Julitta McFarlane, Singer With Ipso Facto (Reggae)
Bill Schenley
http://www.startribune.com/stories/466/4869271.html
Julitta McFarlane, a singer with a silky alto who joined her family's
reggae band Ipso Facto after high school, died Tuesday after her third
heart attack in 10 years. She was 38.
She was born into a musical family in Worthington, Minn. Her father, a
Jamaican immigrant, was a keyboardist and saxophone player who loved
Cuban and Caribbean rhythms, said her brother, Al McFarlane Jr. of
Minneapolis. Their mother was a singer at their Pentecostal church.
The family followed work to Kansas City, Mo., when Julitta was about
10. But when she graduated from high school in 1983, she returned to
Minnesota to join Ipso Facto, a band of siblings and cousins put
together by her brother Wain of Minneapolis.
In 1985, brother Greg of Minneapolis, the drummer, was injured in a
motorcycle accident as Ipso Facto was about to play 17,000-seat venues
as the opening act for the British reggae band UB40. Wain drafted
Julitta as the drummer.
She was back at Ipso Facto's microphone in 1987 when she won the
Minnesota Music Award for best female vocals in world-beat music.
By 1992, she left the family band to sing with her own band, Ethical
Treatment, Wain McFarlane said.
Her voice was golden, effortless and angelic, he said. "It just flowed
out."
Julitta had turned to writing religious music in recent years -- "kind
of gospel but different because it reflects her background in urban
and reggae music, but hauntingly beautiful," said Al McFarlane.
Ipso Facto officially broke up about 1994 but had continued to play
about five shows every summer, including this year's Taste of
Minnesota on July 4th in St. Paul and at the fireworks in Minneapolis
that night.
"All the original members were there," including Julitta at the
microphone, Wain said. "I told them, 'Let's play this show like it's
the last show on Earth.' And it was. Those shows are how people will
remember Julitta."
She was divorced from Rochelle Shanklin since 2000. In addition to
brothers Al, Greg and Wain, survivors include brothers Raymond of
Plymouth, Julian (JuJu) and Roland of Minneapolis, Micah of Los
Angeles and Lloyd of Miami; sisters Roslyn Robinson and Tricia Weaver
of Minneapolis and Kathleen Davis of Kansas City, and her mother,
Maxine McFarlane of Kansas City.
Services will be held at noon July 23 at New Salem Missionary Baptist
Church at 26th and Lyndale Avs. N., Minneapolis. A musical tribute is
planned from 6 to 10 p.m. July 23 at the Farmers' Market, 312 East
Lyndale Av. N., between Glenwood Av. and Olson Hwy.