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Sugar Pie DeSantos

Sugar Pie DeSanto has been called the Queen of West Coast Blues and a legendary figure in the history of Bay Area blues and beyond.

Sugar Pie DeSanto was born Umpeylia Marsema Balinton, October 16, 1935. Her African American mom and her Filipino dad are responsible for her good looks, talent and great voice. Her mother was a concert pianist and taught Umpeylia how to sing - as she did with all her 10 children.

In the early 50s 19-year-old Umpeylia was discovered by Johnny Otis at a talent show. Otis is also responsible for Umpeylia's stage name as he named her "Little Miss Sugar Pie" (in reference to her height). The name "DeSanto" was added years later by Oakland disc jockey Don Barksdale.

Her first recording was with Otis but in1959 she hit gold with a solo hit record, "I Want to Know" for Checker Records. She subsequently became an opening act for James Brown for two straight years. She also toured with Gladys Knight, The Miracles and The Temptations, wowing audiences with her stage presentation and vocal delivery. She performed at the Apollo Theatre in New York and the famed Regal in Chicago.

Due to her strong writing skills, Sugar Pie started recording and writing for Chicago's Chess/Checker label. Chess used her more for writing songs than recording. The reason is quite simple, Chess wanted to protect the success of other female Chess artists like Etta James, who is actually Sugar Pie's younger cousin but had an earlier contract with Chess. Thus Sugar's material - she cut 30-plus sides for Chess - got shelved. Nevertheless she stayed seven years with Chess and wrote songs for artists like Little Milton, Fontella Bass, Minnie Ripperton, Billy Stewart, Sam and Dave, as well as Etta James.

Another highlight in Sugar Pie's career was her tour with the American Folk Blues Festival to Europe in 1964 where she was the only female artist. Other artists included Willie Dixon, John Henry Barbee, Sleepy John Estes, Clifton James, Sunnyland Slim, Hubert Sumlin, Lightnin Hopkins and Sonny Boy Williamson. As Sugar got the chance to join these famous artists on a European tour one can estimate the amount of talent she has. Chess obviously didn't care to make more out of Sugar Pie and she left Chicago at the beginning of the '70's.

Sugar Pie returned to to the Bay Area and started to play the San Francisco blues circuit where she got the title "the Queen of San Francisco blues" and won the 1999 BAMMIES Regional Award for Best Female Blues Artist. This is an honour of course but the focus is completely on Sugar's blues skills - she has more to offer though, as she performs several styles like soul, jazz, funk, hip-hop ... you name it. Plus, her famous back flips make her an artist as well.

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