OAKLAND, CA (CelebrityAccess) – Barbara Dane, a folk, blues, and jazz singer, musician, record label executive, and political activist once described by jazz critic Leonard Feather as “Bessie Smith in stereo,” died on October 20 at the age of 97.
Her daughter, Nina Menendez, told the New York Times that Dane died from heart failure, having chosen to end her life under California’s End of Life Option Act.
Born Barbara Jean Spillman, Dane was raised in Detroit, where she became active in the civil rights movement and advocated for economic justice while still in her teens. She also became a sought-after musician, performing with local bands and turning down offers to tour.
After relocating to San Francisco in 1949, she continued to perform locally, making radio and television appearances and drawing from folk, blues, and jazz music.
Following the release of her first album, Trouble in Mind, in 1957, Feather’s praise likening her to “Bessie Smith in stereo” marked her as a significant presence in jazz.
In 1961, Dane opened her own club, Sugar Hill, in San Francisco, where she regularly performed and created a key West Coast stage for jazz, folk, and blues artists such as Mose Allison, Tampa Red, and Lightnin’ Hopkins.
In 1970, Dane co-founded Paredon Records with her husband, Irwin Silber, providing a platform for politically active musicians who found it challenging to sign with traditional labels.
As a political activist, Dane was the teenage director of Michigan’s Communist Party-affiliated American Youth for Democracy in the early 1940s. She was later expelled from the party along with her then-husband, folk musician Rolf Cahn, in the late 1940s. Throughout her life, she supported causes like civil rights, the antiwar movement, and opposition to civilian nuclear power in California.
