Thomas A. Dorsey
Thomas Andrew Dorsey was an American musician, composer, and Christian evangelist influential in the development of early blues and 20th-century gospel music. He penned 3,000 songs, a third of them gospel, including "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" and "Peace in the Valley". Recordings of these sold millions of copies in both gospel and secular markets in the 20th century.
Born in rural Georgia, Dorsey grew up in a religious family but gained most of his musical experience playing blues piano at barrelhouses and parties in Atlanta. He moved to Chicago and became a proficient composer and arranger of jazz and vaudeville just as blues was becoming popular. He gained fame accompanying blues belter Ma Rainey on tour and, billed as "Georgia Tom", joined with guitarist Tampa Red in a successful recording career.
After a spiritual awakening, Dorsey began concentrating on writing and arranging religious music. Aside from the lyrics, he saw no real distinction between blues and church music, and viewed songs as a supplement to spoken word preaching. Dorsey served as the music director at Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church for 50 years, introducing musical improvisation and encouraging personal elements of participation such as clapping, stomping, and shouting in churches when these were widely condemned as unrefined and common. In 1932, he co-founded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, an organization dedicated to training musicians and singers from all over the U.S. that remains active. The first generation of gospel singers in the 20th century worked or trained with Dorsey: Sallie Martin, Mahalia Jackson, Roberta Martin, and James Cleveland, among others.
Author Anthony Heilbut summarized Dorsey's influence by saying he "combined the good news of gospel with the bad news of blues". Called the "Father of Gospel Music" and often credited with creating it, Dorsey more accurately spawned a movement that popularized gospel blues throughout black churches in the United States, which in turn influenced American music and parts of society at large.
Early life (1899–1918)
Thomas A. Dorsey was born in Villa Rica, Georgia, the first of three children to Thomas Madison Dorsey, a minister and farmer, and Etta Plant Spencer. The Dorseys sharecropped on a small farm, while the elder Dorsey, a graduate of Atlanta Bible College, traveled to nearby churches to preach. He also taught black children at a one-room schoolhouse where his son accompanied him and listened to lessons.Religion and music were at the center of the Dorseys' lives, and young Thomas was exposed to a variety of musical styles in his early childhood. While often living hand-to-mouth, the Dorseys were able to own an organ, which was rare for black families, and Dorsey's mother played during his father's church services. His uncle was also a musician, a traveling guitarist concentrating on country blues while it was in its infancy. Villa Rica's rural location allowed Dorsey to hear slave spirituals, and "moaning" – a style of singing marked by elongated notes and embellishments widespread among Southern black people – alongside the Protestant hymns his father favored. Furthermore, when Thomas's father traveled to preach at other churches, Thomas and his mother attended a church that practiced shape note singing; their harmonizing in particular made a deep impression on him.
The Dorseys moved to Atlanta to find better opportunities when Thomas was eight years old. The adjustment for the entire family was difficult, culminating in Thomas's being isolated, held back at school, and eventually dropping out after the fourth grade when he was twelve years old.
Directionless, Dorsey began attending shows at the nearby 81 Theater that featured blues musicians and live vaudeville acts. Soon he began selling concessions there, and aspiring to join the theater band, honed his musical skills on his family's organ and a relative's piano, picking out melodies that he had heard and practicing long hours. He studied informally with musicians at the theater and local dance bands, always playing blues. Despite being meagerly compensated, he played rent parties, house parties, barrelhouses, and brothels, but enjoyed the social life of a musician. Due to the spontaneous nature of the events Dorsey worked, he became proficient at improvising, and along the way, learned to read musical notation.
Blues career (1919–1925)
Seeking a greater challenge, Dorsey relocated to Chicago in 1919, where he learned that his style of playing was unfashionable compared to the newer uptempo styles of jazz. Encountering more competition for jobs and with his concentration primarily on blues, Dorsey turned to composing, copyrighting his first song in 1920, titled "If You Don't Believe I'm Leaving, You Can Count the Days I'm Gone". In doing so, he became one of the first musicians to copyright blues music.Dorsey seemed ambivalent about writing church music until 1921 when he was inspired by W. M. Nix's rendition of "I Do, Don't You?" after hearing him perform at the National Baptist Convention. Nix elongated some notes to emphasize specific syllables and words and sped up others. Dorsey found appeal in the freedom and potential that came with improvising within established hymns, allowing singers and musicians to infuse more emotion – particularly joy and elation – into their performances to move congregations. Upon hearing Nix sing, Dorsey was overcome, later recalling that his "heart was inspired to become a great singer and worker in the Kingdom of the Lord – and impress people just as this great singer did that Sunday morning". The experience prompted him to copyright his first religious song in 1922, "If I Don't Get There", a composition in the style of Charles Tindley, whom Dorsey idolized. Sacred music could not sustain him financially, however, so he continued to work in blues.
Two of his secular songs were recorded by Monette Moore and another by Joe "King" Oliver, ensuring Dorsey a place as one of Chicago's top blues composers. His reputation led him to become a music arranger for Paramount Records and the Chicago Music Publishing Company. In 1923, he became the pianist and leader of the Wild Cats Jazz Band accompanying Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, a charismatic and bawdy blues shouter who sang about lost love and hard times. Rainey interacted with her audiences, who were often so enthralled they stood up and shouted back at her while she sang. The night Rainey opened at Chicago's largest black theater Dorsey is remembered as "the most exciting moment in my life".
Dorsey worked with Rainey and her band for two years, wherein he composed and arranged her music in the blues style he was accustomed to, as well as vaudeville and jazz to please audiences' tastes. In 1925, he married Nettie Harper, hired by Rainey as a wardrobe mistress despite her inexperience, so she could join Dorsey on tour.
Transition to gospel music (1926–1930)
Rainey enjoyed enormous popularity touring with a hectic schedule, but beginning in 1926 Dorsey was plagued by a two-year period of deep depression, even contemplating suicide. He experienced a spiritual re-invigoration of sorts in 1928. While attending a church service with his sister-in-law, Dorsey claimed the minister who prayed over him pulled a live serpent from his throat, prompting his immediate recovery. Thereafter, he vowed to concentrate all his efforts in gospel music. After the death of a close friend, Dorsey was inspired to write his first religious song with a blues influence, "If You See My Savior, Tell Him That You Saw Me".As the blues grew in popularity in the 1920s, black churches condemned it widely for being associated with sin and hedonism. Music performed in established black churches in Chicago and throughout the U.S. came from hymnals and was performed as written, usually as a way to showcase the musical abilities of the choirs rather than as a vehicle to deliver a specific spiritual message. Many churches sought prestige in their musical offerings, which were often ornate and sophisticated liturgical compositions by classical European composers, such as Handel's Messiah and Mozart's Alleluia. Personal expressions such as clapping, stomping, and improvising with lyrics, rhythm, and melody were actively discouraged as being unrefined and degrading to the music and the singer.
Dorsey tried to market his new sacred music by printing thousands of copies of his songs to sell directly to churches and publishers, even going door to door, but he was ultimately unsuccessful. He returned to blues, recording "It's Tight Like That" with guitarist Hudson "Tampa Red" Whittaker despite his misgivings over the suggestive lyrics. The record sold more than seven million copies. Billed as "Tampa Red and Georgia Tom" and "The Famous Hokum Boys", the duo found great success together, eventually collaborating on 60 songs between 1928 and 1932, and coining the term "Hokum" to describe their guitar/piano combination with simple, racy lyrics.
Unsure if gospel music could sustain him, Dorsey was nonetheless pleased to discover that he made an impression at the National Baptist Convention in 1930 when, unknown to him, Willie Mae Ford Smith sang "If You See My Savior" during a morning meeting. She was asked to sing it twice more; the response was so enthusiastic that Dorsey sold 4,000 print copies of his song. In between recording sessions with Tampa Red, and inspired by the compliments he received, he formed a choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church at the request of the pastor, Reverend James Smith, who had an affinity for Negro spirituals and indigenous singing styles. Dorsey and Ebenezer's music director Theodore Frye trained the new chorus to deliver his songs with a gospel blues sound: lively, joyous theatrical performances with embellished and elongated notes accentuated with rhythmic clapping and shouts. At their debut, Frye strutted up and down the aisles and sang back and forth with the chorus, and at one point Dorsey jumped up from the piano stool in excitement and stood as he played. When the pastor at Pilgrim Baptist, Chicago's second largest black church, saw the way it moved the congregation, he hired Dorsey as music director, allowing him to dedicate all his time to gospel music.