Odetta Memorial Service
Riverside Memorial Church
Tuesday, February 24

"Odetta all by herself was a stimulus package," declared Reverend James Forbes, senior minister emeritus of the gorgeous, cavernous Riverside Memorial Church, at about the four-hour mark of the gala tribute to the titanic folk/blues singer, to raucous applause, or raucous for a church, anyway. Indeed, it took a small army of singers, family members, adopted songs & daughters, poets, neighbors, video clips, collaborators, and clergy to properly fete the singer/actress/civil-rights icon (Martin Luther King declared her "The Queen of Folk Music"; she's probably best known for singing "O Freedom" during the 1963 March on Washington), who died December 2, 2008, at the age of 77. Everyone from Harry Belafonte to the 10-year-old son of her piano player got a few words in; everyone from Steve Earle to the Holmes Brothers to Sweet Honey in the Rock to Pete Seeger offered a song, audience participation strongly encouraged (by Pete especially), the churchly echo of a hundreds of folks singing "Take This Hammer" pretty incredible.