#ADOS: Legendary Gospel Quartets and Soloist

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Spencer Taylor and James Davis of The Highway QC's:

The Highway Q.C.'s are an American gospel group active for over seventy years. The vocals are in the tradition of the jubilee quartets, though the group has also added instrumental accompaniment. The group launched the careers of several secular stars, including Lou Rawls, Johnnie Taylor, and Sam Cooke.

 

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Five Blind Boys of Alabama: The Sermon is one of the most "R&B" feeling Gospel Albums ever:

 

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We lost Joe Ligon a few years ago -- and Clarence Fountain last year - the lead of Blind Boys of Alabama.

Mr. Fountain was born on Nov. 28, 1929, in Tyler, Ala., to Will and Ida Fountain and grew up in Selma. His father was a sharecropper. Clarence lost his vision when he was 2 after a caregiver tried to cure an eye infection with a lye-based solution. He was sent to the Alabama School for the Negro Blind in Talladega (now part of the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind) when he was 8.

He joined a boys choir there before forming the Happy Land Jubilee Singers. By the late 1940s the group was touring full time, and in 1948 they changed their name to the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. They have used variations on that name ever since, including Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Clarence Fountain, 88, Dies; Led the Blind Boys of Alabama​

 

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Yes sir!

 

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[Stone Cold]

 

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Reverend Gary Davis:

 

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The Pilgrim Travelers:

 

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These song is basically a yelling/screaming match between Jimmy and Joe.

I got a whooping for laughing and trying to impersonate them when I was little. They screaming all the way through - and the man in the background can't stop.



I feel like James Brown would lose in a screaming match with Jimmy Jones and Joe.

 

[T'krm]

But but but no culture

Our culture..what we've been able to build coming from where we come from is extraordinary, and can't no one forget it!!

You dun did it OP. I'm going to load this thread; should become a classic. Daps/reps for all when possible....

All-time classic group here...
:

 

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Our culture..what we've been able to build coming from where we come from is extraordinary, and can't no one forget it!!

You dun did it OP. I'm going to load this thread; should become a classic. Daps/reps for all when possible....

All-time classic group here...
:

Yes! Please feel free!

I changed the title to add women.

And I gotta kick it off with my girls:

 

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Clara Ward Singers:

Clara Ward was long-time partners with Aretha's Father C.L. Franklin. Apparently, well rumors claim she was bi-sexual.

Ward's mother, Gertrude Mae Ward (nee Murphy;[1] 1901–1981), founded the Ward Singers in 1931 as a family group, then called, variously, The Consecrated Gospel Singers or The Ward Trio, consisting of herself, her youngest daughter Clara, and her elder daughter, Willarene Mae ("Willa"). Ward recorded her first solo song in 1940, and continued accompanying the Ward Gospel Trio, thereafter.

Her only real happiness seems to have come from her longtime romance with Rev. C. L. Franklin (with whom the Ward groups extensively toured), the famous Detroit-based preacher and father of legendary Aretha Franklin. Clara spent much time in the Franklin home and, along with Mahalia Jackson (another close Franklin family friend), mentored Aretha. Clara's depression resulted in alcoholism.​

 

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The GOAT: Mrs. Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson (/məˈheɪliə/ mə-HAY-lee-ə; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice,[2] she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel".[1][3][4] She became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist.[5] She was described by entertainer Harry Belafonte as "the single most powerful black woman in the United States".[5] She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen "golds"—million-sellers.

"I sing God's music because it makes me feel free", Jackson once said about her choice of gospel, adding, "It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues."[6]​