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Bay Area African American Women in Music:

Published

10 years ago

August 24, 2015

Veteran R&B singer-songwriter Sugar Pie DeSanto wowed the crowd at the Poretta Soul Festival in Italy last month with renditions of her 1960s hits, “I Want to Know” and “Skip-In Mules” among other songs.

The Oakland resident, who turns 80 in October, is no stranger to performing overseas. The three-day event at Rufus Thomas Park in Poretta Teme, Italy marked her third time in the country.

DeSanto appeared two years ago in a Norwegian village named Hell. Fans who saw her in London and Hamburg in 1964 – on an American Folk Blues Festival tour that also included blues legends Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin’ Wolf – have not forgotten her show-stopping treatments of Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What You Want Me to Do” and B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby.” (Videos of both can be found on YouTube.)

“They’re more receptive, and they honor the blues,” she said of European audiences last week while sitting with this writer in her Oakland apartment. “They love it, and they give you more respect than they do in the states.”

The petite (4’11”) vocalist was born Umpeyla Marsema Balinton in Brooklyn to a Filipino father and an African American mother. She was raised in San Francisco’s Fillmore District, where Johnny Otis discovered her in 1955.

Otis took her to Los Angeles, produced her first record and dubbed her “Little Miss Sugar Pie.” Don Barksdale, the pioneering African American basketball star who became an Oakland disc jockey and nightclub owner, later added “DeSanto” to her stage name.

When DeSanto’s recording of her original song “I Want to Know,” for Oakland producer Bob Geddins’ Veltone label, shot to No. 4 on Billboard magazine’s R&B chart in 1960, she hit the road as the first female vocalist to be featured with James Brown’s revue. She then signed with Chess Records in Chicago as both an artist and songwriter.

DeSanto’s biggest hit while at Chess was “In the Basement,” a 1966 duet with her old Fillmore District neighbor Etta James. Among the Chess artists who recorded her songs were Fontella Bass, Little Milton, Bobby McClure, Minnie Riperton, Billy Stewart and the Dells.

After seven years in Chicago, DeSanto moved back to San Francisco in 1968. Since 1972, she has been recording for Jasman Records, an Oakland label run by her longtime manager James C. Moore.

Her first single for the company, “Hello San Francisco” – a slow blues written by Geddins that chronicles her journey from the Bay Area to Chicago and back, received significant airplay locally on KDIA but, according to Moore, sold better in New Orleans. She subsequently made one LP and four CDs for Jasman.

DeSanto has lived in Uptown Oakland since 2006, after her husband Jesse Earl Davis died while trying to extinguish a fire at their home on Telegraph Avenue.

Oakland Post

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Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

6 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

11 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

11 months ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.