The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church
by Michael W. Harris
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael W. HarrisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1994-06-23
ISBN: 0195090578
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church
Book Review: I feel the Spirit Movin'
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this book on Thomas Dorsey very interesting, though a little on the academic side; but I feel the casual reader might enjoy it. It is worth the effort. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in any aspect of African American history.
Thomas Dorsey is considered the father of gospel music in America. I did not realize that Mr. Dorsey had two nervous break downs. It is fascinating to me that that many talented people suffer from some sort of mental illness. However, he was tenacious and continued to sell his gospel blues, though at times succumbing to playing the blues to make money.
The main line black churches, in this instance, primarily the Baptist was not having it, though we know the AMEs (African Methodist Episcopal) churches did not support black folk ways either. These so called progressive black churches in Chicago had complete and utter disdain for the southern black worship styles. They were not welcoming to Dorsey at all. They were only interested in proving to the mainstream society that they could be just as dull as them. They played European music and did not tolerate clappin', shoutin', expressive sayins' or nothin', etc. They were desperate to distance themselves from their slave culture and history and blues, shoutin', dancing, clapping, etc. reminded them of their past and they desperately wanted to take on European worship style.
Summary of The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church
Most observers believe that gospel music has been sung in African-American churches since their organization in the late 1800s. Yet nothing could be further from the truth, as Michael W. Harris's history of gospel blues reveals. Tracing the rise of gospel blues as seen through the career of its founding figure, Thomas Andrew Dorsey, Harris tells the story of the most prominent person in the advent of gospel blues.^L Also known as "Georgia Tom," Dorsey had considerable success in the 1920s as a piAlthough gospel music has been a taproot for soul, jazz, and rock-and-roll, it remains a fairly insulated art, with its own venues, audience, and mythology. A good place to start investigating this revelatory music is Michael Harris's The Rise of the Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church. Dorsey (1899-1993), the inventor of modern gospel, began playing the piano in small-town Georgia bordellos at the age of 12. As a young man he wrote more than 2,000 blues songs, including such naughty novelties as "Tight Like That." In the mid-1920s, however, Dorsey began producing a string of sacred-and-profane hybrids, many of which became building blocks of the gospel repertoire. Harris has written a smart, scholarly portrait of a musical giant who continued to perform right through the late 1980s--and who made his feature-film debut at age 84, in the delightful Say Amen, Somebody.
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