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Showing posts with label Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Sister Gets Her Due
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Blind Boys of Alabama with Sister Rosetta Tharpe
The Blind Boys of Alabama is a five-time Grammy Award winning gospel group who first sang together in 1939. After seven decades of touring, countless prestigious appearances, and a successful discography, the Blind Boys of Alabama have created their own solid musical history. The on-stage configuration of the group currently consists of seven people:
Three blind singers – Jimmy Carter, Ben Moore, Eric "Ricky" McKinnie
Guitarist and musical director, Joey Williams
A keyboard player, a bass player, and a drummer
Since their formation over 70 years ago, The Blind Boys of Alabama's self-proclaimed goal is to spiritually uplift audiences. The gospel group has also been a source of inspiration for those with disabilities. In the words of one of the group’s blind members, Ricky Mckinnie, “Our disability doesn’t have to be a handicap. It's not about what you can't do. It's about what you do. And what we do is sing good gospel music."
The Blind Boys first sang together in the school chorus in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in Talladega, Alabama. All around nine years old at the time, the founding members were Clarence Fountain, Jimmy Carter, George Scott, Velma Bozman Traylor, Johnny Fields, Olice Thomas, and the only sighted member, J. T. Hutton. The earliest version of the group was known as The Happyland Jubilee Singers and originally performed for World War II-era soldiers at training camps in the South. The group’s first professional performance was on June 10, 1944. In 1945, the members dropped out of school and began touring the gospel circuit.
In 1948, a Newark, New Jersey promoter booked two sets of blind gospel singers – the Happy Land Jubilee Singers from Alabama and the Jackson Harmoneers from Mississippi – and advertised the program as "Battle of the Blind Boys". A friendly rivalry sprouted between the two groups and continued henceforth. The two acts soon changed their names to the Five Blind Boys of Alabama and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and often toured together, occasionally swapping members.
In 1948, The Blind Boys recorded their first single, "I Can See Everybody’s Mother But Mine", on the Veejay label. It was a hit and lead to a series of recordings on various record labels.
The 1950s were an important decade for black gospel music and the Blind Boys were one of the most prominent groups. Artists across various musical genres like pop and rock began to pull inspiration from black gospel music
During the 60s and 70s, soul music gained favor as a new type of secular black music. As a traditional gospel group, the fortunes of The Blind Boys of Alabama waned during these decades. Soul music was spiritual and socially engaged pop music, and its sales quickly exceeded those of its gospel forerunners. For this reason, soul music became the more financially successful route for many gospel artists. The Blind Boys of Alabama remained steadfast to their original mission and decided not to take the path to fame and fortune, but rather to remain purely gospel singers.
Even though societal trends were shifting, The Blind Boys continued to be active in the 1960s and 1970s. Over the span of these two decades, the gospel group released thirteen more albums and worked with several different record labels, including recording for the Vee-Jay label from 1963 to 1965. In the 1960s, the group's hard-driving gospel sound was imitated by people like Bobby "Blue" Bland and Marvin Gaye. In 1969, Fountain left the group for a decade to try to make it on his own, and the group re-formed with all the original members in the late '70s.
The band also joined the civil rights movement during the 1960s, performing at benefits for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
Down By The Riverside - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Sister Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American pioneering gospel singer, songwriter and recording artist who attained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and early rock and roll accompaniment. She became the first great recording star of gospel music in the late 1930s and also became known as the "original soul sister" of recorded music.
Willing to cross the line between sacred and secular by performing her inspirational music of 'light' in the 'darkness' of the nightclubs and concert halls with big bands behind her, her witty, idiosyncratic style also left a lasting mark on more conventional gospel artists, such as Ira Tucker, Sr., of the Dixie Hummingbirds. While she offended some conservative churchgoers with her forays into the world of pop music, she never left gospel music.
Tharpe's performances were curtailed by a stroke in 1970, after which she had a leg amputated as a result of complications from diabetes. She died in 1973 after another stroke, on the eve of a scheduled recording session. She was buried in Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in an unmarked grave. A resurgence in interest in her legendary work has led to a biography, several NPR segments, scholarly articles and honors. In 2007 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In 2008, a concert was held to raise funds for a marker for her grave and January 11 was declared Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in Pennsylvania. A gravestone was put in place later that year and a Pennsylvania historical marker was approved for placement at her home in the Yorktown neighborhood of Philadelphia.
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Sister Rosetta Tharpe to be Honored with Historical Marker - Mark Carpentieri
Northport N.Y. - I'm very proud to announce that on Monday October 24, Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973), the pioneering gospel musician, will be honored by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission with the dedication of an Historical Marker at her former North Philadelphia home.
I'm honored to be speaking at the event along with Karen Galle of the Historical Marker Program Coordinator, PA Historical and Museum Commission, Beth Warshaw-Duncan of Girls Rock Philly and Gayle Wald of George Washington University. Gayle write the liner notes to our release, "Shout Sister Shout, A Tribute To Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Didn't It Rain - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was a pioneering gospel singer, songwriter and recording artist who attained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and early rock and roll accompaniment. She became the first great recording star of gospel music in the late 1930s and also became known as the "original soul sister" of recorded music.
Willing to cross the line between sacred and secular by performing her inspirational music of 'light' in the 'darkness' of the nightclubs and concert halls with big bands behind her, her witty, idiosyncratic style also left a lasting mark on more conventional gospel artists, such as Ira Tucker, Sr., of the Dixie Hummingbirds. While she offended some conservative churchgoers with her forays into the world of pop music, she never left gospel music.
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