Lady Bianca
| Lady Bianca | |
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Lady Bianca performing at the 2008 Monterey Blues Festival. Photo by Mike Shea/Tritone Photography
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Bianca Thornton |
| Born |
August 8, 1953 Kansas City, Missouri, United States |
| Genres | Electric blues |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, arranger, actress |
| Instruments | Vocals, keyboards |
| Years active | 1970s–present |
| Labels | Telarc, Rooster Blues, Magic-O |
| Associated acts | Frank Zappa, Van Morrison, Merle Haggard, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon |
| Website | www |
Lady Bianca (born August 8, 1953) is an American electric blues singer, songwriter and arranger. She has worked as a session singer, depicted Billie Holiday on stage, and since 1995 released six solo albums, three of which were nominated for a Grammy Award.
She is currently based in Oakland, California.
She was born Bianca Thornton, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. She was the eldest child, with two sisters and one brother.
Her first exposure to music was through gospel, and she studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Her first professional gig was with Quinn Harris and the Masterminds, when she was aged 17. Harris dubbed her 'Lady Bianca', and the combination contributed two tracks to a compilation album released by Reynolds Records in 1970.
In 1972, she played the role of Billie Holiday in the San Franciscan stage production of Jon Hendricks' Evolution of the Blues. In the mid 1970s, she worked in various clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she met the bass guitarist Henry Oden. They were subsequently married for 15 years. She then joined Sly and the Family Stone as backing vocalist and keyboard player, and appeared on their 1976 album, Heard Ya Missed Me, Well I'm Back. Starting in October the same year she toured for one month with Frank Zappa in North America, and a recording of her singing "Wind Up Workin' in a Gas Station" appeared in 1992 on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6. The whole concert of 29 October 1976 in The Spectrum, Philadelphia, with her singing on several tracks was published on two CDs by the Zappa Family Trust in 2009, entitled Philly '76, including the re-release of "Wind up ..." After November 11, she left the band because of conflicts with Zappa. When not touring, she performed locally in the recording studio, backing musicians such as Lee Oskar, Merle Haggard and Taj Mahal. In 1977, she co-founded the short-lived ensemble Vitamin E, and they released the commercially doomed Sharing album on Buddah Records. Lady Bianca then joined another group, Zingara, which was set up by Lamont Dozier in 1980. The trio included James Ingram, Wali Ali and Lady Bianca, but again it did not have any lasting appeal.
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