Half a decade before Nirvana released their first album, Tina Bell and her band Bam Bam pioneered the combination of punk and heavy rock that would come to define grunge music.
Before grunge even had a name or a set of superstars, a 26-year-old Black woman named Tina Bell was giving it a powerful voice. In 1983, Bell and her husband, Tommy Martin, formed a band called Bam Bam that pioneered the new “Seattle sound” — years before anyone else.
Bam Bam distinctly mixed rock genres that would come to define grunge music. They were the first to record at the studio that later nurtured bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. And when Kurt Cobain was bouncing between punk bands and Eddie Vedder was drifting between San Diego and Chicago, Bell was singing to sold-out clubs in the center of the Seattle scene.
But her story has remained largely untold in the official histories of the genre. And though the men of grunge received widespread acclaim, Bell spent the remainder of her days in obscurity away from music altogether before dying at the age of 55.
Indeed, but for the efforts of her Oscar-winning son and other modern music historians, Bell would remain little more than a forgotten figure, lost to the annals of rock history. And today, she is reclaiming her crown as Seattle’s forgotten “godmother of grunge.”
Tina Bell And The Formation Of Bam Bam
The oldest of 10 siblings, Tina Marie Bell was born in Seattle, Washington in 1957. She first began honing her vocal chops at Seattle’s Mount Zion Baptist Church, where she was a member of the choir. By high school, Bell was performing on stage with the drama department and on the football field as a cheerleader.
After attending college for drama at Washington State University, she returned to Seattle and joined the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, which would soon lead to one of the most consequential connections in her life.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/bam-bam.jpeg
In the late 1970s, Bell needed help perfecting her French for a rendition of “C’est Bon Si” with the institute, so she called a French tutor whose ad she found in the paper. That tutor was Tommy Martin, a local musician. They fell in love instantly, quickly married, and had a son — the Oscar-winning documentarian T.J. Martin — in 1979.
And that was just the beginning of the pair’s collaborations. Their next creation would change the course of musical history.
In 1983, Tina Bell and Tommy Martin founded Bam Bam — an acronym of their names, Bell and Martin. With Bell on the vocals and Martin on the guitar, Bam Bam completed its lineup with bassist Scott Ledgerwood and drummer Matt Cameron, who would go on to find fame in bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.
To say they were incendiary was an understatement.
“She was fukking badass. That’s all there is to it,” said musician Om Johari. Johari grew up going to Bam Bam shows as a teenager in Seattle and later co-founded several rock bands herself.
“She was amazing as a performer. I’ve only seen one white male lead singer command the stage in a similar way that Tina Bell did.”
How Tina Bell Created The Seattle Grunge Sound
Mere months after Bam Bam’s founding, the band became a staple of the city’s club scene with their unique pairing of punk with hard rock and heavy distortion. Tina Bell herself became popular for her wild stage presence and powerful vocals that she could pivot from sultry melodies to screaming outbursts in a second.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/tina-bell-and-bam-bam.jpeg
“Her voice was super powerful. She could sing on top of a super loud guitar-based rock band, which is not an easy feat,” drummer Matt Cameron told CBS.
And it didn’t take long for Bam Bam to attract the attention of other Seattle club kids. Future members of bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains came to see Tina Bell perform. At one point, Kurt Cobain served as a roadie for the band. Another time, a teenage Duff McKagan, future bassist for Guns N’ Roses, even filled in on stage during a set.
By January 1984, Bam Bam recorded its first tracks. And to do so, they partnered with producer Chris Hanzsek, who had recently founded the Reciprocal Recording Studio on a small wedge of land in an industrial area between Seattle’s Ballard and Fremont neighborhoods.
With Hanzsek, Bam Bam laid down their first singles and only EP in 1984, Villains (also wear white), nearly a full year before the band Green River, the band most often credited with being the first to pioneer the new “Seattle sound,” recorded their first songs in the same studio.
Another four years would pass before Nirvana would record their debut album with Reciprocal. And by then, the post-punk sound that Tina Bell and Bam Bam created before anyone else would have a name: grunge.
Why Tina Bell Was Written Out Of Grunge History
Despite Bam Bam’s popularity, Tina Bell was also subjected to racism both explicit and implicit. People didn’t know what to do with the 5-foot-2-inch Black lead singer of a punk band. Tommy Martin, her husband, even told The Stranger that the press compared her to Tina Turner, “as if that made any sense.”
Before grunge even had a name or a set of superstars, a 26-year-old Black woman named Tina Bell was giving it a powerful voice. In 1983, Bell and her husband, Tommy Martin, formed a band called Bam Bam that pioneered the new “Seattle sound” — years before anyone else.
Bam Bam distinctly mixed rock genres that would come to define grunge music. They were the first to record at the studio that later nurtured bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. And when Kurt Cobain was bouncing between punk bands and Eddie Vedder was drifting between San Diego and Chicago, Bell was singing to sold-out clubs in the center of the Seattle scene.
But her story has remained largely untold in the official histories of the genre. And though the men of grunge received widespread acclaim, Bell spent the remainder of her days in obscurity away from music altogether before dying at the age of 55.
Indeed, but for the efforts of her Oscar-winning son and other modern music historians, Bell would remain little more than a forgotten figure, lost to the annals of rock history. And today, she is reclaiming her crown as Seattle’s forgotten “godmother of grunge.”
Tina Bell And The Formation Of Bam Bam
The oldest of 10 siblings, Tina Marie Bell was born in Seattle, Washington in 1957. She first began honing her vocal chops at Seattle’s Mount Zion Baptist Church, where she was a member of the choir. By high school, Bell was performing on stage with the drama department and on the football field as a cheerleader.
After attending college for drama at Washington State University, she returned to Seattle and joined the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, which would soon lead to one of the most consequential connections in her life.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/bam-bam.jpeg
In the late 1970s, Bell needed help perfecting her French for a rendition of “C’est Bon Si” with the institute, so she called a French tutor whose ad she found in the paper. That tutor was Tommy Martin, a local musician. They fell in love instantly, quickly married, and had a son — the Oscar-winning documentarian T.J. Martin — in 1979.
And that was just the beginning of the pair’s collaborations. Their next creation would change the course of musical history.
In 1983, Tina Bell and Tommy Martin founded Bam Bam — an acronym of their names, Bell and Martin. With Bell on the vocals and Martin on the guitar, Bam Bam completed its lineup with bassist Scott Ledgerwood and drummer Matt Cameron, who would go on to find fame in bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.
To say they were incendiary was an understatement.
“She was fukking badass. That’s all there is to it,” said musician Om Johari. Johari grew up going to Bam Bam shows as a teenager in Seattle and later co-founded several rock bands herself.
“She was amazing as a performer. I’ve only seen one white male lead singer command the stage in a similar way that Tina Bell did.”
How Tina Bell Created The Seattle Grunge Sound
Mere months after Bam Bam’s founding, the band became a staple of the city’s club scene with their unique pairing of punk with hard rock and heavy distortion. Tina Bell herself became popular for her wild stage presence and powerful vocals that she could pivot from sultry melodies to screaming outbursts in a second.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/tina-bell-and-bam-bam.jpeg
“Her voice was super powerful. She could sing on top of a super loud guitar-based rock band, which is not an easy feat,” drummer Matt Cameron told CBS.
And it didn’t take long for Bam Bam to attract the attention of other Seattle club kids. Future members of bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains came to see Tina Bell perform. At one point, Kurt Cobain served as a roadie for the band. Another time, a teenage Duff McKagan, future bassist for Guns N’ Roses, even filled in on stage during a set.
By January 1984, Bam Bam recorded its first tracks. And to do so, they partnered with producer Chris Hanzsek, who had recently founded the Reciprocal Recording Studio on a small wedge of land in an industrial area between Seattle’s Ballard and Fremont neighborhoods.
With Hanzsek, Bam Bam laid down their first singles and only EP in 1984, Villains (also wear white), nearly a full year before the band Green River, the band most often credited with being the first to pioneer the new “Seattle sound,” recorded their first songs in the same studio.
Another four years would pass before Nirvana would record their debut album with Reciprocal. And by then, the post-punk sound that Tina Bell and Bam Bam created before anyone else would have a name: grunge.
Why Tina Bell Was Written Out Of Grunge History
Despite Bam Bam’s popularity, Tina Bell was also subjected to racism both explicit and implicit. People didn’t know what to do with the 5-foot-2-inch Black lead singer of a punk band. Tommy Martin, her husband, even told The Stranger that the press compared her to Tina Turner, “as if that made any sense.”
