album to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Activist and Educator
Linda Tillery uses her research into music to teach others. She has been a visiting scholar and taught classes at Stanford University and Williams College. She was also a research assistant at Indiana University Bloomington.
She has given speeches about music as a way to promote peace and justice. In 2009, she spoke at a conference about the history of rock music. Linda also wrote the introduction for a book about music for women.
Since 2013, she has been a visiting lecturer and artist at the SFJAZZ Center. There, she leads workshops on the music of the African Diaspora.
Awards and Recognition
Linda Tillery has received many awards for her music and work:
- Jammie (Bay Area Jazz Award) for Sweet Linda Divine (1970)
- Bammie (Bay Area Music Award) for Linda Tillery (1977)
- National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD), Best Independent Music Award (1986)
- Grammy Award nominee, Best Musical Album for Children, Shakin' a Tailfeather, 1998
- American Library Association, Notable Children's Recordings, Shakin' a Tailfeather, 1998
- Parents' Choice "Gold" winner, Shakin' a Tailfeather, 1998
- Parent's Choice "Gold" winner, Hippity Hop, 2000
- California Music Award nominee, Say Yo' Business, 2003
- Community Leadership Award, San Francisco Foundation, 2014 and 2015
- Women's Cancer Resource Center, San Francisco, Compassionate Healer Award 2015
- Arhoolie Award, Arhoolie Foundation, 2019
Discography
Linda Tillery has released many albums throughout her career, both as a solo artist and with her bands.
Solo Albums
- Sweet Linda Divine (1970)
- Linda Tillery (1977)
- Secrets (1985)
- Shake It To the One That You Love the Best (1989, with Taj Mahal)
- Hills to Hollers: Live! (2012, with Barbara Higbie and Laurie Lewis)
The Loading Zone Albums
- The Loading Zone (1968)
- One for All (1970)
Linda Tillery and The Cultural Heritage Choir Albums
- Good Time, A Good Time (1995)
- Front Porch Music (1997)
- Shakin' a Tailfeather (1997, with Taj Mahal and Eric Bibb)
- Hippity Hop (1999, with Taj Mahal, Eric Bibb, Sheila E., Maria Muldaur, Shinehead)
- Say Yo' Business (2001)
- Still We Sing, Still We Rise (2009)
Linda Tillery and the Freedom Band Albums
- Celebrate the King (2012)
Images for kids
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Tillery (center) performing with The Cultural Heritage Choir in July 2008
See also
In Spanish: Linda Tillery para niños
