Gospel Music Evolution

Clara Ward (April 21, 1924 - January 16, 1973)[1] was a gospel artist who achieved great success, both artistic and commercial, in the 1940s and 1950s as leader of The Famous Ward Singers. A gifted singer and arranger, Ward took the lead-switching style used by male gospel quartets to new heights, leaving room for spontaneous improvisation and vamping by each member of the group while giving virtuouso singers such as Marion Williams the opportunity to step forward in songs such as "Surely, God Is Able" (the first million-selling gospel hit), "How I Got Over" (which Clara wrote, one of the most famous songs in the Black gospel repertoire), and "Packin' Up".
Ward ranks among the greatest of gospel singers along with Albertina Walker, Mahalia Jackson, and others. Her beautiful alto (with a somewhat nasal tone) in gospel songs and the Methodist hymns of the eighteenth century continues to delight music lovers. She had a marked influence on later singers, such as her protegee Aretha Franklin, who adopted her moan for secular songs and who saluted Ward in Amazing Grace, the gospel album she made with James Cleveland in the early 1970s.
Clara Ward's mother, Gertrude Ward (1901 - 1981), founded the Ward Singers in 1931 as a family group, then called variously "The Consecrated Gospel Singers" or "The Ward Trio", consisting of herself, her youngest daughter Clara, and her elder daughter Willa.
Clara Ward made her first solo recording in 1940 and continued accompanying the Ward Gospel Trio.
The Ward Singers began touring nationally in 1943, after making a memorable appearance at the National Baptist Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that year. Henrietta Waddy joined the group in 1947 after Willa Ward retired; she added a rougher alto and the enthusiastic stage manners taken from her South Carolina church background. The group's performance style, such as the mimed packing of suitcases as part of the song "Packin' Up", may have been condemned by some purists as "clowning" but was wildly popular with their audiences.
The addition of Marion Williams, who came out of the Pentecostal tradition growing up in Miami, Florida, brought even more to the group. A powerful singer with a preternaturally broad range, she was able to reach the highest registers of the soprano range without losing either purity or volume, and could also swoop down to growling low notes in the style of a country preacher. Williams' singing helped make the group nationally popular when they began recording in 1948.
In 1949 the Ward Singers toured from Philadelphia to California in their new Cadillac, appeared on TV in Hollywood, and recorded for the Miltone Record Company of Los Angeles. The Miltone recordings were purchased in a multi-artist package by Gotham Record Company which had moved to Philadelphia. Gotham's Irv Ballen recorded some new Ward material, including "Surely God Is Able", and some of the Ward Singers' Gotham recordings were transferred to Savoy Record Company in Newark, New Jersey to settle a contract dispute. When Savoy began contracting with the Ward Singers for new recordings in the 1950s, they were mostly recorded and engineered in Bergen County, New Jersey by Rudy Van Gelder.
In 1950 Clara Ward and the Famous Ward Singers of Philadelphia made their first appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City on a gospel program entitled: "Negro Music Festival", produced by gospel music pioneer Joe Bostic, sharing the stage with Mahalia Jackson and appearing there at Carnegie Hall on Bostic's program again in 1952.
Over the years, Gertrude Ward created a booking agency for gospel acts, sponsored tours under the name "The Ward Gospel Cavalcade", established a publishing house for gospel music, and even wrote a book for churches on how to promote gospel programs. Gertrude also created and managed a second group, "The Clara Ward Specials", to accompany the Ward Singers. Although as musical director of the Ward franchise Clara was willing to share the spotlight with her talented co-singers, she and her mother were tightfisted about sharing the group's financial rewards with other members. According to Willa Ward's biography of Clara Ward, with the exception of Gertrude and Clara, Willa and other members of the group were grossly underpaid. In addition, their meagre earnings were further reduced because Gertrude and Clara provided their housing and charged them for it. Accordingly, stars such as Marion Williams and Frances Steadman not only had to accept second billing and lesser pay for their work, but pay their employers rent out of their earnings.
Williams left the group in 1958 when her demand for a raise and reimbursement for hotel expenses was rejected; she was followed shortly thereafter by the rest of the group--Henrietta Waddy, Frances Steadman and Kitty Parham--who formed a new group, "The Stars of Faith". Their departure marked the end of the glory days for the Ward Singers, who later alienated much of their churchgoing audience by performing in Las Vegas, nightclubs, and other secular venues in the 1960s. Ward's poor health forced her to retire in the early 1970s.
In 1963 Clara Ward was the first gospel singer to sing gospel songs on Broadway in Langston Hughes' play: "Tambourines To Glory". She was also the musical director for this play.
While performing at the Castaways Lounge in Miami Beach, Florida, in the 1960s, Clara collapsed and was rushed to the hospital and told if she recovered she would never sing or walk again. Gertrude Ward telephoned Mother Dabney, a spiritual healer in New Jersey, and Clara miraculously was restored to health. Details were reported in the Gospel News Journal published by Marvin Bunton. Clara later recounted this experience in a church service at the Wayside Chapel in Sydney, Australia. This testimony was released on an LP issued on the WARD label along with Clara singing "The Lord's Prayer" and a few other Ward musical selections.
During the group's heyday, however, it was both widely popular and highly influential, emphasizing glamour--traveling in oversized Cadillacs, preferring sequined gowns for choir robes, and wearing wigs and jewelry that more conservative churchgoing women considered too worldly--while bringing Gertrude Ward's shrewd entrepreneurial sense to the gospel music business at large. Though Gertrude was a savvy negotiator, her understanding of the value of music copyrights was limited. According to Willa Ward, Gertrude was misled into believing that the songwriting royalties from Clara's compositions would be minimal and accordingly sold them. In her book Willa said the music ended up under the control of Herman Lubinsky, founder of Savoy Records (who was known for his unscrupulous exploitation of recording artists), and became owned by Planemar Music Company.
Next page