According to a Twitter post by August First this morning and confirmed via a phone conversation with local vocalist Linda Bassick, local blues singer Sandra Wright passed away last night at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center after suffering a pulmonary embolism. Wright was 61.

According to Bassick, whose husband, Dave Nerbak, is the guitarist in the Sandra Wright Band, the Memphis-born singer had long battled diabetes. In September of last year, Wright underwent double knee surgery and suffered an infection following the procedure. Bassick could not confirm that the embolism and infection were related.

Since moving to Vermont in 1992, Wright had been a fixture in the local jazz and blues scene. She was known for outsized vocal chops an ebullient stage persona to match. The singer had performed as recently as New Year’s Eve.

An upcoming funeral service will be private. But Bassick says that a public celebration of the singer’s life will take place this spring.

Thoughts and prayers go out to Wright’s family and friends.

This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2010.

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Dan Bolles is a culture coeditor at Seven Days. He joined the paper in 2007 as its music editor, covering Vermont's robust music, comedy and nightlife scenes for a decade before deciding he was too old to be going to the Monkey House on weeknights to...

9 replies on “Sandra Wright, 1948-2010”

  5. I’ll never forget going to “church” at Sandra’s Sunday Gospel Brunch at Red Square back in the late ’90s. She sang gospel a capella from the back of the bar and they could hear her up and down the marketplace. It was possibly the most heavenly time I’ve ever spent on “Church” Street. Thanks for belting out the blues (and gospel) Sandra, you will be sorely missed!

  6. I just wanted to correct one thing, Dan. It was a pulmonary embolism. Thanks for your kind words.

  9. Please check out Sandra on youtube.com. Especially a piece entitled “Thank You” where she sings “Say Something Funny”.All my love Sandra.

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