Tribute to Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke
1917 - 1967
Madame Cooke “was a prolific recording artist she started in 1949 and recorded extensively (mainly for Nashboro) until her death in 1967. During her years with Nashboro she almost always recorded with a male vocal group but prior to that made a series of recordings with The Young People’s Choir.” Very little has been written about Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke. Most of the information on her are found in liner notes to various CD’s and the notes on the back of various albums. We do know that she was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1917. She died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 4, 1967. She was 49 years old at the time of her death. She is probably best remembered for her recordings of “Stop Gambler” and “Heavy Load.” The name Cooke was from her first marriage. It is our understanding that the marriage ended because of the death of her husband.
The liner notes to “Mother Smith and Her Children” describes Madame Cooke as “an exquisite stylist, with a sensuous appeal akin to Billie Holiday’s. [She is referred to as] rap music’s gospel progenitor; a penchant for rhymed, spoken chants produced her most famous recordings. Though she was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the daughter of a shouting Baptist preacher, Reverend Eddie J. Gallmon, she was more educated and musically trained than most gospel singers. As a young adult, she lived and studied in Washington and Philadelphia, attending Temple University and briefly teaching elementary school. She had contemplated a career in semi-classics and show tunes when she underwent a twin conversion. In the late 1930s, she heard Willie Mae Ford Smith. ‘I was shocked. The woman sang with such finesse until I knew I had to be a gospel singer.’ Shortly after, she entered the Holiness Church and the would-be pop star became preeminently consecrated (the Holiness Church bestowed the honorific ‘Madame’ to announce her devotion). During the forties she toured the southeast, billed as the ‘Sweetheart of the Potomac,’ belting out hymns and gospel songs in Willie Mae Ford Smith fashion, although her mezzo-soprano was simply to petite to duplicate Smith’s contralto blasts. So she elaborated on the style. Returning to home sources, she began using the sermonettes and spirituals Eddie Gallmon had performed in the twenties. She became a transcendent moaner and a mistress of that note-bending musicologists call melisma and church folks call ‘curlicues.’ ‘runs’ and ‘flowers and frills.’ She began recording in the late forties, accompanied usually by the choir of her father’s Springfield Baptist Church of Washington, DC. Her switch in styles occurred after her marriage to Barney Parks, Jr., a former member of the Dixie Hummingbirds and a founder of The Nightingales. They had met in 1951 when Marie Knight, Rosetta Tharp’s old partner, organized a tour featuring herself, Cooke, and The Nightingales. The tour’s fruits included three marriages: Cooke’s to Parks, the Nightingales’ manager; her accompanist Marge’s to Julius Cheeks, the quartet’s lead; and Knight’s sister Bernice’s to the quartet’s basso, Carl Henry.
Bio references www.scgospelquartet.com
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Tribute to The Soul Stirrers
1926 -
The Soul Stirrers have the great distinction of being the only gospel quartet to be inducted into the America’s Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in 1988 and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
The group was formed by Roy Crain, who had launched his first quartet, which sang in a jubilee style, in 1926 in Trinity, Texas. In the early 1930s, after Crain moved to Houston, he joined an existing group on the condition that it change its name to “the Soul Stirrers.” Among the members of that group was R.H. Harris, who soon became its musical leader.
The Late Martin J Cox sings lead
He pioneered the “swing lead”, in which two singers would share the job of leading the song, allowing virtuoso singers to increase the emotional intensity of the song as the lead passed between them. That innovation led the Soul Stirrers, while still called a quartet, to acquire five members; later groups would have as many as seven but still consider themselves “quartets”, which referred more to their style than their number.
Some Bio references wikipedia.org
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Tribute to Ray Charles
September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004
Ray Charles began working as a musician in many bands that played in various styles, including jazz and, in Tampa "with a hillbilly band called The Florida Playboys." Although most of his career is best known for the hits on the R&B charts, some critics felt he was playing church "music" with popuar lyrics on some of the songs.
With Rays crossover success into pop and country music, the drive to expand and express never stop. His final album, Genius Loves Company, released two months after his death, consists of duets with various admirers and contemporaries: B.B. King, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Gladys Knight, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, and Johnny Mathis.
The album won eight Grammy Awards, including five for Ray Charles for Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “Here We Go Again” with Norah Jones, and Best Gospel Performance for “Heaven Help Us All” with Gladys Knight; he also received nods for his duets with Elton John and B.B. King.
Ray Charles & Voices Of Jubilation
What Kind of man is this - A Christmas song
Some Bio references wikipedia.org
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Tribute to Albertina Walker
1929 -
Albertina Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois. By the age of four she had begun singing in the Children’s Choir of West Point Baptist Church. By the age of 14, Albertina Walker was a member of the Williams Singers and also toured with the Willie Webb and Robert Anderson Singers. By the age of 22 she formed her own group, the Caravans, which helped launch the careers of Evangelist Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Shirley Caesar, Delores Washington, Cassieta George, and Reverend James Cleveland.
In 1975 Albertina Walker recorded her first solo album, Put A Little Love In Your Heart. By 1999 she had recorded over sixty albums, solo and with other artists.
Albertina Walker, being committed to the preservation of gospel music, founded the Albertina Walker Foundation for the Creative and Performing Arts in1998. The foundation offers financial assistance in the form of scholarships to college students who plan on working with gospel music.
Albertina Walker is the recipient of many awards and honors, including: a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Album (Songs Of The Church); two Stellar awards; and several Gospel Music Workshop of America Excellence awards.
In 1994, Albertina Walker was honored at the Chicago Gospel Festival with a street being renamed in her honor, and the placement of a bench bearing her name in Chicago’s Grant Park. In 1997, she was conferred an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the Chicago Theological Seminary, an institution of the University of Chicago.
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, issued House Bill. In the form of a resolution, congratulating Albertina Walker on the occasion of her 70th birthday and honoring her career accomplishments as a gospel musician. The bill was filed with the clerk on August 23, 1999 and officially adopted November 18, 1999.
source:www.artistdirect.com
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Tribute to Cassietta George
1929 - 1995
Cassietta Baker George was born January 23, 1929 in Memphis, TN to Pastor Peter A. Baker and Cassietta Epps Baker.
Life changed in 1953 after moving to Chicago, IL where Cassietta caught the eye of the late Rev. James Cleveland. At his invitation, Cassietta became a member of the now world famous Caravans at that time featuring Johnerine Davis, Louise McDonald-Ross, Albertina Walker and James Cleveland. Years later, the group featured Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Josephine Howard, Shirley Caesar and Dolores Washington. As a member of The Caravans, Cassietta wrote and led over 40 songs, bursting the group into the number one most iconic gospel group of all times. Her most noted recordings in The Caravan legacy were Will My Jesus Be Waiting, Remember Me Oh Lord, Let’s Break Bread Together, One Baptism, To Whom Shall I Turn, I’m Ready to Serve the Lord, Seek Ye the Lord, Jesus and Me, My Religion, Walk Around Heaven All Day and I’m Going To Work Until My Day Is Done.
Source
Cassietta George wrote 108 songs, recorded 16 albums during her solo career, and was nominated for two Grammy Awards.
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Tribute to Arizona Juanita Dranes
1891 ? – 1963 ?
The only known photo of Arizona Dranes shows her
seated at a piano, right.
One of the first gospel artists to bring the musical styles of Holiness churches’ religious music to the public in her records for Okeh and performances in the 1920s. She introduced piano accompaniment to Holiness music, which had previously been largely a cappella, and accompanied herself in the barrelhouse and ragtime styles popular at the time. She is believed [although not clearly documented] to be of both African-American and Mexican descent.
Born blind in Sherman, Texas around 1891, she attended the Texas Institute for Deaf, Dumb and Blind Colored Youth in Austin from 1897 to 1910, according to records discovered by Austin writer Michael Corcoran. After graduating from the Texas Institute, she lived in Dallas and played piano for Church of God in Christ. She began recording in 1926 , first as a solo artist and later with choirs and various other artists and groups. Although she last recorded in 1928 , she continued touring through the 1940s. Later gospel artists, such as Roberta Martin and Clara Ward, were heavily influenced by her piano playing; Dranes’ nasal singing style also had an impact on artists such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
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Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe
(1915 - 1973)
Sister Tharpe was a pioneering Gospel singer, songwriter and recording artist who attained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and early rock accompaniment. She became the first great recording star of Gospel music in the late 1930s and also became known as the “original soul sister” of recorded music.
Willing to cross the line between sacred and secular by performing her inspirational music of ‘light’ in the ‘darkness’ of the nightclubs and concert halls with big bands behind her, her witty, idiosyncratic style also left a lasting mark on more conventional gospel artists, such as Ira Tucker, Sr., of the Dixie Hummingbirds.
While she offended some conservative churchgoers with her forays into the world of pop music, she never left gospel music. A number of musicians, ranging from Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to Isaac Hayes and Aretha Franklin, have identified her—or, more particularly, her singing, guitar playing and showmanship—as an important influence on them. Little Richard referred to the stomping, shouting Gospel music legend as his favorite singer when he was a child. Johnny Cash’s daughter Rosanne similarly stated in an interview with Larry King that Tharpe was her father’s favorite singer.
Tharpe’s performances were curtailed by a stroke in 1970, after which she lost the use of her legs. She died in 1973 after another stroke, on the eve of a scheduled recording session. She was buried in Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in an unmarked grave. In 2008, a concert was held to raise funds for a marker for her grave and January 11 was declared Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in Pennsylvania.
Bio Credits wikipedia.org
Photo credit: grapewrath.blogspot.com
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Tribute to Rev William Herbert Brewster, Sr
(1897 - 1987)
Gospel Musician. Considered one of the key architect of the modern gospel sound, he wrote his compositions (over 200 songs) for his church services, his renowned gospel drama extravaganzas, his radio ministry, his performing groups, and the top names in gospel music.
Among his famous compositions are, “Move On Up A Little Higher” (1946), made popular by gospel singer Mahalia Jackson; “Our God Is Able” (1949); “How I Got Over”, made popular by gospel singer Clara Ward; “Peace Be Still” (1949), later made popular by Rev. James Cleveland; “Let Us Go Back To The Old Landmark” (1949); “Have Faith in God” (1952); “Faith That Moves Mountains” (1954); “God’s Amazing Love”; “Packing Up” (1957); and “Pay Day” (1958).
Brewster’s church in Memphis, East Trigg Baptist Church has gone down in Rock-and-Roll history books as Elvis Presley’s favorite house of worship.
(bio by: Curtis Jackson)
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Tribute to Thomas A. Dorsey (1899 - 1993)
Known as "the father of gospel music". Earlier in his life he was a leading blues pianist known as Georgia Tom.Dorsey’s father was a minister and his mother a piano teacher. He learned to play blues piano as a young man. After studying music formally in Chicago, he became an agent for Paramount Records. He put together a band for Ma Rainey called the "Wild Cats Jazz Band" in 1924.
He started out playing at rent parties with the names Barrelhouse Tom and Texas Tommy, but he was most famous as Georgia Tom. As Georgia Tom, he teamed up with Tampa Red (Hudson Whittaker) with whom he recorded the raunchy 1928 hit record "Tight Like That", a sensation, selling seven million copies. In all, he is credited with more than 400 blues and jazz songs.
Personal tragedy led Dorsey to leave secular music behind and began writing and recording what he called "gospel" music. He was the first to use that term. His first wife, Nettie, who had been Rainey’s wardrobe mistress, died in childbirth in 1932 along with his first son. In his grief, he wrote his most famous song, one of the most famous of all gospel songs, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord".
Unhappy with the treatment received at the hands of established publishers, Dorsey opened the first black gospel music publishing company, Dorsey House of Music. He also founded his own gospel choir and was a founder and first president of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses.
His influence was not limited to African American music, as white musicians also followed his lead. "Precious Lord" has been recorded by Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Clara Ward, Roy Rogers, and Tennessee Ernie Ford, among hundreds of others. It was a favorite gospel song of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and was sung at the rally the night before his assassination, and at his funeral by Mahalia Jackson, per his request. It was also a favorite of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who requested it to be sung at his funeral. Dorsey wrote "Peace in the Valley" for Mahalia Jackson in 1937, which also became a gospel standard. He was the first African American elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and also the first in the Gospel Music Association’s Living Hall of Fame.
He died January 23, 1993 in Chicago, Illinois and was interred there in the Oak Woods Cemetery.
Bio Credits:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Dorsey
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Tribute to Willie Mae Ford Smith (1904 – 1994)
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