Patty Waters

Patty Waters (1946-2024) was an American singer from Iowa, known for her two mid-1960s albums on ESP-Disk. She moved to New York in the early 1960s, and Albert Ayler, who heard her sing, introduced her to the label's founder Bernard Stollman. Her nearly fourteen-minute version of the traditional song "Black Is the Colour of My True Love's Hair" on Sings is her best-known recording. Patty Waters recorded Sings and College Tour for ESP-Disk, which later combined them as The Complete ESP-Disk Recordings. Billie Holiday was an early influence.