James Cleveland (December 5, 1932 - 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. December 5 is the 339th day (340th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gospel music may refer either to the religious music that first came out of African-American churches in the 1930s or, more loosely, to both black gospel music and to the religious music composed and sung by white southern Christian artists. ... Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ... Pop music, in popular and contemporary parlance, is a subgenre of popular music. ...

Born in Chicago, he began singing as a boy soprano at Pilgrim Baptist Church, where Thomas A. Dorsey was minister of music and Roberta Martin was pianist for the choir. He strained his vocal cords as a teenager while part of a local gospel group, leaving the distinctive gravelly voice that was his hallmark in his later years. The change in his voice led him to focus on his skills as a pianist and later as a composer and arranger. ... Thomas Andrew Dorsey (July 1, 1899 - January 23, 1993) is known as the Father of Gospel Music, and is best known today for his composition Take My Hand, Precious Lord. As formulated by Dorsey, gospel music combines Christian praise with the rhythms of jazz and the blues. ... Roberta Martin (February 12, 1907-January 18, 1969) was an influential gospel artist who helped launch the careers of many other gospel artists through her group The Roberta Martin Singers. ...

In 1950, Cleveland joined the Gospelaires, a trio led by Norsalus McKissick and Bessie Folk, who were associated with Martin. Martin hired him as a composer and arranger after the group disbanded. His arrangements of songs such as "(Give Me That) Old Time Religion" and "It's Me O Lord" transformed them, giving a rocking lilt and insistent drive to old standards. 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Cleveland subsequently went to work for Albertina Walker & the Caravans as a composer, arranger, pianist and occasional singer/narrator. Albertina Walker provided James the opportunity to do his very first recording after convincing her record company (by staying out of the studio for a while) to allow her to record James. He quit and returned to the Caravans a number of times to join other groups, such as the Gospel All-Stars and the Gospel Chimes, where he mixed pop ballad influences with traditional shouting. In 1959 he recorded a version of Ray Charles' hit "Hallelujah I Love Her So" as a solo artist. The Caravans was a female gospel group popular during the 1950s and 1960s that launched the careers of a number of artists, including: Queen of Gospel Albertina Walker, Bessie Griffin, Cassietta George, The Great Narrator Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews and First Lady of Gospel Shirley Caesar. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ray Charles at the piano. ...

He became known by more than just the professionals within gospel music with his version of the Soul Stirrers' song, "The Love of God", backed by the Voices of Tabernacle from Detroit. Cleveland attained even greater popularity working with keyboardist Billy Preston and the Angelic Choir of Nutley, New Jersey; his recording of "Peace Be Still", an obscure 18th century madrigal, sold hundreds of thousands of copies thanks to Cleveland's comforting growl and emotional command. One of the most popular and influential gospel groups of the 20th century, The Soul Stirrers were pioneers in the development of the quartet style of gospel and, without intending it, in the creation of soul music, the secular music that owed much to gospel. ... Soul musician Billy Preston was born on September 9, 1946 in Houston, Texas and raised mostly in Los Angeles, California. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Madrigal may refer to: Madrigal, Spain Trecento-Madrigal, a musical form of the 13th and 14th centuries Madrigal (music), an unrelated musical form of the 16th and 17th centuries Madrigal (literature) Madrigal may also be: A city in the computer game Myth The fictional character Anna Madrigal from Armistead Maupin...

Cleveland capitalized on his success by founding his own choir, the Southern California Community Choir, as well as a church that went from a handful of congregants to thousands of members during his life. His influence stretched even further: like Dorsey before him, he taught others how to achieve the modern gospel sound through his annual Gospel Singers Workshop Convention, put on by the Gospel Workshop of America, an organization that Cleveland founded along with "Queen of Gospel" Albertina Walker, and which has over 30,000 members in 150 chapters. The GMWA has produced, among others, Kirk Franklin and John P. Kee. Kirk Franklin (born on January 26, 1970 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a platinum-selling African-American musician who blended gospel, hip hop, and R&B in the 1990s. ...

Other artists began to outshine Cleveland in the 1980s, but the style he pioneered--large disciplined organizations who used complex arrangements and unusual time signatures to turn their massive vocal power to achieve the propulsive rhythms, intricate harmonies and individual virtuosity of the greatest groups of gospel's Golden Age--was still the wellspring for the mass choirs of that era. He died in 1991. The 1980s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1980 and 1989, however in a pop cultural sense The Eighties sometimes includes at least some aspects of 1979 and 1990, or more or less the era between the end of the Disco era of the 1970s and...

Further Readings

James Cleveland died of AIDS related complications in 1991

• Tony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times Limelight Editions, 1997, ISBN 0879100346.

• Horace Clarence Boyer, How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel Elliott and Clark, 1995, ISBN 0252068777.