The Father of Gospel Music

Thomas A. Dorsey

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Thomas Andrew Dorsey, known as the “Father of  Gospel Music,” was born on July 1, 1899 in Villa Rica, Georgia. Dorsey’s father was a minister and his mother a piano teacher. Dorsey was exposed to spirituals and Baptist hymns as a child and learned to play the piano by watching pianists at a vaudeville theater on Decatur Street in  Atlanta.

After studying music formally in Chicago, he became an agent for Paramount Records. He later put together a band for Ma Rainey called the “Wild Cats Jazz Band” in 1924. Learn to play this great music now.

Around 1928, Dorsey had a spiritual conversion but continued composing and performing the blues. Under the name, Georgia Tom, he teamed up with Tampa Red (Hudson Whittaker), with whom he recorded the 1928 hit record, “Tight Like That,” that went on to sell more than 7 million copies.

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, died in childbirth in 1932 along with his first son. In his grief, he wrote his most famous song, and one of the most famous of all gospel songs, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.”   Lean to play this great music now.

“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 was later made popular by Elvis Presley. Dorsey composed over 1000 songs in his lifetime and was the first African American elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

He died in Chicago, Illinois on January 23, 1993.  Learn to play this great music now!

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                                                                References

-          Horace Clarence Boyer, How Sweet the sound: The Golden Age of Gospel Elliott and Clark.

-          Michael W. Harris, The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church Oxford University Press.

-          Tony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times Limelight Editions.

-          Bernice Johnson Reagon, We’ll Understand It Better By And By: Pioneering African-American Gospel Composers Smithsonian Institution.

-          Eileen Southern, The History of Black Americans: A History, W.W. Norton & Company.