Thomas A. Dorsey is the acknowledged Father of Black Gospel music and perhaps the most influential figure ever to impact the genre. Thomas Andrew Dorsey was born in Villa Rica, Georgia on July 1, 1899 to Thomas Madison Dorsey, an itinerant minister and sharecropper, and Etta Plant Spencer, a church organist and piano teacher. Religion and music were at the center of the Dorseys' lives, and young Thomas was exposed to a variety of musical styles in his early childhood. Watching his father preach was another lesson for a growing Thomas. As all good preachers of his time, his father had a flair for the dramatic in his preaching, the use of “call and response” where the preacher makes a statement and the congregants respond. The Dorseys sharecropped on a small farm, while the elder Dorsey, a graduate of Atlanta Bible College, traveled to nearby churches to preach. He also taught African American children at a one-room schoolhouse where his son accompanied him and listened to lessons. The respect his father received from the congregants was not lost on Thomas.
The Dorseys moved to Atlanta to find better opportunities when Thomas was eight years old. Thomas’ father had to stop pastoring when he realized that preaching would not support his family. He became a laborer and his mother worked as a domestic servant. At eight he learned to play the organ from his mother, and the shape-note hymns and spirituals of the churches they attended. Their harmonizing in particular made a deep impression on him. They purchased a pump organ for the home, and Thomas later said that it sprang his musical career. As the child of a preacher Thomas attended elementary school where he would learn academics and observe the benefits associated with being the child of a preacher. The adjustment for the entire family was difficult, culminating in Thomas being isolated. He was held back at school, and eventually dropping out after the fourth grade when he was twelve years old.
Dorsey began working in the Eighty-One Theater, that featured blues musicians and live vaudeville acts, selling concessions and doing other odd jobs. There he was exposed to the music of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, and he was captivated by the blues. He he learned the syncopations of blues and jazz when he visited the night clubs, where musicians, including Ed Butler, James Henningway, and Eddie Heywood, taught him their techniques for playing the piano. In the gritty rooms of performance halls, Thomas received some of his most valued lessons. Despite being meagerly compensated, he played rent parties, house parties, barrelhouses, and brothels, but enjoyed the social life of a musician. By age twelve he was known around Atlanta under the name Barrel House Tom. Due to the spontaneous nature of the events Dorsey worked, he became proficient at improvising, and along the way, learned to read musical notation.
In 1916 Dorsey moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois, where he studied music formally at the Chicago School of Composition and Arranging. He began working as an agent for Paramount Records, writing songs for a Chicago publishing house, and playing in clubs under the name Georgia Tom. While Dorsey made a name for himself as a jazz and blues performer, sacred music was still important to him. His childhood Christian teachings conflicted with his striving in secular world where he made a living for himself playing at rent parties and composing blues songs. Dorsey was in Chicago in 1920 at the time when blues music was peaking. Dorsey’s skills were in high demand at night. During the day he worked other jobs and continued to use any spare time he had to study music. Working around the clock, Dorsey had been swallowed up by the blues, both literally and figuratively and wanted to do more with it.
Encountering more competition for jobs and with his concentration primarily on blues, Dorsey turned to composing, copyrighting his first song in 1920, titled "If You Don't Believe I'm Leaving, You Can Count the Days I'm Gone". In doing so, he became one of the first musicians to copyright blues music. Meanwhile, his compositions were attracting the attention of other performers, including Joe “King” Oliver, whose Creole Jazz Band recorded Dorsey’s “Riverside Blues". These successes caught the attention of Rainey, who chose Dorsey to organize and lead her Wild Cats Jazz Band. His mother often advised him to stop playing secular music and “serve the Lord". He ignored her pleas and at 21 years old, he toured with Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and his own bands, often featuring the slide guitarist Tampa Red. Dorsey worked with Rainey and her band for two years, wherein he composed and arranged her music in the blues style he was accustomed to.
Rainey enjoyed enormous popularity touring with a hectic schedule. Rainey interacted with her audiences, who were often so enthralled they stood up and shouted back at her while she sang. His talents also led him to a position as arranger for the Chicago Music Publishing, Inc and Vocalion Records. God had been calling Dorsey to the world of sacred music, and much like Jonah, Dorsey would resist the call. Dorsey seemed ambivalent about writing church music until 1921 when he was inspired by W. M. Nix's rendition of "I Do, Don't You?", after hearing him perform at the National Baptist Convention. Dorsey found appeal in the freedom and potential that came with improvising within established hymns, allowing singers and musicians to infuse more emotion – particularly joy and elation – into their performances to move congregations. Upon hearing Nix sing, Dorsey was overcome, later recalling that his "heart was inspired to become a great singer and worker in the Kingdom of the Lord – and impress people just as this great singer did that Sunday morning".
His first attempt at writing a gospel song, 1921’s "If I Don’t Get There", had met with some success, and he now returned to song writing with a renewed sense of purpose, renouncing secular music to devote all his talents to the church circuit. In 1922 he became the director of music for the New Hope Baptist Church in Chicago, where he began to incorporate his blues-playing techniques with sacred music in earnest. Financial issues forced Dorsey to continue playing in clubs. In 1923 Dorsey became the pianist for Will Walker’s Whispering Syncopators, where he worked alongside Lionel Hampton and met W. C. Handy. In 1925, he married Nettie Harper, hired by Rainey as a wardrobe mistress despite her inexperience, so she could join Dorsey on tour.
Beginning in 1926 Dorsey was plagued by a two-year period of deep depression, even contemplating suicide. He had reached a point in his life when he could not produce the lyrics or the music he so easily created in the past. In fact, he could do nothing at all. He could not practice, compose or perform. The doctors called it a nervous breakdown. Dorsey called it a “God interruption.” His mother traveled to Chicago to nurse him back to health. His mother advised him to select the divine music over the devil’s. The conflict between Dorsey’s secular and spiritual strivings would not rest, causing him so much anguish and despair that he could no longer perform his duties in either realm. During this second “God interruption,” he was in so much despair that he considered suicide. As a remedy, his sister-in-law invited him to her church and the pastor there told him, “Dorsey, the Lord has too much work for you to do to let you die".
Then the pastor pulled a serpent from Dorsey’s throat. This supernatural experience coupled with the death of a neighbor inspired Dorsey to write his first gospel blues song entitled “If You See My Savior, Tell Him That You Saw Me.” He was on his way to recovery. As the blues grew in popularity in the 1920s, African American churches condemned it widely for being associated with sin and hedonism. Personal expressions such as clapping, stomping, and improvising with lyrics, rhythm, and melody were actively discouraged as being unrefined and degrading to the music and the singer. Dorsey tried to market his new sacred music by printing thousands of copies of his songs to sell directly to churches and publishers, even going door to door, but he was ultimately unsuccessful.
From 1928-1931, Dorsey tried to sell his gospel music to local churches only to discover they would not embrace the sacred music he infused with blues and jazz syncopations. Music performed in established Black churches in throughout the U.S. came from hymnals and was performed as written, usually as a way to showcase the musical abilities of the choirs rather than as a vehicle to deliver a specific spiritual message. The African American church which had successfully incorporated European sacred classics into its Sunday morning worship service refused to consider incorporating Dorsey’s music into its services. His music did not reflect the class and culture preachers were trying to promote in their conservative churches. Reluctantly, he returned to what he knew best –composing secular music. In 1928 Dorsey had his biggest blues hit, with Wild Cats Jazz Band guitarist Tampa Red Whittaker. It was called “It’s Tight Like That,” and the two would record several times together as the Famous Hokum Boys, coining the term "Hokum" to describe their guitar/piano combination with simple, racy lyrics.
Though initially, he attempted to live in both worlds, in 1930, he finally heeded his mother’s advice and immersed himself in the gospel tradition. In 1930 when, unknown to him, Willie Mae Ford Smith sang "If You See My Savior" during a morning meeting at the National Baptist Convention. The response was so enthusiastic that Dorsey sold 4,000 print copies of his song. In between recording sessions with Tampa Red, he formed a choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church at the request of the pastor, Reverend James Smith. Dorsey and Ebenezer's music director Theodore Frye trained the new chorus to deliver his songs with a gospel blues sound. At their debut, Frye strutted up and down the aisles and sang back and forth with the chorus, and at one point Dorsey jumped up from the piano stool in excitement and stood as he played. When the pastor at Pilgrim Baptist, Chicago's second largest Black church, saw the way it moved the congregation, he hired Dorsey as music director, allowing him to dedicate all his time to gospel music and encouraging personal elements of participation.
In 1932 Dorsey organized a performance of the three church choirs with which he was involved, and that led to the development of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses (with Smith). Dorsey was elected president of the organization. By organizing the first National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, he nationalized the gospel music tradition, gave legitimacy to gospel music, and trained singers. While in St. Louis, working on a revival, Dorsey received some tragic news. His beloved Nettie Harper, died in childbirth, and his son died the next day. In the wake of this loss, coupled with several nervous breakdowns, Dorsey renounced the blues and turned his attention to religious music full time. Thomas turned to the one source of comfort that he knew – the piano. A friend arranged for Dorsey to be left alone in a room with a piano, and while he was playing around on the keys, a mystical experience occurred.
As his hands hovered over the keys, a strange sensation took over him, and he began to play a melody and the accompanying words followed. From this experience, he composed, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” his most famous gospel classic sung in churches all across America. Even though he felt wronged by God, and did not want to write gospel songs any longer, Dorsey always maintained that this song came from God himself. The song is linked to the blues in the same way that the spirituals were linked to the slaves. Tragic doesn’t even begin to describe the situation. You feel the heartache in the simple refrain, “I am tired, I am weak, I am worn”. It’s a cry for help and comfort beyond what the world can offer. The first recording of the song was made by Emory Johnson in 1938. It became the anthem of Fannie Lou Hamer's 1964 Mississippi Summer. Dorsey´s friend, Mahalia Jackson, sang it at Martin Luther King, Jr´s funeral.
Now at the center of gospel music activity in Chicago, Dorsey countered his bereavement by immersing himself in marketing his songs. An unintended consequence of his sales strategy helped spread gospel blues, as he worked with numerous musicians who assisted in selling his sheet music traveling to churches in and around Chicago. Frye and Sallie Martin were two of the first and most effective singers Dorsey took with him to market his work. After growing dissatisfied with the way the music publishing industry treated Black composers (mainstream (White-owned) publishers ignored or poorly distributed Black gospel music) Dorsey and Martin founded the first independent publishing house for Black gospel music, the Dorsey House of Music. It was the first African American-owned gospel publishing house in the United States, a major turning point in gospel music history. This helped gospel spread faster than traditional publishing methods. It took gospel out of obscurity and into a national marketplace and established the business model for gospel music distribution.
In addition to all of Dorsey's activities, he also mentored many young musicians, including training a teenage Mahalia Jackson when she first arrived in Chicago. in 1929. Together they ushered in what became known as the “Golden Age of Gospel Music”. She had the perfect blend of Blues presence and spirituality to sing his new more emotive gospels. He also tutored singers, Roberta Walker and Clara Ward. Dorsey’s work with these singers transformed gospel music into a popular musical genre, with many of the solo gospel singers performing in clubs beside Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald as well as in churches. He toured with these artists, playing piano and selling the sheet music for the songs they sang, a Dorsey innovation. Before Dorsey, gospel-music composers published their songs in songbooks or song collections by a variety of composers, such as Gospel Pearls. Dorsey published his songs individually as sheet music.
In addition to the high spirited choir performances, Dorsey began introducing up tempo Negro spirituals, what he referred to as "jubilees", alongside published hymns in worship services. As a result, his sales pitches and chorus performances were not always well received. Others took offense to such lively music overshadowing the minister's spoken word, or women delivering spiritual messages through song, taking the place of the preacher who was typically male. Despite the objections, within months gospel blues had proven to be established in Chicago's Black churches. Black gospel choirs were now being asked to perform at several White churches in Chicago. And Dorsey's own Pilgrim Baptist Church choir performed at the 1933 World's Fair, being held in Chicago.
Dorsey did not seek publicity, preferring to remain at his position as music director at the 3,000-seat Pilgrim Baptist Church and running his publishing company. As the head of the NCGCC, he traveled the "gospel highway": a circuit of churches and similar venues throughout the U.S. where he trained singers and choirs. Between 1932 and 1944, he held "Evenings with Dorsey" on this circuit, teaching novices the best ways to deliver his songs. In 1939 Dorsey wrote “Peace in the Valley” for his protégé Mahalia Jackson. It is a song of hope and longing, akin to many spirituals and other gospel songs with the same theme. Unlike other songs in this tradition, which speak of heaven as a place of rest from the toils and labors of life, “Peace in the Valley” focuses on the glory of heaven. Dorsey describes “the valley” as a place free from sorrow, sadness, and trouble, where the flowers are always in bloom and the sun always shines.
He also toured extensively with Mahalia Jackson in the 1940s, who was by this time the preeminent gospel singer in the world. Never considering himself a strong singer, Dorsey recorded gospel music sporadically up to 1934, and two songs in 1953 were his last, but continued working with choruses and leading workshops. Thereafter, though he continued writing, he concentrated on lecturing and administrative duties. Thomas Dorsey married Katherine Moseley in February, 1941. They had two children. Even with a family he remained active in music, attending multiple engagements each year. The only thing he cared about was saving souls through his music. To accomplish this, Dorsey traveled beyond the U.S., through Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East.
Dorsey began to slow down in the 1970s. He retired from Pilgrim Baptist Church and the NCGCC soon after, though he continued to participate and perform when he was able. In 1979 he was elected to the Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame, becoming the first African American to receive that honor. Two years later he was enshrined in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. The next year he elected to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey made his transition at the age of 93 in Chicago, Illinois on January 23, 1993. You can’t talk about gospel music without talking about Thomas Dorsey. His influence is woven into every song, every hymn, and every moment of worship in the genre. Throughout his career, Dorsey composed more than 1,000 gospel and 2,000 blues songs. A talent developer and organizer (through conventions, choirs, publishing), Dorsey was a bridge figure between blues and gospel.
He transformed the gospel blues of the street evangelists into the music of the church, writing and arranging songs for a choral setting and for solo singers. Aside from his prodigious songwriting, Dorsey's influence in the gospel blues movement brought about change both for individuals in the African American community. He introduced rituals and standards among gospel choirs that are still in use. Due to Dorsey's influence, the definition of gospel music shifted away from sacred song compositions to religious music that causes a physical release of pain and suffering, particularly in Black churches. He infused joy and optimism in his written music as he directed his choirs to do perform with uplifting fervor as they sang. His work laid the foundation for modern gospel music, influencing countless artists and bringing the church’s message into the homes of people across the world. Thomas A. Dorsey was a pioneer who helped shape the very sound of gospel music as we know it today, blending the rhythms of blues with the life-changing message of Christ’s love.