Happy Birthday Tina Bell!!

This year we're celebrating Tina's legacy in a special way. For the entire month of February 2024, The M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery & EDIC are presenting QUEEN OF GRUNGE: Portraits of Tina Bell.

The M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery, Seattle Central College

M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery

OPEN CALL FOR ART - QUEEN OF GRUNGE: Portraits of Tina Bell.

M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery. Deadline: January 13, 2024

Eligibility: Regional including Seattle Central Staff & Students         
State: Washington         
Fee: NO FEE         
Entry Deadline: 1/16/24, by 11:59 Pacific Time         
Event Dates: 2/1/24 - 2/29/24        
Details: Artwork must be shipped or dropped off by selected artists, shipping costs born by the artist. Artwork must be framed or ready to hang. Art to be hung should include a wire hanger. Seattle Central Students only may request framing assistance.        

`Do you know about early grunge pioneer Tina Bell? Born and raised in Seattle, Bell was the front woman for the local band Bam Bam. She is now credited for shaping the grunge sound, but until recently she has been woefully unsung.  

Help us celebrate the legacy of this local hero! We are looking for portraits expressing her bombastic energy and iconic status, open to artist interpretation.          

This show is presented by the M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery, located on the Seattle Central College campus, in partnership with Seattle Central’s EDIC office. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, February 1st from 4-7pm.  

Seattle Central College

Tina Bell

Tina Bell & Bam Bam in "Hit Girls - Women of Punk in the USA 1975-1983", the very cool new book by Jen B Larson.

(click button for amazon, image for barnes & noble)..

Amazon

Happy Birthday Tina Bell!!

..miss you always..

Seeing things thru for Tina Bell & Bam Bam.. Hey it's what I do!!

Cool post honoring Tina Bell & Bam Bam

by writer/critic Zeba Blay @zebablay (Huffington Post, New York Times, ESSENCE, Allure, Village Voice..)..

Thank You Zeba Blay!!

@zebablay

Seattlego eszena, Nirvana eta emakume isilaraziak: Tina Bell, grungearen aitzindaria.

Tina Bell artistaren obra eta legatua izan ditu hizpide Ainhoa Vitoriak eta Julen Idigoras, "B Aldea" saioan. 11/02/2022.

The Seattle scene, Nirvana and the silent women: Tina Bell, pioneer of grunge. 
The work and legacy of the artist Tina Bell was discussed by Ainhoa ​​Vitoria and Julen Idigoras, in the show "B Aldea". 
EITB Media, (Basque)  11/02/2022. [EITB - Euskal Irrati Telebista is the Basque Autonomous Community's public broadcast service - the leading media group in the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain with four domestic television channels and five radio stations]. 

B Aldea

Tina Bell in BUST Magazine June 2022

I was interviewed by BUST magazine; talking Tina Bell & Bam Bam in their Summer 2022 issu

BUST Magazine

Tina Bell and Bam Bam in a cool new zine from Philadelphia:

TAPED OFF TV ROCKSTARS

southstreetartmart

How Chicago helped put the Queen of Grunge back on her throne

by Leor Galil - February 16, 2022.

Chicago Reader

Happy Birthday to our Tina Bell

..miss you everyday..

Tina Bell & Scotty Buttocks

KING 5 photojournalist Adam Thompson talks about Tina Bell & Bam Bam on Seattle's KING 5 News "Biggest Stories of the Year" from 2021.

"This story is important because there's a lot of people who got credit for that early grunge music scene in Seattle, and Tina Bell was not one of them. If this story shows even a few people the contributions that she made to not only the music scene, but the city in general, then I think that's important."  

Adam Thompson, KING 5 photojournalist on Behind the Lens: 2021 KING 5 Photographers' Notebook. Dec 23, 2021. 

Click the 'button' to link directly to Bam Bam at the 25 min point.

For the full piece at Seattle KING 5 News click the posted link -   

https://www.king5.com/video/news/behind-the-lens-2021-photographers-notebook/281-f9b67066-3003-4df8-8544-9a2c84576d56

KING 5 Behind the Lens: 2021 KING 5 Photographers' Notebook

Who Was Rocker Tina Bell? And Why It Matters.

By Jacob Uitti writing for American Songwriter Oct 10 2021.

"In Seattle, an important, perhaps genre-defining conversation has been going for the past six months about one local artist more than any other. That person is not Macklemore or Ryan Lewis, Ann or Nancy Wilson, Kurt Cobain or Jimi Hendrix. It’s Bam Bam frontwoman, Tina Bell. 
..The energetic stage presence who sang and shrieked and moaned of a troubled, unfair life over sludgy, often dark, brooding guitars and rhythms. And she came years before the big Seattle four of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains.

Bell, who was one of the first to make those sludgy sounds, also dabbled in new wave and punk music. And she was excellent in those, too. So, how was all this talent lost to history? That’s what I’d like to know; not if Bell “invented grunge.” 

The reality of an art form is that no one person starts an entire genre by themselves; there are always influences and helpful contemporaries. As the proto-grunge sounds and styles and swagger were being shaped in the Northwest, Bell was there, very much contributing to it, day in and day out. 

It’s silly—unfair, even—to hold Bell’s legacy up to the standard of Godmother-of-Grunge or bust. There are plenty of perfectly good and noteworthy Northwest bands who get love from fans who didn’t have to invent an entire genre. We remember many of them but somehow we lost Tina. 

I’m not interested in whether Tina Bell started grunge or why Matt Cameron ultimately left the band. I’m much more interested in why whatever Tina and Bam Bam were doing in the ‘80s, which from all accounts was influential and interesting, was almost entirely forgotten until recently? How could that happen? 

And even if we never find an answer to why Bell and Bam Bam were lost for decades, let’s collectively make sure moving forward that it doesn’t happen again". 

(these are excerpts; follow link to complete article) 

American Songwriter

TINA BELL, QUEEN OF GRUNGE PUNK

The first African American women to front a punk grunge, hard rock band in the US. Greatest female rock singer since Janis Joplin.

Brilliant song writer, lyricist, performer;  The Queen of grunge punk, she fronted Seattle grunge pioneers Bam Bam 1983-1990. 

Tina Bell first found her voice singing in choir at the Mount Zion Baptist Church of Seattle. Her first stage experience was not in a band, but performing with The Langston Hughes Theater, also in Seattle. 

In 1984 Tina Bell and her band Bam Bam recorded & released one of the first pieces of vinyl on Seattle's early grunge scene; THE first from famed Reciprocal Recording Studios in Seattle. (the ep "Villains also wear white"). 

Despite years of dedication, innovative music and packed shows, acceptance for Tina was elusive. People simply weren't ready for her yet. 
The lack of recognition eventually took its toll on Bell. She retired from music  in 1990. 

In 2012, her (& Bam Bam guitarist Tommy Martin's) son TJ Martin won the Academy Award for Best Director of a Feature Length Documentary for his film Undefeated. ABC aired a portion of Tina Bell's final interview during the Academy Awards broadcast. 

Tina Bell died Oct 2012 while plans were underway for a Bam Bam reunion. 

Tina Marie Bell, 1957-2012. 

"Ahead of Tina's HBO premiere, directors Lindsay and Martin hopped on a Zoom call with Billboard (the latter rocking a t-shirt from a different trailblazing Tina, that of his mother Tina Bell, the pioneering Black woman who fronted early '80 grunge band Bam Bam)".

from: 'Tina' Doc's Oscar-Winning Directors on Bringing a Fresh POV to Tina Turner's Life. Joe Lynch writing for Billboard. Mar 25, 2021 

billboard

The TINA BELL Wikipedia page is BACK UP TO STAY!!

I can't thank Matthew Ward enough for his diligence in researching info and correcting some of the numerous errors/omissions on the page. (Matthew's an administrator for Pacific Northwest Music Archives AND he's an official Wikipedia contributor). 
Extra thanks to you Matthew for asking me about Tina's early influences and adding that crucial info to her page. 

Both The Mount Zion Baptist Church Choir and Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute in Seattle were critical to Tina's development as an artist.🖤 
Tina's unique combination of Gospel, goth and punk rock is one of the many things that made her so special and she got her first stage experience with the Langston Hughes Seattle group.  
 
Thanks also to journalists/writers Tânia Seles (Brazil Rocks!), Jen Larson, Stephanie Siek, Samantha Hollins and Hrvoje Bubić, with HUGE HUGS to KEXP's Larry Mizell Jr. and Eva Walker.

Wikipedia

Tina Bell | The Woman Who Invented Grunge

Nice YouTube mini documentary on Tina Bell & Bam Bam..

Tina Bell | The Woman Who Invented Grunge. 
Miss Ann Thrope, youtube channel, May 23, 2021. 

Miss Ann Thrope channel

40 Black Rock-Hers Who Are Shaking It Up! Tina Bell #5. BLACK ROCKERS UNITED. April 9, 2021.

"We're posthumously watching her ripple effect today, shaking up the scene.

Bam Bam just signed with Bric-A-Brac Records! Congratulations and rock on out there! RIP, Tina Bell".

Black Rockers United

"Tina Bell was a talented musician who started the group Bam Bam with Tommy Martin, TJ’s father. Bam Bam was a revolutionary Seattle grunge band that remains a core part of the area’s music history".

From: TJ Martin’s Tinas. Chase Hutchinson writing for The Stranger. Apr 6, 2021.

The Stranger

This week I had the honor of being interviewed by Samantha Hollins of The Culture Rock Griot to talk about Bam Bam and the incomparable Tina Bell. Feb 5 is her birthday: Happy Birthday Tina Bell!! Thank you and much love to Samantha Hollins.

https://theculturerockgriot.wordpress.com/2021/02/05/pioneer-report-scotty-buttocks-ledgerwood-of-bam-bam-sets-the-crown-straight-on-grunge-queen-tina-bell/

"Tina Bell; a pioneering Black woman in grunge".

Fazer Aqui, Joinville Brazil, June 6, 2019

Joinville receives 1st edition of Expor Rock Black Women in Underground, an initiative of Projeto Negras in Underground created by Ana Paula Porfirio. It will show 5 references of Black women in various musical genres in the form of visual art by Sap Paulo artist Jessical Lisboa. They are Sister Rosseta Tharpe, the "mother of rock"; Poly Styrene with punk rock; Tina Bell, a pioneering Black woman in grunge; Skin, lead singer if Skunk Anansie bringing alternative rock; and Cammie Gilbert, the dark metgal goddess of progressive metal, lead singer of Oceans of Slumber. 

Fazer Aqui

Tina Bell listed in Brazil's Enciclopédiadaspretasnorock aka Encyclopedia of black rock.

Evento Black Underground promove representatividade feminina e negra. - (Black Underground event promotes female and Black representation).

Bam Bam singer Tina Bell is featured along side Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Tina Turner and Poly Styrene.  

O Mirante, Joinville Brasil. October 28, 2019. 

O Mirante

Tina Bell pics

Tina Bell memorial service

Tina Bell honored as one of the "Black Pioneers of Rock". by HECreative, Burnhanm-on-Crouch, Essex England. -SOLD OUT-

More Tina Bell press links:

Meet Tina Bell, The Black ‘Godmother Of Grunge’ Who Created The Seattle Sound. By Bernadette Giacomazzo | Checked By Adam Farley,

ALL THAT'S INTERESTING, April 26, 2022 

..und: 
Meet Tina Bell, the Black "Godmother of grunge" who created the Seattle Sound. by Anna Kohler - Unterhaltung News, April 27, 2022. 

https://unterhaltung.news/lernen-sie-tina-bell-kennen-die-schwarze-godmother-of-grunge-die-den-seattle-sound-kreierte/?fbclid=IwAR0um-0BCgwwiOjljhZgGBy1Qp1FBtFrirBlhBMyn8iQ5COvn3k07sFgO1w

 

All That's Interesting