Sissieretta Jones, also known as “The Black Patti,” was a famous African American soprano during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. She was born Matilda Sissieretta Joyner in 1868 in the city of Portsmouth, Virginia. Her parents, who had both been slaves, moved the family to Providence, Rhode Island, in search of a better life, when Sissieretta was about seven years old.

Sissieretta had some early voice training and got her start singing in church programs in Providence. In 1883 she married David Richard Jones and continued her pursuit of a musical career. She got her big break in 1888 when she earned a starring role with the Tennessee Jubilee Singers, a singing group ready to leave on a tour of the West Indies and South America. After two successful tours in that part of the world, she finally became known in the United States in 1892. She was one of the first African American female vocalists to sing at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Her career blossomed and she sang concerts throughout the United States and Canada for the next four years before heading to Europe to sing for several months.

When Sissieretta returned to the United States in 1896, she left the concert stage to become the star of a musical comedy company named for her, the Black Patti Troubadours. For many years she sang concert and operatic selections during the third act of the traveling show. Eventually the company’s name changed to the Black Patti Musical Comedy Company and she began to have a speaking role in the show as well as singing ballads and operatic selections.

She retired from the stage in 1915 and returned to her home in Providence, where she lived the rest of her life. She died in 1933 and is buried at the Grace Church Cemetery in Providence.

This is the first of what I hope will be a weekly blog about Sissieretta Jones, leading up to the publication of my book, Sissieretta Jones, “The Greatest Singer of Her Race,” 1868-1933. The book, to be published by the University of South Carolina Press, is scheduled for release May 15, 2012.

These blogs will contain short bits of information about this great soprano. Of course, there will be much more about her life in the book. It has taken me eight years to research and write the story of this fascinating woman. I hope you will enjoy reading about her as much as I enjoyed discovering many of the details of her life. Unfortunately, she did not leave letters or diaries to tell us her most inner thoughts and feelings. Instead, I’ve had to rely on hundreds of newspaper clippings from around the country and Canada to help me describe her career. As you’ll see from blogs in the coming weeks and months, this early prima donna was one of the greats.

Maureen Lee
mlee@sissierettajones.com