Trailblazing Bay Area soul singer, Sugar Pie DeSanto, to be honored

OAKLAND, Calif. - An Oakland woman who performed with the likes of James Brown and Jackie Wilson will receive a prestigious award Thursday for her life's work.

Sugar Pie DeSanto is a blues and soul singer. The living legend is 85-years-old and still going strong.

Fans describe her as a trailblazer for music artists. She recently recorded a new album with the help of her manager.

"I wake up in the morning and go to the piano and want to jam," says DeSanto.

She's spent most of her life on stage in the United States and worldwide. 

"I can never just have the mic and just...I have to give it to them," she says.

And giving it all to her audience is her life's work with a career that spanned 60 years, from the present day dating back to the 1950s.

There is video of a performance in London at the American Folks Blues Festival in the 1960s.

She was a last minute fill-in.

"No rehearsals as you see from the film. She killed it," says James Moore, her manager of 40 years.

Some call her the stage arsonist for setting the stage on fire. 

"They called me the Lady James Brown and they've been calling me that," DeSanto says.

It's a nickname that she has lived up to as evidenced by her performances.

"She came out of the dressing room. You know how prize fighters come out. They're pounding their gloves right before the ring. That's how she came out," says Moore. 

'Lady James Brown' says she was self-taught and writes her own music about her experiences. 

"I've had a hard life, your ups and downs," she says. 

One of the downs came in 2006. DeSanto's husband of 26 years, Jesse Davis, died in a fire that destroyed their Oakland apartment.

She says he lost his life while saving her.

"You're at a loss and to this day, I'm still not all the way right," DeSanto says. 

Love, loss and legacy by this living legend.

She is the recipient of an award by the Arhoolie Foundation based in El Cerrito, a nonprofit that honors artists who preserve traditional music for future generations.

"She really set the bar high for our today's Beyonces. She's all that and more," says Larry Batiste, board member with the Arhoolie Foundation, who nominated her for the award.

DeSanto has written more than 100 songs and has performed with greats such as James Brown and her cousin Etta James.

"I'm not through yet. I'm ready to still go," she says. 

Her new album, a 12-inch vinyl record is scheduled to be released early next year. But she's not stopping there. She plans to travel to Italy and London to perform live when the pandemic is over.

You can see Sugar Pie DeSanto being honored during the Arhoolie Foundation Awards virtual ceremony scheduled to be livestreamed Thursday, December 10 at 5 p.m.: https://arhoolie.org