Thomas A. Dorsey

Thomas Andrew Dorsey , also Georgia Tom , (* 1. July 1899 in Villa Rica , Georgia ; † 23. January 1993 in Chicago ) was Blues - and Gospel - singer and - pianist .

Dorsey was the son of a Baptist preacher and a piano teacher and nephew of the church organist. But he was also exposed to other musical impressions from the neighborhood: circus music, blues, vaudeville , hillbilly ballads, and the revival hymns by Billy Sunday's cantor Homer Rodeheaver.

In his later youth he moved to Atlanta, where he worked as a piano accompanist and singing teacher, for example for blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey . In Chicago, where he studied composition and arrangement from 1916, he played at rent parties under the name Barrelhouse Tom and Texas Tommy. But he became known as Georgia Tom together with his musical partner Tampa Red . With him he had a big hit in the style of the so-called “ Hokum Blues ” in 1928 with “It's Tight Like That ”.

In 1925 he founded the "Wild Cats Jazz Band" for Ma Rainey .

The slippery lyrics of songs like "It's Tight Like That" caused him a lot of trouble, because soon he was better known as a gospel musician than in the blues, and in gospel he had a morally more demanding audience. He began to market his own gospel compositions. Including hits like “It's A Highway To Heaven”, the great hymn among the gospel songs “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” shaped by the unmistakable sound of the HB310, and contemplative songs like “What Then”. He was the musical mentor of the famous gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and wrote the song "Peace In The Valley" for her. He founded the first publishing house for black gospel music.

Honors

Dorsey was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1994 . The Blues Hall of Fame followed in 2018 .

Web links

• Dorsey in the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1994