Famous Black Gospel Music Singers
Thomas Dorsey is considered to be the "Father of Gospel Music." He lived from 1899-1993 and saw many changes in black gospel music throughout his ninety-four years. Dorsey started his career accompanying famous blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. Despite being a composer of mainly nightclub blues music, Dorsey attended National Baptist conventions every year. At one of these meetings he first heard the religious hymns of Charles Tindley and was hooked. Dorsey began to write religious music but kept the jazzy rhythms and blues style. At first his music was rejected by religious leaders at the time, as they failed to realize how his type of music could attract new listeners to church services. But he went on to write over 800 songs and eventually lived to see his music performed in churches all over the country.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Clara Ward will go down in history as being among the first to take black gospel music to nightclubs. Tharpe sang with Lucky Millender and his band and Clara Ward greatly influenced the careers of Marion Williams, Little Richard and Aretha Franklin.
Although James Cleveland was not known for having a high quality singing voice, he is remembered as the "King of Gospel" and received four Grammy awards. In 1968 he formed the Gospel Music workshop of America, which is now the largest gospel convention in the world.
Quartet singers of black gospel music were very popular in the late 1920s through the 1940s. The Swan Silvertones were among the first to use a falsetto voice by its lead singer, which later influenced Motown and rock 'n roll groups. One of the most popular quartets was the Soul Stirrers. Their leader, Rebert Harris, was the first to use a vocal ad lib style later adapted by Sam Cooke. In fact, Harris was the one who trained Sam Cooke starting when Cooke was only 10 years old. Most of the quartets were male, but there were quite a few female quartets as well. These included the Caravans, the Harmonettes and The Davis Sisters. Many members of these groups went on to have successful solo careers of their own.
With the seeds that Thomas Dorsey planted so many years ago, black gospel music has gone mainstream and has spawned many famous singers from Della Reese to Lou Rawls. It will continue to influence and inspire people from all walks of life for generations to come.