Legendary Bay Area vocalist who performed with James Brown dies at 89

Sugar Pie DeSanto, a legendary Bay Area R&B-soul-blues singer who performed with James Brown and Etta James, has died at the age of 89.

“Today Dec 20th 2024, Ms Sugar Pie DeSanto passed away in her sleep,” her brother Domingo Balinton posted on Facebook. “She was the first Filipino blues artist of her time, to brake barriers, to become a world wide female blues singer entertainer.”

No cause of death was given.

The Oakland-based Sugar Pie DeSanto — whose real name Umpeylia Balinton — will be remembered for her energetic and engaging performances that highlighted her strong vocals and songwriting, ability to interact and command an audience, acrobatic stage moves and larger-than-life personality.

“My sister was one of a kind and you will never see anyone like her again,” Domingo Balinton wrote. “She was full of energy and commanded respect when she walked on stage as well as in life.”

Many deemed her performances as being quite risque, but DeSanto always took pride in her rowdy live shows.

“Some people say, ‘Oh, Sugar Pie, you risque,'” she said to this reporter in a 2007 interview. “So? I was risque before you were born!”

Born in New York on Oct. 16, 1935, DeSanto moved with her parents at the age of four to San Francisco, where she’d begin sneaking off to perform in clubs while still a young teen.

“I put tennis balls up here and pillows back there to make me look older,” remembered DeSanto, pointing to her chest and then her backside. “I’m telling you, those were the days.”

She’d later meet and marry guitarist-vocalist Pee Wee Kingsley and they’d start touring together in the early ’50s. She’d then go on to gig with bandleader Johnny Otis, who christened her “Little Miss Sugar Pie.” The stage moniker was completed by basketball star and music-biz entrepreneur Don Barksdale, who suggested the singer start using DeSanto as a last name.

“She was full of courage, spunk and conviction,” Bay Area blues-jazz singer “The Dynamic” Fay Carol posted about DeSanto’s passing on Facebook. “She was a pioneer and a trailblazer. To be a woman on the road by herself in the 1950s touring with Willie Dixon and James Brown she had to have a deep, unshakable conviction.”

DeSanto made her recording debut in 1955 and then had her breakthrough five years later with “I Want to Know,” which proved to be a Top 10 hit on Billboard’s R&B chart. Soon, Chicago’s mighty Chess Records came calling with a contract offer.

Backed by Chess — a label that at the time boasted such artists as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and Etta James — DeSanto would land gigs at such prestigious venues as the Apollo in New York and the Regal in Chicago.

One of the people she’d impress during her time at the Apollo was “The Godfather of Soul” — James Brown — who’d invite DeSanto to join his band. She’d spend two years working in the for a two-stint at the legendary James Brown Revue.

During that time, she’d earn the nickname of “The Lady James Brown” for putting on high-energy performances that rivaled those given by the bandleader himself. And DeSanto never lost that spark for the live stage over the decades that followed.

“I have seen Sugar Pie DeSanto perform many times, either on a festival stage or in a nightclub setting, and one thought always arises: What an act!” Tom Mazzolini, founder of the San Francisco Blues Festival, once told this reporter. “This is something only the great ones have — confidence and originality. And that’s Sugar Pie.”

Carol says DeSanto “held up the tradition of true entertainment.”

“She was a riveting entertainer who would turn flips on stage and land in the lap of an unsuspecting audience member,” Carol says.

DeSanto would remain a force on the charts throughout the ’60s, scoring the Top 40 hits “Slip-In Mules (No High Heel Sneakers),” “Soulful Dress” and “In the Basement – Part 1” (with Etta James). She also continued to release albums through the decades, including “Sugar Is Salty” in 1993 and “A Slice of Pie” in 1999.

After splitting with Kingsley, DeSanto went on to wed Jesse Davis, a marriage that lasted for 27 years until a tragic fire occurred at the the couple’s apartment on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland in 2006. As DeSanto recounted during our 2007 interview, Davis rushed his wife out of danger and then went back into the apartment to try and put the fire out.

And he’d lose his life in that attempt. Firefighters responding to the three-alarm blaze, which apparently started as an electrical fire, said they found the 52-year-old near the window, apparently trying to get to the fire escape.

“He saved my life,” DeSanto remembered. “But he couldn’t save his own.”

Despite the tragedy, DeSanto kept right on performing and thrilling audiences with her dynamic live shows. In 2024, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

“She lived the music and entertainment and was triumphant in the face of the many perils of the industry,” Carol says. “She kept her spirit alive all of these years. I will miss her so much for who she was and how she lived and for so many more reasons.

“She remained herself regardless of the trends of the industry and helped to sustain the art form of the blues for many, many decades. Her energy and fire was unmatched. She could deliver a song with the best of them. I learned so much from her and loved and respected her so deeply.”

Information on memorial services has not yet been announced.