Person
Biography
Odetta performed as part of the "Jazz at the Pillow" series for three consecutive years with the New Black Eagle Jazz Band, beginning in 1983. These performances were customarily given on Sunday afternoons with the stage doors of the Ted Shawn Theatre opened, as seen here in Odetta's 1985 appearance, photographed by Stephan Driscoll. She was one of the best-known folk-music artists of the 1950s and 60s, and has been cited as an influence on Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, and dozens of other important musicians. She had been scheduled to sing at Barack Obama's presidential inauguration when she died in December 2008 at the age of 77.