With Bells On

Meschiya Lake remembers Sweet Emma Barrett.

- Stacey Leigh Bridewell

There is a scene in the 1965 film The Cincinnati Kid in which a rain-drenched Steve McQueen walks down the nighttime streets of the French Quarter looking wretched. He passes a doorway and hears music coming from inside so he peeks in. The band is playing a mournful blues tune and at the piano is a little figure in a red cap pounding the keys. She turns, singing in a warbling voice, and looks at Steve McQueen’s character with woeful eyes that seem to see right through him. This is Sweet Emma Barrett and she is playing with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. This depiction would become one of the lasting images of revival-era New Orleans jazz.

Born in New Orleans in 1897, Sweet Emma was a self-taught singer and pianist who had had a full career in music before she reached the height of her fame in the 1960s. She played with several legendary bands in the early days of jazz including a 13-year stretch with the Original Tuxedo Orchestra. She also worked with Armand Piron, John Robichaux and Sidney Desvigne. Nonetheless, it wasn’t until her recording debut with Riverside Records in 1961 that she reached worldwide success. For a brief period she was in films, on television, and on the covers of magazines. She became known as “The Bell Gal” because she always wore a red cap and bells on garters below her knees that would jingle as she played. In 1967 she suffered a stroke that paralyzed her left arm, but she still continued to play as often as she could until the very end.

It seems that over time Sweet Emma has slipped back into obscurity once again, known mostly by niche enthusiasts and those who knew her in real life. Meschiya Lake is one