Introduction to Lesson 17 (Continued)
In addition to blues, boogie-woogie, jazz, and swing bands, gospel music performers were also heard, such as Mitchell's Christian Singers and singer and guitarist Rosetta Nubin (known professionally as Sister Rosetta Tharpe). Beginning in the 1930s and onward, "Most of the early recording of gospel music took place in Chicago or New York City. By the 1950s, however, recording companies outside those two cities had begun to move into action. The Savoy Record Company of Newark, New Jersey, was among the first. As early as 1949, Savoy recorded Clara Ward and the Ward Singers in New York City (Ruppli 1980, 43). Savoy also recorded such celebrated artists as the Davis Sisters, Roberta Martin Singers, Caravans, and the Gospel Harmonettes; also, Marian Williams, Rosetta Tharpe, Bessie Griffin, Alex Bradford, Robert Anderson, and many others" (Allgood 1990, 108).
In the 1940s, several churches in Los Angeles became popular places for good gospel music services. Gospel music's popularity grew in Los Angeles because of these and other churches' desire to reach the Black population. Some of these include St. Paul Baptist Church (established in 1907), People's Independent Church of Christ (founded in 1915), Grace Memorial Church of God in Christ (established in 1941), Victory Baptist Church (established in 1943), and Emanuel Church of God in Christ (founded in 1959), to name a few. At these and other churches, it became necessary for pastors or leaders to be sensitive to the needs of the many Blacks migrating to Los Angeles by having music, as well as the way it was sung, be familiar to the Black Southern migrants. Some of these pastors include John L. Branham, William Jack Taylor, Eugene Douglas Smallwood, and Nathan John Kirkpatrick, who were also performers and familiar with the gospel music tradition in Chicago.
At this time a more favorable geographical shift in gospel performing, as opposed to recording activity, occurred outside of Chicago and New York. Some 100,000 African Americans "…migrated to Los Angeles in droves seeking a different way of life and a better future…. During the 1940s and 1950s, Blacks from Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and cities and towns in the Midwest had not only taken up permanent residence in Los Angeles, but they brought new cultural traditions" (DjeDje 1989, 46).
Thomas A. Dorsey, Sallie Martin, Robert Anderson, to name a few, and other Chicagoans and, to some extent, Southern gospel artists began to give performances and concerts in Los Angeles as early as the 1930s. Moreover, Los Angeles was no stranger to Pentecostal worship services, where, according to theologians and historians, "speaking in tongues" and receiving the "Holy Ghost/Spirit" marked "... the prolonged Los Angeles revival that began at 312 Azusa Street in April 1906..." (DjeDje 1989, 37). Pastors and congregants in Los Angeles did not initially accept gospel music, however. Figures such as Rev. J. E. Pius of Metropolitan Baptist Church and R. L. Hatter believed gospel singers merely sang religious lyrics without a solid spiritual connection, and handclapping was not appropriate for church worship. Instead, they preferred worship music such as anthems, hymns, and spirituals.
Moreover, radio programs broadcasting various church services and music performers, such as the Echoes of Eden Choir (St. Paul Baptist Church of Los Angeles) in 1947 on KFWB and the Voice of Victory (Victory Baptist Church) in 1949 to 1950 on KTTV, and a higher level of professionalism among gospel performers such as Clara Ward, Alex Bradford, Mahalia Jackson, Sallie Martin, Bessie Grifin, and others all contributed to gospel music's expansion during this time. And finally, the "song-play," credited to Langston Hughes, featured gospel music as the basis for his works such as Black Nativity (1961), The Gospel Glory (1962), Tambourines to Glory (1963), Jericho-Jim Crow (1964), and The Prodigal Son (1965) (McLaren 1997, 49).
Precious Lord
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
It's a Highway to Heaven
It's a highway to heaven
None can walk up there
But the pure in heart
It's a highway to heaven
Walking up the king's highway