Jan 4, 2013 - Fans outraged by treatment of Caravans at Inez Andrews' funeral. With Dorothy Norwood and Albertina Walker on numerous projects:. 'Ed was James' neck,' said gospel great Albertina Walker. Funeral services will be held the following day at New Bethel Baptist Church. Numbers, Sparrow established the Sparrow Incentive Program, providing retailers with a 4%.
Correction Appended
Albertina Walker, a gospel singer with a lush contralto voice whose group, the Caravans, recorded a string of hits in the 1950s and 1960s and nourished the careers of such greats as the Rev. James Cleveland, Inez Andrews and Pastor Shirley Caesar, died on Friday in Chicago. She was 81.
The cause was respiratory failure, her friend Pam Morris told The Associated Press.
Early on, Ms. Walker was a standout even in Chicago’s teeming, competitive gospel scene, and she became a protégé of Mahalia Jackson. With her good friend James Cleveland at the piano, she spent many evenings singing and socializing at Jackson’s house, listening to critical advice.
“I had seen Roberta Martin and Mahalia Jackson,” she told The Washington Post in 1998. “I wanted to stand up before audiences and deliver the message, win souls for Christ. I wanted to touch dying men and slipping women.”
After touring with the Willie Webb Singers, with whom she recorded her first single, “He’ll Be There,” she joined Robert Anderson and His Gospel Caravan. With the other three singers backing up Anderson — Elyse Yancey, Nellie Grace Daniels and Ora Lee Hopkins Samson Walker — she formed the Caravans in 1951.
“Anderson had an unusual, but pleasing, style of singing behind the beat, which Albertina picked up,” said Anthony Heilbut, the author of “The Gospel Sound: Good News Good News and Bad Times” (1971). “You could think of her as his female counterpart.”
Continue reading the main storyThe Caravans’ first big hit, “Mary Don’t You Weep,” helped make them the most popular gospel group in the United States, with hits like “I Won’t Be Back,” “(I Know) The Lord Will Provide,” “Show Me Some Sign,” “Sweeping Through the City,” “No Coward Soldier,” “Tell Him What You Want” and Ms. Walker’s great signature song, “Lord Keep Me Day by Day.”
They became known not only for hit songs but also for incubating future stars like Delores Washington, Cassietta George and Dorothy Norwood. Beginning in the 1970s Ms. Walker performed as a soloist with a variety of church choirs as her backup. Her first solo venture, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” released in 1975, was followed by more than 50 albums, including “I Can Go to God in Prayer” and “Joy Will Come.”
![Albertina Walker Funeral Program Albertina Walker Funeral Program](/uploads/1/2/4/0/124074871/859468202.jpg)
“Songs of the Church: Live in Memphis” won a in 1995 for the Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album, and in 2001 she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. President GeorgeW. Bush honored Ms. Walker for her contribution to gospel music in a White House ceremony in 2002.
Albertina Walker, known as Tina, was born on Aug. 29, 1929, on the South Side of Chicago, where she lived her entire life. She was the youngest of nine children. At the age of four she was singing with the youth choir of the West Point Baptist Church, under the direction of Pete Williams, and before long was performing with the Williams Singers. By 17, she was singing with Anderson.
Anderson, although blessed with a top-quality voice himself — he played king to Mahalia Jackson’s queen — made a practice of sharing the spotlight with his best singers, Ms. Walker chief among them. She followed his example as leader of the Caravans, stepping aside and letting her top performers shine.
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In the early years, singers came and went. All the original members except Ms. Walker left the Caravans within a few years after it was founded. The early recordings, on the States label, featured tight harmonies and a sweet sound. Bil Carpenter, in “Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia,” notes that with the arrival of Bessie Griffin in 1953, the sound became much more dynamic — rhythmically precise with a sharp attack and earthy harmonies.
Although popular, the group struggled in the years before “Mary Don’t You Weep,” touring churches all over the United States but earning relatively little money. “We would put five to six dollars in the gas tank, drive all the way to New York or Mississippi,” Ms. Walker told N’Digo magazine in 2009. “We would pack into one car, nobody had a problem with it either. We would probably make $150 singing, but we would share our rewards and the money would pay a lot of bills back then.”
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Ms. Walker can be heard in her prime on the album “The Best of the Caravans” (Savoy), and on the CD and DVD compilation “How Sweet It Was: The Sights and Sounds of Gospel’s Golden Age” (Shanachie), which includes the previously unreleased Caravans song “The Angels Keep Watching Over Me.”
With the arrival of a new crop of young singers — Ms. Andrews, Ms. Washington, Ms. Norwood and Ms. Caesar — that Ms. Walker allowed free rein, the Caravans embarked on a hot streak that continued until 1966, when Ms. Caesar and Ms. Anderson left the group. Ms. Walker kept the Caravans going for a time, bringing in the future disco star Loleatta Holloway, but in the 1970s struck out on her own.
Her later hits included “Please Be Patient With Me,” with Reverend Cleveland, and the poignant anthem “I’m Still Here.” “The Lord went all out with this song,” Ms. Walker told N’Digo. “I must say, I’m still here, and believe me when I say it, it’s been a wonderful life serving the Lord and His people through song.”
Correction: October 13, 2010 An obituary on Saturday about the gospel singer Albertina Walker misstated a word in the title of a book about gospel music by Anthony Heilbut. It is “The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times” (not “Hard Times”) . The obituary also misstated the name of a song that was a hit for Ms. Walker and her group, the Caravans. It is “I Won’t Be Back (Sweeping Through the City).” They did not have separate songs called “I Won’t Be Back” and “Sweeping Through the City.” The obituary also referred incorrectly at one point to the singer Inez Andrews as Ms. Anderson.
Walker in 2001. | |
Background information | |
---|---|
Also known as | Queen of Gospel Music |
Born | August 29, 1929 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Died | October 8, 2010 (aged 81) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Genres | Gospel |
Occupation(s) | Singer, Composer, Producer, Actress |
Instruments | Vocals |
Years active | 1941–2010 |
Labels | Malaco Records Savoy Records Benson Records Word Records A&M RecordsScepter Records Hob Records |
Associated acts | Sisters of Glory Robert Anderson James Cleveland The Caravans Mahalia Jackson Inez Andrews Shirley Caesar Dorothy Norwood O'landa Draper |
Website | albertinawalker.org |
Albertina Walker (August 29, 1929 – October 8, 2010)[1] was an Americangospel singer, songwriter, actress, and humanitarian. She was popularly referred to as the 'Queen of Gospel Music'.
- 6Discography
- 7Videography
Early years[edit]
Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois,[2] to Ruben and Camille Coleman Walker. Her mother was born in Houston County, Georgia, and her father in Bibb County, Georgia. They moved to Chicago between 1917-1920 where they lived out their lives. Albertina had four siblings born in Bibb County and four born in Chicago. Albertina began singing in the youth choir at the West Point Baptist Church at an early age, and joined several Gospel groups thereafter, including Pete Williams Singers, The Willie Webb Singers and the Robert Anderson Singers.[3] Albertina was greatly influenced by Mahalia Jackson, her friend and confidante, whom Jackson took on the road when Albertina was just a teenager. 'Mahalia used to kid me. She'd say, 'Girl, you need to go sing by yourself,' recalled Walker in a 2010 Washington Post interview. Albertina Walker did just that. In 1951, she formed the group called The Caravans. She was popularly referred to as the 'Queen of Gospel Music', initially by such notables as the late Reverend James Cleveland and Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr, for her outstanding achievements within the genre after the death of Mahalia Jackson in 1972.[4]
Musical career[edit]
In the early 1950s Walker founded her own Gospel music group The Caravans, enlisting fellow singers from The Robert Anderson Singers (Ora Lee Hopkins, Elyse Yancey and Nellie Grace Daniels). The Caravans' membership has included: James Cleveland, Bessie Griffin, Shirley Caesar, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Loleatta Holloway, John McNeil, Cassietta George, and Delores Washington. Her discovery of these artists resulted in the nickname 'Star Maker'. Walker retired The Caravans in the late 1960s, performing as a solo artist.
In the mid-1970s, Walker signed with Savoy Records then Benson Records, Word Records, A&M Records, and other record companies, recording a series of solo projects, many of them with big church choirs including The Evangelical Choir, The Cathedral of Love Choir, The Metro Mass choir, and her own church choir, The West Point Choir. Albertina recorded her first solo project Put a Little Love in Your Heart in 1975. She also recorded several projects together with Reverend James Cleveland. To date, she has recorded over 60 albums, including gold selling hits 'Please Be Patient With Me', 'I Can Go to God in Prayer', 'The Best Is Yet to Come', 'Impossible Dream', and 'Joy Will Come'. Walker sang for United States presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and South Africa's president, Nelson Mandela.
In 1995, Walker joined Thelma Houston, CeCe Peniston, Phoebe Snow and Lois Walden to record a gospel album in common, Good News in Hard Times, as the quintet called The Sisters of Glory.
Walker recorded a reunion album with her group The Caravans entitled Paved the Way, which was released by Malaco Records on September 5, 2006. Performers included Walker, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Robert Estevis and Delores Washington. The album was dubbed by Billboard magazine as one of the most memorable releases of 2006[5] and entered the Billboard charts in the top ten and remained in the top forty for sixteen weeks. Paved the Way was nominated for a Grammy, Dove, Soul Train Music Award and two Stellar Awards.
Awards[edit]
Walker earned many awards and honors over her six decades of music ministry. Among them, a 1995 Grammy Award for the Best Traditional Gospel Album (Songs of The Church); 10 Grammy Award nominations; 5 Gold Records; 3 Stellar Awards; 3 Dove Awards; several Gospel Music Workshop of America Excellence Awards; an induction into the 2001 Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. President George Bush honored Albertina Walker for her contribution to gospel music on May 31, 2002. In 2005, the Grammys honored her contributions to the Gospel music industry. R.E.A.- Robert Estevis Award for the album, The Caravans, Paved The Way. She is also a recipient of a 2005 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[6]
Influences[edit]
Ms. Walker is featured in the book entitled Who's Who in Black America as well as other volumes related to the Golden Age of Gospel Music. She received several keys to various cities and was honored at the Chicago Gospel Festival where a bench bearing her name was placed in downtown Chicago's Grant Park. The City of Chicago paid tribute to Albertina by renaming 35th and Cottage Grove 'Albertina Walker and The Caravans Drive'. Albertina was also conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters Degree by the Chicago Theological Seminary, an institution of the University of Chicago.
Walker co-founded the Gospel Music Workshop of America along with James Cleveland. Albertina also lent her support to many charitable organizations such as United Negro College Fund, American Cancer Society, National Council of Negro Women, Nation of Islam's Million Family March, One Voice: 'A Fight Against AIDS', NAACP and Operation Push. In 1988 Albertina Walker founded The Albertina Walker Scholarship Foundation for the Creative and Performing Arts. Her foundation offers financial assistance to college students in the form of scholarships to further their education in the field of music. During her reign as Queen of Gospel music, she also had four great accompanist/personal assistants, John McNeil, Eric Peterson, Robert Estevis and Sheila Mckinney. All have played an integral part of assisting and performing with Ms. Walker.
Death[edit]
On her 81st birthday, Walker was admitted to a local Chicago Hospital and placed on a ventilator. For some time she had been battling emphysema.[4] In early September, rumors of Walker’s death had spread so wildly that she posted a message on her Facebook page stating: 'I'm still here no matter what you might have heard'.[citation needed] At the time, she was in ICU dealing with respiratory problems–a condition she battled for years, and kept her on oxygen. On Tuesday, September 7, Walker had a tracheostomy which doctors deemed a success, and she checked out of a Chicago hospital in late September and was admitted to RML specialty hospital for follow up care. She died on October 8, 2010[7] at 4:30 a.m.
Discography[edit]
Notable singles[edit]
- 'I'm Still Here'
- 'Please Be Patient with Me'
- 'I Can Go to God in Prayer'
- 'I Got a Feeling (Everything Will Be Alright)'
- 'The Best Is Yet to Come'
- 'Impossible Dream'
- 'Joy Will Come'
- 'God Is Our Creator'
- 'Work on Me'
- 'In Shady Green Pastures'
- 'Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around'
- 'When God Dips His Pin of Love in My Heart'
- 'If I Perish'
- 'Ain't Got Tired Yet'
- 'Since I Met Jesus'
- 'Lord Keep Me Day by Day'
- 'Mary Don't You Weep' Albertina Walker
- 'Remember Me'
- 'I Know the Lord Will Make a Way'
- 'I'm Willing'
- 'Show Some Sign'
- 'I Won't Be Back'
- 'Make It In'
Videography[edit]
Film and other appearances[edit]
- Leap of Faith – starring Steve Martin and Debra Winger
- Going Home to Gospel with Patti Labelle
- The Gospel Truth – Off-Broadway play
- The Evolution of Gospel
- The Gospel Legends
Television appearances[edit]
Walker appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America and The Tavis Smiley Show among others. Albertina Walker was a frequent guest on the nationally syndicated BET and Word television networks, Bobby Jones Gospel, Testify and Singsation.
References[edit]
- ^Johnson, Carla K. (October 8, 2010). ''Queen of Gospel' Albertina Walker dies at age 81'. Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2012-10-25. Retrieved 2010-10-08.
- ^'Albertina Walker (1929-2010)'. www.imdb.com. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
- ^Carpenter, Bil (2005). Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. p. 426. ISBN9780879308414. OCLC60375463.
- ^ abReich, Howard (October 9, 2010). ''Queen of Gospel' led Caravan of stars'. Chicago Tribune. Chicago, IL. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
- ^Deborah Evans Price, Dec. 9, 2006
- ^'NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2005'. www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
- ^Grimes, William (October 8, 2010). 'Albertina Walker, Soulful Gospel Singer, Dies at 81'. The New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
Further reading[edit]
- Heilbut, Anthony (1997). The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (Updated and rev., 5th Limelight ed.). New York: Limelight Editions. ISBN0-87910-034-6. OCLC37476562.
- Boyer, Horace Clarence (1995). How Sweet The Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel. photography by Lloyd Yearwood. Washington, DC: Elliott and Clark. ISBN9781880216194. OCLC33254672.
- Viale, Gene D. (2010). I Remember Gospel: and I Keep On Singing. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. ISBN978-1-4490-7681-8. OCLC610156616.
External links[edit]
- Albertina Walker on IMDb
- Albertina Walker at AllMusic
- Albertina Walker discography at Discogs
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