- Kirk Franklin
Kirk Franklin (born January 26, 1970 in Riverside, Texas) is a Grammy Award winning, platinum-selling African American musician who blends gospel, hip hop, and R&B. He released his first gospel album, "Kirk Franklin & Family", in 1993, and is known as the leader of contemporary gospel choirs such as Kirk Franklin & the Family, Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation, God's Property and Kirk Franklin Presents 1NC. - Fred Hammond
Fred Hammond is a gospel music singer, bass guitar player, and record producer. The Dove and Stellar award winner has been active both as a member of the gospel performing group Commissioned, and as a solo artist (currently for Verity Records). He is a multiple time Grammy, Dove, and Stellar award winner and nominee as a performer and a producer. - Andrae Crouch
Andraé Edward Crouch, gospel musician, recording artist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He is cousin to music critic Stanley Crouch. - Donnie McClurkin
Donnie McClurkin is a Grammy Award winning American gospel singer and minister. - James Cleveland
James Cleveland (December 5, 1931 - February 9, 1991) was a gospel singer, arranger, composer and, most significantly, the driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound, bringing the stylistic daring of hard gospel and jazz and pop music influences to arrangements for mass choirs. - Edwin Hawkins
Edwin Hawkins (born August 18, 1943 in Oakland, California) is a Grammy Award-winning American gospel and R&B musician, pianist, choir leader, composer and arranger. He is one of the originators of the urban contemporary gospel sound. He (and the Edwin Hawkins Singers) are best known for his arrangement of "Oh Happy Day" (1968-69), which was included on the Songs of the Century list. - Donald Lawrence
Donald Lawrence is an American gospel music songwriter, record producer and artist. - Thomas A. Dorsey
Thomas Andrew Dorsey (July 1, 1899, Villa Rica, Georgia - January 23, 1993, Chicago), is known as "The Father of Gospel Music". Earlier in his life he was a leading blues pianist known as Georgia Tom. As formulated by Dorsey, gospel music combines Christian praise with the rhythms of jazz and the blues. Dorsey was the music director at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago from 1932 until the late 1970s. - Bill Gaither
William J. Gaither (born March 28 1936) is an American singer and songwriter of southern gospel and Contemporary Christian music. He has written numerous popular Christian songs with his wife, Gloria. Besides performing solo and with his wife, Gaither has appeared as part of the Bill Gaither Trio, the Gaither Vocal Band, and as a part of his "Homecoming" groups. - Danniebelle Hall
Danniebelle Hall (October 6, 1938 - December 28, 2000), gospel musician, recording artist, songwriter. - Deitrick Haddon
Detroit native gospel singer/songwriter/producer Detrick Haddon rose to prominence as the leader of Detrick Haddon & Voices Of Unity. The group released the albums "Live The Life" (1997), "This Is My Story" (1998), "Chainbreaker" (1999), and "Nu Hymnz" (2001) on the independent label Tyscot Records before recapping them with "Just The Hits" (2005). - Mattie Moss Clark
Mattie Juliet Moss Clark was an American gospel choir director and the mother of The Clark Sisters, a world-renowned gospel vocal group. Clark is credited for creating the three-part harmony (separating vocal parts into soprano, alto and tenor), a technique which is prevalent among gospel choirs today. - Ann Nesby
Ann Bennett Nesby is an American R&B, gospel, and dance music singer from Joliet, Illinois who started out as the lead vocalist for Sounds Of Blackness. She had several big dance hits as part of that group in the nineties and then pursued a solo career, earning four consecutive Top 5 hits on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart: "Hold On" (#5, 1997), "Love Is What We Need" (#2, 2000), "Lovin' Is Really My Game" (#1, 2000) and "Let Your Will Be Done" (#3, 2002). - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
"Sister" Rosetta Tharpe 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 accompaniment. She became the first great recording star of Gospel music, first surfacing on the pop charts with her 1938 original composition "This Train". - Jake Hess
Bold textJake Hess (December 24, 1927 - January 4, 2004) was a Grammy Award-winning gospel singer in the southern United States. He was born Manchild Hess December 24, 1927, in Limestone County, Alabama. (Later, when he registered with the draft board in Lincoln, Nebraska, he gave his name as "William Jesse Hess." In 1997, when Hess was preparing to get a passport to travel overseas, he discovered that his birth certificate actually read MANCHILD HESS. - Gloria Gaither
Gloria Gaither (b. March 4, 1942) is a songwriter for gospel music, along with her husband, Bill Gaither. She also sang in the Bill Gaither Trio, one of the most influential groups in recent Christian music. - Anthony Burger
Anthony John Burger was an American musician and singer, most closely associated with Southern Gospel music. He was born in Cleveland, Tennessee to Richard and Jean Burger. After suffering third degree burns on his hands at eight months of age, Burger’s doctor told his parents he wouldn’t likely be able to move his hands in the future. Despite the odds, Burger was healed. At the age of five, he was accepted at the Cadek Conservatory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. - Michael English
Michael English (born on April 12, 1962 in Kenansville, North Carolina) is a Christian singer who has been recording music since 1972. He hosts a program on TBN. - Blind Willie Johnson
"Blind" Willie Johnson (1897-1945) was an African-American singer and guitarist whose music straddled the border between blues and spirituals. While the lyrics of all of his songs were religious, his music drew from both sacred and blues traditions. Among musicians, he is considered one of the greatest slide or bottleneck guitarists, as well as one of the most revered figures of depression-era gospel music. - Shirley Caesar
Shirley Caesar (b. October 13, 1938) is an twelve time African-American Grammy winning gospel singer and Christian pastor. Caesar was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. She faced many obstacles in her youth, including racism, segregation, the death of her father when she was only eight years old, and the responsibility of caring for a semi-invalid mother. Caesar began singing as a young girl in church. Although she was struggling in school, she remained determined, … - Martha Munizzi
Martha Munizzi (mew-NIZ-ee) is an internationally acclaimed Gospel singer, songwriter, and musician. Along with figures like Ron Kenoly, Clint Brown and Israel Houghton, Munizzi is pioneering cross-cultural worship music that connects with both black and white Christian congregations. - Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke (January 22, 1931 - December 11, 1964) was a popular and influential American gospel, R&B, soul, pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. Indeed, musicians and critics today recognize him as one of the founders of soul music, and as one of the most important singers in soul music history (Greene, 2006). He has been called "the king of soul" by many, and while some may dispute this title, … - Dennis Murphy
Dennis Murphy (born October 24, 1967 in Oceana, West Virginia) is the drummer for the Kingdom Heirs. He has been a member of the group with 1990. Before he joined the Kingdom Heirs he toured with The Greenes. The Kingdom Heirs band has won multiple Singing News Fan Awards as band of the year with Murphy as a member. In addition, Murphy has received several nominations as musician of the year. Occasionally Murphy sings at Kingdom Heirs concerts. - Albertina Walker
Albertina Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois. By the age of four she had begun singing in the Children's Choir of West Point Baptist Church. By the age of 14, Albertina Walker was a member of the Williams Singers and also toured with the Willie Webb and Robert Anderson Singers. By the age of 22 she formed her own group, the Caravans, which helped launch the careers of Evangelist Dorothy Norwood , ... more - Larnelle Harris
Larnelle Harris is a Gospel singer, songwiter and recording artist. During his 30-plus years of ministry, Harris has recorded 18 albums, won five Grammy Awards and 18 Dove Awards, and has had several recordings rise to #1 on Inspirational Music charts. A native of Danville, Kentucky, Harris started playing the piano by age 9. His first formal vocal training came when he attended college at Western Kentucky University, from which he graduated in 1969. - Alex Bradford
Professor Alex Bradford (1927-1978) was a multi-talented gospel composer, singer, arranger and choir director who was a great influence on artists such as Little Richard and Ray Charles and who helped bring about the modern mass choir movement in gospel. Born in Bessemer, Alabama, he first appeared on stage at age four, then joined a children's gospel group at thirteen, soon obtaining his own radio show. - Albert E. Brumley
Albert Edward Brumley was a shape note gospel music composer and publisher. Brumley was born near Spiro, Oklahoma on October 29, 1905. Pre-Dustbowl Oklahoma was primarily made up of sparse agricultural communities; Brumly's family was no different. He spent much of his early life chopping and picking cotton on his family's farm. In 1926, he enrolled in the Hartford Musical Institute of Hartford, Arkansas, and studied there through 1931. - Dorothy Love Coates
Dorothy Love Coates (January 30, 1928 - April 9, 2002) was an influential American gospel singer who rose to stardom in the 1950s as a member of The Original Gospel Harmonettes. With her "raggedy" voice and preacher's fire she could outsing the most powerful hard gospel male singers of the era. She was also a notable composer, writing songs such as "You Can't Hurry God (He's Right On Time)", "99 and a Half Won't Do" and "That's Enough". - Sandra Crouch
Sandra Crouch is a gospel performer, drummer and songwriter. She won a Grammy Award in 1984 for "Best Soul Gospel Performance, Female". Born July 1, 1942 in San Francisco with twin, Andrae, she is a pastor, along with her brother, at the Christ Memorial Church in San Fernando, California. - Arizona Dranes
Arizona Dranes (1891?-1963?) was one of the first gospel artists to bring the musical styles of Holiness churches' religious music to the public in her records for Okeh and performances in the 1920s. She introduced piano accompaniment to Holiness music, which had previously been largely a cappella, and accompanied herself in the barrelhouse and ragtime styles popular at the time. She is believed to be of both African-American and Mexican descent. - Sallie Martin
Sallie Martin (1895-1988) was a gospel singer nicknamed "the mother of gospel music" for her efforts to popularize the songs of Thomas A. Dorsey and her influence on other artists. Raised as a Baptist in Pittfield, Georgia, she joined the Pentecostal movement as a young woman. She began her career singing in Holiness churches after coming to Chicago in 1927. Martin's rough-hewn singing style, combined with the enthusiastic physicality of the Holiness church, … - Statesmen Quartet
- Willie Mae Ford Smith
Willie Mae Ford (1904 - 1994), also known as Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith, was a gospel singer based in St. Louis, Missouri who was one of the early associates of Thomas A. Dorsey and an innovator in gospel style, introducing the "song and sermonette" style that other singers, such as Shirley Caesar and Edna Gallmon Cooke made popular. Born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee as a child. - Roberta Martin
Roberta Martin (February 12, 1907-January 18, 1969) was an influential gospel singer and composer who helped launch the careers of many other gospel artists through her group The Roberta Martin Singers. Hardly known outside the African-American community, her funeral in Chicago in 1969 attracted over 50,000 mourners. Born in Helena, Arkansas, Martin moved to Chicago with her family in 1917, where she studied piano. - Debra Killings
Debra Killings is an American singer and bass guitarist; notable for extensive session and background vocal work for LaFace Records-based artists such as TLC and OutKast. Killings appears on the majority of the recordings in TLC's catalogue singing background vocals, and has performed both background vocals and bass guitar for several OutKast albums, including "ATLiens" and "Aquemini". - Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz stride pianist, composer, and arranger. She was born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a very young child she taught herself to play the piano (her first public performance was at the age of six). She became a professional musician in her teens. In 1930, she joined Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy, of which her first husband, … - J. G. Whitfield
Jesse Gillis Whitfield (1915-2006), also known as J.G. or Whit, is a gospel musician, music promoter, and member of the Southern Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame. He served in the Air Force and then formed the Gospel Melody Quartet in 1947. Glen Allred joined him in 1952, with Les Beasley coming on board the following year. In 1954, the group name was changed to the Florida Boys. - Claude Ely
Claude Ely (22 July 1922-1977) was a gospel musician and Holiness preacher. - Warryn Campbell
Warryn Campbell (nicknamed "Smiley" or "Baby Dubb") is a successful African-American record producer, specializing in gospel music and R&B. His past and current work includes production and songwriting credits for Xzibit, Yolanda Adams, Kierra Sheard, Brandy, Dave Hollister, Men Of Standard, Mario, Shanice, Dru Hill, Coko, and more. He is most noted for his work with contemporary gospel duo Mary Mary, and is married to one of the group's singers, the former Erica Atkins. - James Carr
James Carr (June 13, 1942 - January 7th, 2001) Born to a Baptist preacher's family in Coahoma, Mississippi, Carr began singing in church and was performing in gospel groups and making tables on an assembly line in Memphis, Tennessee when he began recording in the mid-'60s for Goldwax Records, a small Memphis based label. Carr first made the R&B charts in 1966 with "You've Got My Mind Messed Up", followed by his most famous song "The Dark End of the Street", …
|
| |