Fontella Bass

CTL-E-6028 · Person · musician · 1940–2012

VERIFIED evidence grade — master store (canonical CSV)

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-00319 · provenance: canonical master store (CSV), record CTL-P-0102 + build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6028. Master record source: CTL seed 2026-10-16 — UNVERIFIED, verify before public citation.

Fontella Bass (born Fontella Marie Bass, July 3, 1940, St. Louis; died December 26, 2012, St. Louis) was an R&B and soul singer and pianist raised in a gospel family — her mother, Martha Bass, sang with the Clara Ward Singers. Bass sang in church from childhood, turned professional as a teenager in St. Louis clubs, and signed with Chess Records, first as a duet partner for Bobby McClure. In 1965 she co-wrote and recorded 'Rescue Me' for Chess's Checker imprint; it reached number one on the R&B chart and number four on the pop chart and became one of the defining soul singles of its decade. She later recorded and performed with her husband, trumpeter Lester Bowie, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, returned to gospel with the Grammy-nominated album No Ways Tired in the 1990s, and sang into the twenty-first century.

The record

• Also known as: Fontella Marie Bass
• Role(s): singer

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 3 — 747 Program, Wave 10; third Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): no Fontella Bass entity in the live graph at 3,683 entities (exact / normalized / alias + token containment); ID CTL-E-6028 free. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 4 — Scan Tail Wave 2 packet ordered reserve, position 23 of 25 (corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked clean survivor #870). The scan supplied the NAME STRING ONLY; no fact in this record is sourced to it (CTL-GOV-004). SCOPE GATE: PASS — St. Louis soul with a direct Chess Records line into Chicago (recorded_for edge to CTL-E-0165); national soul canon scope. Vital status: DECEASED — died December 26, 2012 (Wikipedia; Reuters obituary). Tribute treatment in the Curator's Judgment. STATISTICS (sourced, dated): 'Rescue Me' (1965): number one R&B, number four Billboard pop (AP obituary; Wikipedia). 'Don't Mess Up a Good Thing' with Bobby McClure (1965): number five R&B, number 33 pop (AP obituary). Death date December 26, 2012 is carried from Wikipedia's dated record; Reuters, published December 27, 2012, reports she died the preceding Wednesday night — the two are consistent and shown together, not blended. MEDIA: photo HELD (Fontella Bass portrait, 1965 (the dated portrait carried on her reference page; PHOTO-001 verification still required) named as candidate; no file-page verification in this pass); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6028-fontella-bass.svg); video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short or verified-rights archival video staged); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Non-place record; no map attaches at the entity layer.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created SVG (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced facts) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map catalog (233 entries, checked by name); slot held.) | audio = HELD (No audiobook excerpt or author recording with a CTL rights basis was staged in this pass.)

Relationships

• Chess Records — recorded for
  Fontella Bass signed with Chess Records and recorded 'Rescue Me' (1965) for its Checker imprint. recorded_for (Person->Institution) is matrix-legal; Chess Records is CTL-E-0165.

Sources

• Reuters, 'Rescue Me singer Fontella Bass dies aged 72' (December 27, 2012; accessed 2026-10-16; article opened and read) — died in St. Louis hospice care aged 72; 'Rescue Me' topped the R&B chart in 1965; mother Martha Bass of the Clara Ward Singers; 1965 Bobby McClure duets; marriage to Lester Bowie; later gospel album — https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/27/entertainment-us-fontellabass-idUSBRE8BQ0I720121227/ (primary source · build store)
• Wikipedia, Fontella Bass (accessed 2026-10-16) — born July 3, 1940, died December 26, 2012, St. Louis; 'Rescue Me' number one R&B and number four pop; Chess/Checker label history; collaborations with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Cinematic Orchestra; two Grammy nominations — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontella_Bass (build store)
• Associated Press obituary via Legacy.com (December 2012; accessed 2026-10-16) — church choir at age six; professional start at 17; 'Don't Mess Up a Good Thing' number five R&B in 1965; 'Rescue Me' chart peaks and its frequent misattribution to Aretha Franklin — https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/fontella-bass-obituary?pid=161987003 (build store)
• https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/fontella-bass-obituary?pid=161987003 (verification source · master store)

Evidence note (master store)

Associated Press obituary (via Legacy.com): Fontella Bass was a St. Louis-born soul singer who co-wrote and recorded 'Rescue Me', which reached No. 1 on the R&B charts and No. 4 on the Billboard pop singles chart in 1965, after signing with Chess Records.

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Record CTL-E-6028 · Combined Graph record U-00319 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 4 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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