FEATURED
Lydia Fortune still singing The Blues RICHARD DUCKET T
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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
N O V E M B E R 5 - 11, 2020
n January, a new show featuring Worcester singer-songwriter Lydia Fortune titled “Bessie, Billie and the Blues” sold out at Carter 19 in Berlin. With Roland Ochsenbein, keyboards, Tim Fiehler, bass, and Pat “Hatrack” Gallagher, harmonica, Fortune explores the music, lives and influence of legendary blues singers Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. “It allows me to sing the music I really love,” Fortune said. Things were getting rolling. Then, of course, the pandemic stalled matters.
“We’re kind of waiting on it until things blow over because we were just getting started,” Fortune said. But although she noted that right now, “I’m just starting to get out a little bit. I’m kind of lying low,” Fortune has still been singing the blues. That shouldn’t be a surprise since her soulful voice has been delivering not just the blues but also jazz, folk, spirituals, pop, country and more to delighted audiences in the Worcester area since the 1970s. On Aug. 5 she did get out to the Senior Center in Worcester where Stephen A. Bourassa of the The New England Jazz Enrichment Foundation and organizer of the Worcester Jazz Festival filmed some segments
from “Bessie, Billie and the Blues” that have appeared on local cable TV and video on demand. Fortune was scheduled to be back at the Worcester Senior Center Nov. 4 to record a holiday song with Bourassa’s band. At home, she’s been working on a project with The Black Women’s Creative Group telling the real story of Bethany Veney, who was born into slavery and wrote “Aunt Betty’s Story: The Narrative of Betty Veney, A Slave Woman.” Tina E. Gaffney of the group called Fortune a storyteller through her musical work. When it comes to music, “I call myself eclectic,” Fortune said. “I
love all of it. I’ve done all of it in Worcester.” Fortune didn’t start out in Worcester. Her parents were from South Carolina where they were both members of choral groups. Her father was in the Army, and the family traveled the country to various postings. Along with being from a musical family, “I listened to the radio and I really took a love to music,” Fortune said. “I ended up in Worcester in the 1970s.” She initially made an impression audiences here singing folk music, including for the former Summer’s World.
Lydia Fortune SUBMIT TED PHOTO
Meanwhile, Fortune helped form a local R&B band called Broken Ground and performed as an independent jazz soloist. She was also a featured vocalist for the Crown Hill Jazz Sextet and later joined Worcester jazz pianist Jim Heffernan to form the Heffernan/Fortune Trio. In 2000, she teamed up with husband-and-wife duo Dan and Gail Hunt and they backed her as Lydia Fortune & Company on her first recording, “Songs from the Road,” which earned Fortune Best New Artist in the 2001 Worcester Wormtown Sound Awards. The CD featured 10 original songs and established her as a singer/songwriter. Her second CD, “All Over the Map” (2003), succeed in further blurring musical lines. The nine cover tunes highlighted her ability to create fresh new approaches to old tunes, while the four originals served to sharpen her songwriting skills. From 2007-2009 Fortune was featured as a jazz vocalist with the Paul Combs Pocket Big Band. There have been other bands, gigs and venues along the way. In 2010 she and local guitarist Phil Nigro formed a songwriting team writing and performing original material that borrows from folk, blues and jazz. Fortune and Nigro opened for “An Evening with Dr. Maya Angelou” at The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts in 2012. Angelou acknowledged their performance as she took the stage, earning the duo a second round of enthusiastic applause. “That was the thrill of a lifetime,” Fortune said. She is also a former host for the John Henry’s Hammer Coffeehouse open mic series. “I’ve been all over the city,” Fortune said. Outside of music, Fortune began her professional career serving in the Navy and later was director of multicultural studies at Clark University and is a retired professional mediator. She’s watched the events of 2020 unfold, including calls for racial justice and the rise of Black Lives Matter countered by overt racism. “Black Lives Matter — I understand where that’s coming from. The biggest thing is not wanting to be killed and not wanting to be disrespected,” Fortune said.
