Queen Esther Marrow

Queen Esther Marrow born February 12 1941 is an American soul and gospel singer Queen Esther Marrow was born in Newport News Virginia She began her career at the age of 22 when her vocal gifts were discovered by Duke Ellington and made her debut as a featured artist in his Sacred Concert world tour Marrow and Ellington formed a longlife friendship during the next four years while touring together Queen has since performed with such musicians as Lena Horne Ella Fitzgerald BB King Ray Charles Thelonious Monk Chick Corea and Bob Dylan In 1965 Marrow became active in the civil rights movement when she performed in Dr Martin Luther King Jrs World Crusade There she met her lifetime idol Mahalia Jackson with whom she would later share the stage Other political activists on the crusade were Jesse Jackson Sidney Poitier and Dr Ralph Abernathy Marrow was also involved in musical theater jazz television and film She played Auntie Em on Broadway in The Wiz and was featured in several other Broadway shows including Comin Uptown Nice To Be Civilized and she starred as her idol Mahalia Jackson in the national tour of Sing Mahalia Sing directed by George Faison Marrow was featured in Motowns film The Last Dragon produced by Berry Gordy Her many television appearances have ranged from the serious to the comic They include Duke Ellington The Music Lives On as Oscar the Grouchs mother in Sesame Street on PBS and New York to Paris with The Harlem Gospel Singers also on PBS In 1990 a dream of Marrows came true when Truly Blessed a musical about Mahalia Jackson written by and starring Queen Esther was performed in San Francisco Washington DC and in New York City on Broadway The musical received three Helen Hayes nominations including Best New Play Marrow has performed for Presidents Ronald Reagan George H W Bush and Bill Clinton and done a command performance for the British Royal Family She sang at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II several times Most recently she founded The Harlem Gospel Singers an international touring gospel group The group with their popularity at an alltime high made history on July 7 1998 as the only gospel group ever to perform the Grand Evenement du Maurier grand event at the Montreal Jazz Festival drawing over 100000 audience members In 2015 Marrow was the only performer from the original 1965 performance of Duke Ellingtons Sacred Concert to also perform at the 50th anniversary performance at Grace Cathedral San Francisco Source Article Queen Esther Marrow from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30