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Thomas A. Dorsey

Birth name: Thomas Andrew Dorsey
Birthplace: Villa Rica, GA, USA
July 1, 1899 – January 23, 1993
Years Active: 1924 – 1984

Hailed as the “Father of Gospel Music,” composer and pianist Thomas A. Dorsey was responsible for writing many of the genre’s best-known standards, including songs widely recorded by secular artists. He is credited with creating much of the template for 20th century African American Gospel music, incorporating Jazz and Blues rhythms that had previously not been a part of the genre. Dorsey also played a key role in the early career of Mahalia Jackson, the Gospel singer who is considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century and often described as the “Queen of Gospel.” Dorsey worked with Jackson as a songwriter and her accompanist for 14 years. His composition, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” (which he wrote after his wife and newborn son died in childbirth) became Jackson’s signature song, as well as a favorite of Martin Luther King Jr.; Jackson sang it at King’s funeral after his assassination.

Born in Georgia to a minister and a piano teacher, Dorsey first gained success as a Blues pianist and songwriter, credited with writing over 400 Jazz and Blues songs. During this time, he worked as pianist and arranger for the legendary “Mother of the Blues” – singer, songwriter, and recording artist, Ma Rainey. Furthermore, as Georgia Tom, Dorsey teamed with Chicago Blues guitar pioneer, Tampa Red to cut the risqué 1928 hit “Tight Like That,” which sold a reported 7 million copies. By that time, he had begun also recording Gospel music under his real name. In the early ’30s, he performed at the National Baptist Convention, and became the bandleader of two Chicago churches.

Tired of being mistreated by music publishers, and in collaboration with Sallie Martin, a shrewd businesswoman and Gospel composer/recording artist, Dorsey established Dorsey House of Music, the first black-owned Gospel publishing company. He also founded his own Gospel choir and was a founder, again in collaboration with Martin, of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses (NCGCC). Dorsey also served as NCGCC’s first president.

Dorsey was the first African American writer elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2002, the Library of Congress added Dorsey’s 1973 album Precious Lord: New Recordings of the Great Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey to the National Recording Registry, a tribute to its importance as a record that is “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important.” Dorsey died at 93, in 1993.