Gospel divas: traditional and contemporary singers receive unprecedented recognition

Ebony, April, 1994

A number of extraordinary women in the gospel music industry, including Kennedy Center honoree Marion Williams, have received unprecedented and long overdue national recognition.

The public acclaim Williams recently received at the White House and the Kennedy Center was slow to come for her and other traditional gospel divas like Albertina Walker and Shirley Caesar, who have continued the course set by America's first grand dame of gospel music Mahalia Jackson.

Also following paths blazed by Jackson and others are contemporary and unconventional gospel divas like CeCe Winans and Tramaine Hawkins, who enjoy cross-cultural popularity never experienced by the pioneers. But traditional or contemporary, the current crop of gospel divas all say they have the same purpose -- to trumpet the gospel on the wings of song.

Marion Williams down-home, traditional style of singing echoes her humble beginnings in Miami. Mother to son Robin, and "Grammy" to Robin Jr., Ryan and Dominique, she now makes her home in Philadelphia.

Over her lifetime -- singing first as a child in her hometown, then with the Ward Singers and as a Stars of Faith founding member -- she has steadfastly refused to "flow with the times" and modify her traditional singing style.

Even at the age of 66, she demonstrates so well on her latest solo album, Can't Keep It To Myself, her spirited voice still gracefully skips down melodic mountains one soulful note at a time. And despite ill health that requires her to undergo kidney dialysis three times a week, she continues to sing for audiences around the world.

Williams has been credited with inspiring a whole generation of "secular" musical greats, from Aretha Franklin to Little Richard. But as a woman "practically born in church," she says, "I ain't no rock'n roller, I'm a holy roller."

Last year, in the sunset of a spectacular career, Williams became the first gospel singer ever honored by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for her special contribution to the country's performing arts. And last June, she became the first singer to receive the MacArthur Foundation's "genius" award and its accompanying $374,000 cash grant.

Another veteran singer, Albertina Walker still lives in her hometown -- Chicago -- with her husband, Reco Brooks, and their poodle and "only child," Pierre. She was recently honored in her late parents' hometown of Macon, Ga,, a recognition, she says, that would have made them very proud.

In the early 1950s, at the age of 19, Walker organized one of the field's first female quartets, the Caravans. With, among others, Cassietta George, Inez Andrews and Shirley Caesar -- all youngsters who went on to become gospel giants in their own right -- she traveled the Black church circuit for a decade or so.

The harmonic vocals heard on Walker's latest album, He Keeps On Blessing Me, are flavored with the quartet-like mucical arrangements, made famous by the Caravans, arrangements that have permanently placed Walker among Black America's gospel elite.

Singing, Walker says, inspires her to keep going when the going gets tough, "Whatever's wrong, I can sing a gospel song and it just makes things so much better for me . . . It might not make it completely all right, but it makes it better."

Walker says that over the years she's witnessed first-hand the manipulation of gospel music by record company executives. "One while, they were calling it rock gospel, then it as inspirational gospel, and then pop gospel. Now, it's contemporary gospel."

She advises up-and-coming gospel artists not to allow the pressure to succeed to take them too far from their traditional roots. "The record companies want you to do the kind of music they feel they can make money off of, and if you want to make a living as a singer, you have to go along with the music part of it. But you have to still do what God gave you to do and that's sing like he gave it to you, not the way they want you to sing."

Shirley Caesar's been singing the way God gave it to her all her life. She also pastors the Mt. Calvary Holy Church in Raleigh, N.C., where she lives with her husband, Bishop Harold I. Williams. A former member of the Raleigh City Council, the gospel pioneer doesn't have offspring of her own but the children at her church call her "Mama Shirley."

Caesar readily acknowledges the powerful impact Albertina Walker and the Caravans had on her life and her young carrer. After eight years with the group, she left to form her own ensemble, Shirley Caesar and the Caesar Singers.

"I'm a traditionalist, not only in my singing. I'm a traditionalist, period," she says.

The Caesar Singers often ride all night so she can be in the pulpit on Sunday morning. "A lot of visitors come to our church just because of Shirley Caesar, the singer, but I also want them to come to know Shirley Caesar, the preacher and pastor."

Pastor Caesar's soul-stirring singing style is well known for its tell-it-like-it-is messages. Several of her songs feature mini-sermons -- places where the accompanying wind instruments stop blowing, the drums stop thumping and she simply talks.