Have you ever wondered what a screening of VH1’s Behind the Music or Storytellers series might feel like? Well, the audience attending a special concert at the Henry Givens Administration Building Auditorium, Harris Stowe State University, experienced the sensation and then some. Pamela Rose and Her Band elevated their “Wild Women of Song” routine to another level with ETTA JAMES: Her LIFE and Times, Monday, June 22, 2015.

Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr., founder of Laura X-Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr. World Institute, has worked tirelessly for years to bring this show to St. Louis. She finally managed to schedule Pamela Rose and Her band, who performed “The Wild Women of Song: Great Gal Composers of the Early Jazz and Blues Era”, Sunday, June 21, followed by this presentation of ETTA JAMES at last! the next evening.

The show opened with appropriate acknowledgements from Ida Goodwin Woolfolk, mistress of ceremonies, who also received recognition for her work in community relations. A cameo appearance by Nancy Kranzberg and Dr. Tom George reprised “St. Louis Blues” before the night turned to the music of Etta James, featuring the incomparable Pamela Rose and Her Band. Weaving her storytelling with projected archival footage, Pamela and her virtuoso jazz back-up band delivered a mesmerizing retrospective of Etta James’ life and times. The stirring live concert/ talk/multmedia celebration defined Etta James position among the legendary soul, R&B, rock, gospel and jazz artists.

The Laura X – Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr. World Institute hosted the two jazz/blues benefit concerts for Harris-Stowe University, June 21st and 22nd, to herald its new home for the storage, filing, and archiving of Laura’s Social Movements Archives. These archives spotlight documents, media, and other materials collected by Laura X, aka Laura Rand Orthwein, Jr., over the last fifty years. They pertain to the women’s movement and a wide array of precursors and overlapping social movements from the second half of the 20th century, with special emphasis on how the women’s movement established women’s rights as human rights.

HSSU’s Wolff Jazz Institute & Art Gallery, which houses one of the finest privately owned jazz collections in America, was established in April of 2002, thanks to a generous contribution made by former Harris-Stowe State University Board of Regent member Donald Wolff and his wife Heide. The Wolffs donated their jazz collection valued at more than $1 million.

The mission of the Don and Heide Wolff Jazz Institute & Art Gallery is making available to all music enthusiasts throughout the nation the opportunity to benefit from a growing collection of jazz, art, videos, and jazz memorabilia for enjoyment, study and or research. Admission remains free and open to the public.