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Joan Baez Biography
Born: January 9,
Staten Island, New York
American musician, singer, and activist
American folk singer Joan Baez is recognized for her nonviolent, antiestablishment (against a nations political and economic structure), and anti-war positions. She has used her singing and speaking talents to criticize violations of human rights in a number of countries.
Early life
Joan Baez was born on January 9, , in Staten Island, New York.
Mimi farina biography: Joan Baez, an iconic American folk singer, songwriter, musician, and activist, has been a prominent voice in music and social justice for over six decades. Her distinctive soprano voice and unwavering commitment to human rights have made her a beloved figure worldwide.
Her father, Albert V. Baez, was a physicist who came to the United States from Mexico at a very early age, and her mother was of western European descent. Joan inherited her fathers dark complexion, and the occasional racial prejudice (hatred of a race) she suffered as a child probably led to her later involvement in the civil rights movement, a movement that called for equal rights for all races.
Although as an adult she claimed not to share her parents strict religious faith, it undoubtedly contributed to what some called her keen social conscience.
Baez was exposed to an intellectual atmosphere with classical music during her childhood, but rejected piano lessons in favor of the guitar and rock and roll.
Her fathers research and teaching positions took the family to various American and foreign cities. When Joan was ten, she spent a year in Iraq with her family. There she was exposed to the harsh and intensely poor conditions of the Iraqi people, something that undoubtedly had an affect on her later career as a singer and activist.
Baez went on to attend high school in Palo Alto, California, where she excelled in music more than in academic subjects.
Shortly after her high school graduation in , her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where Baezs interest in folk music surfaced after visiting a coffee shop where amateur folk singers performed.
From Boston coffeehouses to Newport,
Rhode Island
Baez briefly attended Boston University, where she made friends with several semi-professional folk singers from whom she learned much about the art.
In addition to simple folk songs, she began to sing Anglo American ballads, blues, spirituals, and songs from various countries. As she worked to develop her technique and range of songs, Baez began to perform professionally in Boston coffeehouses and quickly became a favorite of Harvard University students.
She was also noticed by other folk singers, including Harry Belafonte (), who offered her a job with his singing group.
In the summer of Baez was invited to sing at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. This performance made her a starespecially to young peopleand led to friendships with other important folk singers such as the Seeger family and Odetta.
Although the performance brought her offers to make recordings and concert tours, she decided to resume her Boston coffee shop appearances.
After Baezs second Newport appearance in , she made her first album for Vanguard Records. Simply labeled Joan Baez, it was an immediate success. She was then such a hot item that she could choose her own songs and prop designs for her performances.
In the following years Baez sang to capacity crowds on American college campuses and concert halls and on several foreign tours. Her eight gold albums and one gold single demonstrated her popularity as a singer.
Politics a source of controversy
While many critics agreed that Baezs untrained singing voice was unusually haunting, beautiful, and very soothing, they saw her spoken words, lifestyle, and actions as conflicting and sometimes anti-American.
In the changing world of thes, Baez became a center of controversy (open to dispute) when she used her singing and speaking talents to urge nonpayment of taxes used for war purposes and to urge men to resist the draft during the Vietnam War (73; when the United States aided South Vietnams fight against North Vietnam). She helped block induction centers (which brought in new recruits) and was twice arrested for such violations of the law.
Baez was married to writer and activist David Harris in March She was pregnant with their son, Gabriel, in April , and three months later she saw her husband arrested for refusing induction into the military forces.
Joan baez pictures For Joan Baez, through many years of performance, writing, and speaking out, the voice is a symbol of an individual's power to effect change. She was born in Staten Island, New York, January 9, , the daughter of Dr. Albert Baez, a physicist.He spent the next twenty months in a federal prison in Texas.
In the early s Baez began to speak with greater harshness. By the end of the decade she had offended dozens of her former peace-activist alliessuch as Jane Fonda () and attorney William Kunstlerwith her views on postwar Vietnam. As she had done in the case of Chile and Argentina (without public outcries from former associates), Baez called for human rights to be extended to those centers in the war-torn country.
Baezs career through the s and s
In later years Baezs singing career faltered despite various attempts to revive it. Her effort featured a more conventional
Reproduced by permission of
AP/Wide World Photos
.Meanwhile, she was quite busy throughout the world as the head of the Humanitas International Human Rights Committee, which concentrated on distracting (in any possible nonviolent way) those whom it believed exercised unauthorized power.
Duke performances joan baez biography Joan Baez, an iconic American folk singer, songwriter, musician, and activist, has been a prominent voice in music and social justice for over six decades. Her distinctive soprano voice and unwavering commitment to human rights have made her a beloved figure worldwide.Baez has continued to make music and to influence younger performers. In Baez released Recently, her first studio solo album in eight years. She was nominated for a Best Contemporary Folk Recording Grammy Award for Asimbonanga, a song from the album. Also in Baez recorded Diamonds and Rust in the Bullring in Bilbao, Spain.
Duke performances joan baez biography folk singer Baez is generally regarded as a folk singer, but her music has diversified since the counterculture era of the s and encompasses genres such as folk rock, pop, country, and gospel music. She began her recording career in and achieved immediate success.The album was released the following April. In Baez toured with the Indigo Girls and the threesome were recorded for a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) video presentation, Joan Baez In Concert. In two more Baez recordings were released: Play Me Backwards, consisting of new material; and Rare, Live Classic, a collection of her career from to , featuring twenty-two previously unreleased tracks.
Baez released Gone from Danger in and Farewell Angelina in
The singers interest in politics and human rights has continued as well. In she was invited by Refugees International to travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to help bring attention to the suffering there. In September of that same year Baez became the first major artist to perform in a professional concert on Alcatraz Island (the former Federal Penitentiary) in San Francisco, California.
It was a benefit performance for her sister Mimi Farinas organization, Bread Roses. She returned to the island for a second benefit in along with the Indigo Girls and Dar Williams. She has also supported the gay and lesbian cause. In she joined Janis Ian in a performance at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Forces Fight the Right fundraising event in San Francisco.
Duke performances joan baez biography for kids
She made her New York concert debut on November 5, , at the 92nd Street Y [49] and on November 11, , Baez played her first major New York concert at a sold-out performance at Town Hall. Robert Shelton, folk critic of the New York Times, praised the concert, saying, "That superb soprano voice, as lustrous and rich as old gold, flowed.In Farrar, Straus, and Giroux released Positively Fourth Street by David Hajdu. The book is an intimate portrait that explores the relationships between Joan, Mimi Farina, Richard Farina, and fellow folkster Bob Dylan () during New York Citys folk scene of the early s.
For More Information
Baez, Joan.
And a Voice to Sing With. New York: Summit Books,
Garza, Hedda. Joan Baez. New York: Chelsea House,