Barbara Dane

American folk, blues and jazz singer, and guitarist, born May 12, 1927 in Detroit - died October 20, 2024 in Oakland.

She was married three times: folk singer Rolf Cahn with whom she had a son, Jesse Cahn, also a folk musician; Byron Menendez with whom she had two children Pablo Menéndez and Nina Menéndez; and Irwin Silber.

Jazz critic Leonard Feather called her "Bessie Smith in stereo," and after she opened for him in 1959, Louis Armstrong exclaimed "Did you get that chick? She's a gasser!" and invited her to appear with him on national television's Timex Jazz show. She toured the East Coast with Jack Teagarden, played Chicago with Art Hodes, Roosevelt Sykes, Little Brother Montgomery, Memphis Slim, Otis Spann, Willie Dixon and others, and appeared on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show as a solo guest artist. Other national TV work included The Steve Allen Show, Bobby Troop's Stars of Jazz, Playboy Penthouse, PM East/West and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In the early 1960s, she founded the blues and jazz club Sugar Hill, San Francisco.