Lark, Tobi (Bessie Grace Gupton) aka Bessie Watson

Websites:  No
Origin: Alabama - Detroit, Michigan, 🇺🇸 - Montréal, Québec - Toronto, Ontario, 🇨🇦
Biography:

Tobi Lark (born Bessie Grace Gupton; 1941) is an American-born Canadian soul and gospel singer, who also recorded under the names Bessie Watson and Tobi Legend. She had a top 40 hit in 1970 in Canada with "We're All in This Together". Elsewhere her best known record is "Time Will Pass You By", regarded as a classic of Northern soul, which she recorded in 1968 believing it was just a demo; it was released under the name of Tobi Legend without her approval.

Life and career
She was born Bessie Grace Gupton in Alabama, the daughter of gospel singer Emma Washington. She grew up in Detroit and first performed in her mother's choir, the Emma Washington Gospel Singers. She toured with the group for ten years, from the age of nine, before securing her first professional job, as a backing singer for B. B. King. As Bessie Watson, she first recorded in 1963, releasing the single "'Deed I Do" backed by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, on the Riverside label, and then two singles, "I'm in Your Corner" and "Wake Up Crying" on the Jay Pee label. As Tobi Lark, she then recorded several singles for the Palmer, Topper, and U.S.D. labels, but none achieved much commercial success. She also performed with the Impressions, the Four Tops, Ben E. King, Wilson Pickett, King Curtis, and Duke Ellington, among others.

In the mid 1960s, she separated from her husband and moved to Montreal, Quebec, with her young son. She performed in clubs and at Expo 67, before moving to Toronto to work for Ronnie Hawkins. She was then recruited to play a lead role in the musical Hair in Toronto, and later set up the Armageddon Revue at the Blue Orchid club there. In 1968, in Detroit, she recorded "Time Will Pass You By", a song written by English-born songwriter and record producer John Rhys Eddins with Nick Zesses and Dino Fekaris. The record was released on the Mala label under the name "Tobi Legend", but it was unsuccessful until it was picked up in the early 1970s by followers of the Northern soul scene in the UK. The song became known as one of the "Three Before Eight", played at the conclusion of every all-nighter at the Wigan Casino club, and has since featured on several anthologies of Northern soul music including The Best Northern Soul All-Nighter ... Ever!, The Northern Soul Story, and The Wigan Casino Story.

Newspaper columnist Laura Barton, of The Guardian, has compared the record to a Shakespeare sonnet:

"It...is simply a song about seeing the preciousness of life, about trying to live our lives better and brighter. Its verses cut a melancholy figure, its opening lines reflecting on the steady turn of the world: "Passing seasons ever fade away/ Into misty clouds of autumn grey/ As I sit here looking at the street/ Little figures, quickly moving feet." And then in zaps the chorus, a remonstration of sorts, or a call to arms: "Life is just a precious minute baby," it yells. "Open up your eyes and see it baby/ Give yourself a better chance/ Because time will pass you/ Right on by." Like many pop songs, there's something of the sonnet about Time Will Pass You By; it's there in the song's intention of course, but there is something about Legend's track that has always reminded me specifically of Shakespeare's Sonnet 60. Legend's second verse, "I'm just a pebble on the beach and I sit and wonder why/ Little people running around/ Never knowing why," for example, seems to echo Shakespeare's lines: "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore/ So do our minutes hasten to their end;/ Each changing place with that which goes before,/ In sequent toil all forwards do contend.""

Returning to the name Tobi (or Toby) Lark, she released three further singles on Cotillion Records, "Shake A Hand" (1969), "Just To Hold My Hand" (1970), and "We're All in This Together" (1970). The last of these was recorded live with a large choir at St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church in Toronto, and peaked at No. 38 on Canada's national RPM singles chart in November 1970. She continued to work in Toronto, Windsor and Detroit, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and singers including Kenny Rogers. In 1995, she recorded a live CD, and appeared at the Toronto Blues Society's Women's Blues Revue.

After that her trail goes a little cold, although the article in this post's very first link mentions that she moved back and forth between Windsor, Detroit and Toronto, continued to perform as a solo and backup singer into the mid-'90s, and that, tragically, her son died. Ms. Lark was unable to face the music for several years and now has found once again her destiny in life, to fill many of ears and hearts with her voice.

Still singing, and still has that distinctive voice, now more powerful and soulful then ever before.
Your can contact her at tobilegendlark@gmail.com

In anticipation of this year’s event I had the pleasure of speaking with Tobi Lark while she visted Toronto recently on a house hunting trip. The soft-spoken and humble Lark, originally born as Bessie Gupton in Alabama and then raised in Detroit, Michigan, is taking Toronto’s Jazz and Blues circuit by storm.

“It’s really strange because I haven’t been really interested in the Blues till about 3 years ago. I’ve been singing it more seriously for close to a year. I think this is because being my age I’ve finally grown up.”

Returning to the stage after a long absence, her story reads like a Blues fairy tale. An early rival of Aretha Franklin‘s, Lark began singing in the church choir at age 9 and toured for ten years with the Emma Washington Gospel Singers. The daughter of legendary Gospel and Blues singer Emma Washington, during the sixties Lark got her first professional job with a friend of her mother’s, B.B. King. King was impressed with the young singer but felt that her voice was too sweet for her to really be able to sing the Blues. “He told me that I was really a balladeer and that I needed to experience more of life before I could really sing the Blues. At first I go mad at him, but he was right.”

Well, Tobi Lark has definitely lived and experienced the glory and the pains of life. After working with BB King, her ambrosial vocals also embellished performances with the Impressions, the Four Tops, Ben E. King, Wilson Pickett, King Curtis, Cannonball Adderley, Duke Ellington, among others. In the late 60’s Lark moved to Montreal with her young son after separating from her husband, where she left her mark at clubs like Rockhead’s and then after performances at EXPO ’67 moved to Toronto to work with Ronnie Hawkins. Soon after her arrival she was selected to play a lead role in the musical HAIR. From there Lark created the hugely successful Armageddon Revue at the Blue Orchid. Audiences have known her through stage and television performance with the Toronto Symphony or with the likes of Kenny Rogers. But few of us have been there during her downtimes when her son died; when her son’s father died; when she was ill; or the tribulations of single parenting.

“I don’t mean to sound corny but after the problems of changes in (life) it was so strange. It was like musically I quit. I wouldn’t work much. But when I would sing and I would notice that people would respond to me. It strengthened me and made me so strong in the faith, that now I don’t give a care who don’t like it. I know that God brought me through in flying colours.”

Lark’s voice reflects the wisdom of a woman who’s returned from the height of painful experience and a woman who understands the depth of her own power. Whether singing Chicago Blues, Mississippi Blues, Jazz, Pop or Gospel, Lark is confident about her soulful renditions. Impressed with advances made by women in the music industry, Lark strongly identifies with other vocalists notorious for doing things “my way”.

“Etta James is my favourite right now because whether she sings the Blues, modern or old timey, she keeps that gospel influence. Bonnie Rait was singing her behind off but people weren’t swinging her way. But look at her now. (She’s doing well) because she took control of her life. Females now are taking control of their music. The males used to tell them how they had to sing or dress. They’ve become stronger as leaders in the music industry. They want to be their own person and do things on their own terms now.”

Looking toward a promising future as she prepares to move back to Toronto from the Windsor/Detroit area, Lark is particularly excited about plans to perform reggae tunes combining Blues and Gospel. Lark is also in the process of confirming a distribution deal for her live CD which was recorded at Toronto’s Judy Jazz club in the Spring 1995. Lark reminds me in some ways of another mighty Blues woman Billie Holiday – a woman who, despite narrow definitions of Blues and Jazz, always sings in the spirit of the Blues. Perhaps this is because Lark’s southern roots remain, proudly, with her.
-Marva Jackson

Maple Blues Awards - Jan 17, 2011
Lark's voice reflects the wisdom of a woman who's returned from the height of painful experience and a woman who understands the depth of her own power. Whether singing Chicago Blues, Mississippi Blues, Jazz, Pop or Gospel, Lark is confident about her soulful renditions. Impressed with advances made by women in the music industry, Lark strongly identifies with other vocalists notorious for doing things "my way".

Lark's voice reflects the wisdom of a woman who's returned from the height of painful experience and a woman who understands the depth of her own power. Whether singing Chicago Blues, Mississippi Blues, Jazz, Pop or Gospel, Lark is confident about her soulful renditions. Impressed with advances made by women in the music industry, Lark strongly identifies with other vocalists notorious for doing things "my way".