SEATTLE, WA – Mainstream Rock n’ Roll has a long history of excluding Black artists,
despite the genre’s spawning from Black-culture and often the most pivotal voices in rock being
Black themselves. Tina Bell is one such figure. Posthumously credited as “the Godmother of
Grunge” and “The Queen of Grunge,” Bell’s rock band Bam Bam is often cited as one of the
first ‘grunge’ pioneers. Despite being amongst many great musicians of their time, Bam Bam
never enjoyed the recognition their contemporaries did. Bam Bam founding bassist Scott
Ledgerwood said this was not because of the bands’ musical ability but because music
executives were unwilling to take a chance on a band fronted by a Black woman.
“They were too blind to see that America was ready for a Black superstar, a gorgeous
lady, up front in a hard [rock] band,” Bam Bam's Ledgerwood told The Seattle Times.
Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Tina Bell was the oldest daughter and third child
of ten total siblings. She began singing at the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle and
immediately showed both a deep love of and great aptitude for music with her low smoky
“unapologetic” voice. Later, Bell would develop her vocal style and build a performance that
Ledgerwood said “could go so quickly from a sultry coo to an absolutely spine-chilling shriek.”
Early into her adult music career, Bell performed Eartha Kitt’s C’est Si Bon at Seattle’s
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. During this time, she met her future husband and
Bam Bam’s future guitarist, Tommy Martin, when he was hired as her French tutor. In 1979,
Bell birthed Thomas McKay Martin Jr, now known as filmmaker T.J. Miller, the first director of
African American descent to win an Academy Award for a feature-length film after winning the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film in 2012 for his film Undefeated.
Ledgerwood told Louder Sound Bam Bam officially established in 1983 when he, then
newlywed and unemployed, answered an ad from Martin, by this time married to Bell, for a
bassist in a local free music paper, The Rocket. Bam Bam’s drummer was originally Matt
Cameron, who went on to drum for Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. Later, Tom Hendrickson would
replace Cameron on drums.
Bam Bam found itself around superstardom throughout their career, both with Cameron
as well as a brief period where Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was both a fan and roadie for the band.
Bam Bam recorded the material used for their September 1984, independently released EP
Villains (Also Wear White) at Reciprocal Recording studio, the same studio that Nirvana later
recorded their 1989 album, Bleach. The album Bam Bam House Demo ‘84 would be released in
January 2019, which included both home recordings and some made at Reciprocal. Eight more
of the tracks from the Reciprocal sessions would be remastered and released as Free Fall From
Space in June 2019, with an expanded version of Villains being released in late 2021 on Bric-a-
Brac Records.
Bam Bam was ultimately unable to find breakout success in America, as well as overseas
when the band tried their luck in taking up residence in London. Bell and Martin would divorce,
and Bell would leave Bam Bam in the early 1990s, eventually quitting music and passing away
in relative obscurity from cirrhosis of the liver at age 55 on October 10, 2012, following a long
battle with alcoholism. In recent years, however, following several news pieces and renewed
social interest in Black stories, Bell’s legacy has received some of the justified recognition and
praise that has been long overdue.
