Martha Bass born 7 March 1921

Martha Bass (March 7, 1921 – September 21, 1998) was an American contralto gospel singer and mother of David Peaston and Fontella Bass. 

Martha Carter Bass Peaston was born in Arkansas. Her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri when she was 2 years old and joined the Pleasant Green Baptist Church, where G.H. Pruitt was the pastor. She started to sing in the choir and had a dark, powerful contralto like her mother, Nevada Carter. 

She came under the authoritative and watchful tutelage of Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith, the head of the Soloists Beareau in gospel composer Thomas A. Dorsey's National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses and the founder of the St. Louis Chapter of the organization, and it was there that she developed into a "house wrecker" as they are called in gospel. 

With Mother Ford's teaching and a wealth of church singing experience under her belt, she left St. Louis in the early 1950s to travel with the great Clara Ward Singers, with whom she stayed with for about four years. On November 2, 1950 they recorded “Wasn’t It A Pity How They Punished My Lord” on Savoy records with her on lead. It was a huge hit. About the same time, her family and entourage organized a private recording session and two songs were issued on the Bass label. 

                           Here’s “Rescue Me” from above LP

                                   

She then got married, and with two sons and a baby girl (Fontella Bass), she chose to stay at home and raise her family. In March of 1966 she recorded her first album “I’m So Grateful”, with Fontella playing piano and singing background. This album established Martha as a gospel singer of the first rank. In 1968 she recorded her second album “Rescue Me”. 

In 1969, as a tribute to her idol, Mahalia Jackson, she recorded her third album “Martha Sings Mahalia”. In 1970, Bass recorded 'Walk With Me Lord' with the Harold Smith Majestics Choir with Checker Records. The song was featured in Selma, the 2014 Ava DuVarnay film through Geffen Records and Universal Music Enterprises. 

In 1972, she recorded her last album on the Checker label “It’s Another Day’s Journey”. After that, she toured in Europe for some time with her mother, Nevada, and daughter, Fontella. The tour was called “From The Roots To The Source”.

From the late 1980’s until her death she was satisfied to be her daughters best supporter, and she helped Fontella’s career any way she could, until in 1990 Selah Records gave the entire family an opportunity to record an album together. It was called “A Family Portrait Of Faith” and featured Fontella’s brother and special guest, David Peaston. 

Martha died in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 21, 1998 (aged 77). 

With Willie Mae Ford Smith and Cleophus Robinson, Martha Bass will remain one of the best gospel singers ever to come out of Louis, Missouri. Unfortunately she was sadly under-recorded. 

(Edited from Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Lilian Bowles bio & Wikipedia)