Gospel music has been around for many decades, each gospel song changing with the times. Throughout the years, Christians of every denomination have loved, sang, wrote, and produced gospel songs. Some Gospel songs have touched the hearts, minds, and souls of listeners around the globe in special ways. The Genre (Gospel) has attracted many famous well-known singers like Mahalia Jackson, who preferred to sing Gospel music over the Blues. Famous Gospel singer James Cleveland (known as the King of Gospel music) wrote, sang, and composed Gospel songs. Andrae Crouch (referred to as the father of Modern Gospel music) also produced, wrote, and composed Gospel songs. These famous Gospel music artists could not have achieved the success that …show more content…
This man changed the way songs are sang in a Christian Church, and the way men and women worship in a Christian Church. He is called by the name Thomas A. Dorsey, and he is known as “the father of Gospel music.” Thomas A. Dorsey was born in Villa Rica, Georgia in July 1, 1899, and his parents moved to Atlanta, Georgia little after he was born. He was the oldest son of a Baptist preacher. His mother was a musician, and she was also quite skilled on the organ at their church. Thomas A. Dorsey’s earliest training in music came from going to a local movie theater in Atlanta, Georgia, where he sold soda pop. At age eleven, in the theater, he would watch and listen to Eddie Hayward and his father play. Dorsey would ultimately learn music and play instruments in the theater. When Dorsey was 17 years of age, he traveled from Atlanta to Chicago (part of the Great Migration that happened from 1915 to 1970). He began his studies at the Chicago School of Composition and Arranging. In Chicago, he took up the profession of a Blues …show more content…
Dorsey wrote and composed more than 200 gospel songs after that. Dorsey’s music (first referred to as gospel blues) has become widely accepted today. Dorsey drew from his experience in playing the blues, and accompanied that with the good news of the Bible. The emotional tone of the blues, and hope of the good news of the Bible; produced a sound that radiated through America’s churches in the 1900’s. Dorsey stated “I took the Word up and put it to gospel songs and said gospel song.” (Taylor 2014:196). Before Dorsey it was only popular to preach the Word, but Dorsey made it popular to sing the Word of God. This style of singing the Word of God has become very popular in the Christian community around the world. Dorsey influenced many well-known gospel singers like Mahalia Jackson. Dorsey once stated about Jackson that “Mahalia traveled with me three or four years. I put her on the map.” (Taylor 2014:219). He also influenced James Cleveland, stating that “he (James Cleveland) was around pickin’ up the crumbs getting’ them together.” (Taylor
Buddy’s playing married all of the contemporary popular styles of music, creating something never before heard, Jazz. “Jazz music emerged from the confluence of New Orleans’s diverse musical
He was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919. He left and moved to Pasadena, Carolina.
1864. He was born in the state of Missouri. He was kidnapped as a baby along with his mom
Cornet Band for about a year. He went as far as New York in 1895. He worked as a
Ferdinand Joseph “Jelly Roll Morton” LaMenthe was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 20, 1890. As a child he began to learn how to play the piano at age 10 years old. He was taught by Tony Jackson; compose of songs like “Pretty Boy” and other hits. Tony Jackson is among the few musicians whom Morton admired and respected. Jackson was also known to him as the greatest single-handed entertainers in the world. After his mother’s passing, Morton began playing in gigs in the bordellos of the Storyville district of New Orleans. In New Orleans he became active as a gambler, pool shark, and many more things that made him get kicked out by his grandmother. With him doing all of this gambling she didn’t want his sisters to see that life that he was going down.
Good versus Evil, Heaven versus Hell, Sacred versus Secular; these were the internal and external conflicts faced by the blues artists of the 1920s and 30s. There was no in-between, but Thomas Dorsey didn’t see much of a difference, they both reflected the African-American experience. Many of these artists, like Charley Patton and Blind Lemon Jefferson, negotiated this chasm by recording a few sacred tunes though always under a pseudonym. Thomas A. Dorsey, also attempted this delicate balance of recording and performing blues while writing spirituals and church music. While his time and discography as Georgia Tom and as a member of the Hokum Boys is well known to aficionados, it was this time served in the secular world that aided him
Frederick Douglass was born as a slave in Baltimore in 1818. He was raised by his grandparents after separated from his mother when he was only a few
Their church practices included call and response during sermons, clapping and stomping, and eventually Gospel
in Kansas City and became one of the most famous jazz musicians of all time. He led us
James P. Johnson an influential jazz pianist and is known for his hit “Carolina Shout.” And finally, Coleman Hawkins played the tenor saxophone. He was actually one of the first musicians to be known for the instrument.
African American religious music is the foundation of all contemporary forms of so called “black music.” African American religious music has been a fundamental part of the black experience in this country. This common staple of the African American experience can be traced back to the cruel system of slavery. It then evolved into what we refer to today as gospel music. The goal of this paper is to answer three main questions. What are the origins of African American religious music? How did this musical expression develop into a secular form of music? What is the future of African American religious music? These questions will be answered through factual research of African American traditions, artists, and various other sources.
In particular “ragtime”, church music, minstrel shows and folk music. In the early reference of blues can be traced back to the early 1900’s most notably composition from William C. Handy who is referred to as the “Father of Blues”.
Gospel music is an elegant form of worship. It has been used to speak out against oppression and to advocate for freedom and equality for all. Gospel Music is exemplary of music being used to change the world. Gospel music and the various artists associated with it have had a monumental impact on the face of our
Eileen Southern’s The Music of Black Americans: A History she examines the influence that African Americans had in the holiness churches in music and worship. She initially starts with the landing of the first Africans to the colonies and she creates a phenomenal conversation of the musicians in the new world. She details the progression in the gospel, classical, jazz, rap, blues and the contributions they made.
The blues is home to many world famous artists such as Riley B. King, also known as B.B King, and McKinley Morganfield, also known as Muddy Waters. These artists were two very good examples of what the blues is meant to incorporate and their legacy has and will live long passed their deaths. B.B King is an American blue musician, singer, songwriter and guitarist, born on September 16th, 1925 in Beclair, Mississippi. He is considered to be one of the most influential blues musicians of all times, giving him the nicknames “The King of the Blues” as