HOW SWEET THE SOUND, a documentary produced by @radical.media, tells the story of talented gospel choirs from coast to coast competing in Verizon Wireless’ How Sweet the Sound — a series of regional competitions in major U.S. cities — all culminating in a roof-raising, powerhouse grand finale competition in Atlanta. One by one, each choir will take the stage for the ultimate quest of being named the “Best Church Choir in America.” The one-hour special, premiering Sunday, May 31, at 11:00 a.m.* on BET, features choir members sharing how they provided support and inspiration for each other and how love, faith, commitment and determination allowed them to overcome the hurdles in their lives.
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
Mount Zion Baptist Church is one of the oldest black churches organized in Nashville, TN. The church was organized in 1866; just three years after President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Throughout its rich history, Mount Zion was led by 14 dynamic pastors and currently Bishop Walker serves as Bishop of Senior Pastors International for the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship under the leadership of International Presiding Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr.
While Green reports his conversion happened after a visit to Disneyland, local rumors link his conversion to an incident reminiscent of the death of Henry IV, involving an adolescent boy, and bathtub, an angry woman, and a pot of hot grits (a.k.a. “Memphis Napalm”).
credit:Gerbren Deves
Smith sang with the Roberta Martin Singers from the group’s inception until it disbanded after Martin’s death in 1969. As Smith termed his relationship with Martin in a 1981 interview for the Smithsonian, he and Martin “went together like bacon and eggs.” Smith was known for his distinct baritone/tenor register, his unique delivery of songs which influenced the styles of other gospel singers such as Professor Alex Bradford and Rev. James Cleveland, and his trademark narration and sermonettes which would often stir worshippers in a frenzied ecstasy. a celebrity among churchgoers on the South Side of Chicago and a national influence on generations of gospel singers, died in Chicago, where he lived his entire life. He was 88.
Divorced, he is survived by a son, Eugene Smith Jr., and a sister, Scottise Saunders.
Hundreds of people are remembering Grammy-nominated gospel singer the Rev. Timothy Wright at the Brooklyn church where he was pastor.
Wright died April 24. The 61- year-old “Godfather of Gospel” had been paralyzed from the neck down and in poor health since a July 4 car crash that killed his wife and grandson.
Based in St. Louis, Missouri she was one of the early associates of Thomas A. Dorsey and an innovator in gospel style, introducing the “song and sermonette” style that other singers, such as Shirley Caesar and Edna Gallmon Cooke made popular. She married in 1929 and, shortly after that, began traveling in musical revivals. Dorsey heard her in 1931 and asked to help him found the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, his organization devoted to spreading gospel music by training singers, choirs and composers. Smith became the principal singing teacher for the NCGCC as head of its Soloists’ Bureau in 1936. Among her students were Brother Joe May, who gave her the affectionate name “Mother”. Teaming with Roberta Martin, Smith demonstrated how to make even familiar hymns such as “Jesus Loves Me” into deeper personal statements by slurs, note bending and other personalized adornments. Smith was also a major figure within the Baptist Church as the Director of its Education Department of the National Baptist Convention before she became a member of a Pentecostal denomination. She considered herself a preacher and imbued her singing and sermonettes with an evangelical fervor. She was noted for her finesse, control and subtlety, but could also, like her protégé Brother Joe May, belt out hymns.
President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have not yet decided where they will worship while in Washington.
Since the election last November, the Obamas have attended services at a number of churches in the capital, including black and racially mixed congregations, The Washington Post reported
Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Before becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. He was nominated to the court by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967.
Formed in 1983, the 150-voice Georgia Mass Choir came to prominence through highly visible appearances in the Whitney Houston film The Preacher’s Wife and at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Lead voice, songwriter, and founder Rev. Milton Biggham had spent time organizing Savoy Records, but returned to his home state to organize the choir from over 600 applicants. Naturally, the Georgia Mass Choir began recording for Savoy, and released their first album Yes, He Can in the mid-’80s. Additional albums followed, and by the early ’90s, the group began to be recognized around the nation as one of the leading gospel choirs through Grammy and Dove Award nominations, and the gift of the Keys to the City of Atlanta. Film director Penny Marshall cast them in The Preacher’s Wife in 1996, and the choir also received a Gospel Music Workshop of America Excellence Award.
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From Kari Kurto KCasting@gmail.com
Submitted on 2009/05/08
I'm a Casting Director on a film and I'm looking for a gospel choir in or around Austin, TX. If anyone has any suggestions please send an email to KCasting@gmail.com CHOIR WORKSHOPS
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