#black gospel music

[negrolicity]

Video: Watch Tasha Cobbs Leonard Perform At The Tiny Desk : NPR

[angelishere407]

Watch "Zak Williams & 1/Akord - Jesus I'll Never Forget (Live) ft. Lowell Pye" on YouTube

[sbrown82]

undefined

‘The Simpsons’ ain’t have to come for Black people like this! 🤣

[wakandamama]

My granny refuses to listen to any gospel music recorded after 1985 and she's been stretching our 'jam session' out for 6 hours now. Feel like I'm 9 years old being held hostage at revival again.

[tygerland]

Aretha Franklin (1942-2018)

[black-is-beautiful18]

There’s this white person on TikTok demanding to know what rap album deserves a Pulitzer and I just…y’all’s attitude towards rap and the way yall treat it as an art form is why Black ppl feel some type of way about white ppl every time yall open your mouths to speak on. You’re disrespectful and a good majority of the time yall don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re uneducated and racist. Yes I said racist, cuz calling classical music sophisticated in the same breath is unacceptable. Yall do this with every Black genre. Spirituals, jazz, swing, the blues, country, and rock n roll to name a few were considered “devils music” and “unsophisticated” until white ppl started doing it. Then it was the greatest thing in the freaking world. Once a colonizer always a colonizer I guess.🙄

[tododeku-or-bust]

My feelings about the Black church aside, I adore gospel. The sound, but most importantly, what it represents to me. The way my ancestors really took a religion forced upon them, and found a way to create a music that channels from the soul raw power, joy, and community? To find the divine in their bodies regardless?? Tbh, that's Black American music and culture as a whole, right there! To take such harsh circumstances and create! To create something new, something fr fr better than what was there before, which then makes those who mean to oppress us yearn to replicate us instead!

[tani-b-art]

This had to be one of the most beautiful interactions (scenes) this season. Of the series.

[ifelllikeastar]

Billy Preston

Billy was entirely self-taught and never had a music lesson. By the age of ten, he was playing organ onstage backing several gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson. Sometimes referred to as the 'fifth' Beatle, Billy accompanied the band on electric piano for its rooftop concert, the Beatles final public appearance. He also played keyboards (including piano, organ, clavinet and various synthesizers) for the Rolling Stones. 

William Everett Preston died June 6, 2006 at the age of 59.

[negrolicity]

It Is Well

It's Gospel Heritage Music Month! This thread celebrates it.

[mimi-0007]

[emma-dennehy-presents]

Celebrating Black Queer Icons:

Willmer "Little Axe" Broadnax

Willmer "Little Axe" Broadnax was born December 28, 1916 in Houston, Texas to parents William Broadnax and Gussie Frazier. Broadnax was an American hard gospel quartet singer that gained widespread popularity during the Golden Age of Traditional Black Gospel (1940s/50s). He received the nickname Little Axe from his short stature and as a companion to his brother, William "Big Axe" Broadnax, a popular baritone. By the time of the 1930s census Broadnax was living with his mother, brother, step-father Augustus Flowers, and step-sister Amartha Broadnax*. Broadnax began his career in gospel during his teen years, alongside his brother William. In the 1930s the Broadnax brothers joined the St Paul Gospel Singers in Houston, TX. The Broadnax brothers would later move to Los Angeles and join the Southern Gospel Singers. The group did not tour, and only preformed on weekends. The Broadnax brothers eventually broke off and formed their own quartet, The Golden Echoes. At some point Broadnax's brother, William, left the group and moved to Atlanta, GA where he joined The Five Trumpets. Broadnax stayed on as the lead of this iteration of the Echoes until they disbanded in 1949, after Specialty Records label chief, Art Rupe, decided to drop the group. The Golden Echoes only made a single recording with the label. Pianist Willie Love would go on to say "Little Axe couldn't sing low, because he had a relatively high voice. It wasnt falsetto, it was naturally high. So somebody had to sing the bottom.". Broadnax and the baritone Paul Foster sometimes created the illusion of a multi-octave singer together. In 1950 Broadnax joined The Spirit of Memphis Quartet, recording for King Records, and appearing with them until at least 1952. He would go on to join The Fairfield Four, shortly after, and in the early 1960s served as one of Archie Brownlee's replacements in the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. Broadnax lead another iteration of The Golden Echoes until 1965, releasing singles through Peacock Records. As gospel's popularity waned Broadnax decided to retire from touring. Broadnax continued to perform and record in some capacity, most notably recording with the Blind Boys in the 1970s and 80s. On May 23, 1992, in Philidelphia, PA, Broadnax was killed by his lover, Lavina Richardson. After witnessing Richardson in a vehicle with another man, Broadnax pursued the vehicle, bumping into it several times with his own. At some point both vehicles stopped and Broadnax pulled Richardson from her vehicle and threatened her with a knife. A bystander disarmed Broadnax, after which Richardson picked up the knife and stabbed him three times. Broadnax died several days later, on June 1st, 1992, as a result of the injuries. Richardson was later convicted of manslaughter. After Broadnax's death it was publicly discovered that he had been assigned female at birth, which created a notable stir in the gospel community. Many claimed "they always knew" but there is no evidence to support anyone other than Broadnax's brother and other close family knew.

*This post by @ubleproject (The Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project), which served as a source for me and Broadnax's wiki article, speculates that its possible Amartha is the deadname of the singer we know as Willmer "Little Axe" Broadnax, and that Amartha may have assumed the older brother's name to preform. In which case, Broadnax was born in Louisiana in 1922 to Frazier and Flowers. In the 1930 census Amartha's entry was corrected by hand to list Amartha as a girl. The census taker had initially listed Amartha as a boy, suggesting Amartha may have been presenting as such, at the time. Amartha is also, interestingly listed as Amartha Broadnax, despite being listed as Frazier and Flowers' biological child. There are little to no records of Amartha's later life. I have two more planned, but not sure on the order I will be doing them. The last will probably be out in the beginning of March. After that I will be saving the rest of my list for October, when the US is having LGBT History Month, and the UK is having its Black History Month. I will start including cis icons as well, such as Bayard Rustin. As always corrections and suggestions are welcome and much desired.

[sbrown82]

Mick Jagger is way too comfortable around Black people! 🤣🙌🏿