Whitney Houston's familial ties to Golden Era Gospel

It's no secret, Whitney Houston was not a stranger to gospel music. Whitney's voice matriculated in the church, she starred in the mid 90s version of The Preacher's Wife, and her last, known on stage performance was "Jesus Loves Me". Yet, her family's gospel origins stretch back to the late 1930s.

In 1938, Nicholas "Nitch" Drinkard (Whitney's maternal grandfather) formed a singing group in Savannah, GA comprised of his children Emily "Cissy", Anne, Nick, Larry, with sister Lee (mother of Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick) serving as their manager. This singing group was named the Drinkard Four, and later became known as the Drinkard Singers (or Drinkard Jubilairs by some accounts). By the 1950s, the family moved to New Jersey and the Drinkard Singers recorded a few singles between 1954 and 1956 for the Savoy/Regent, and Verve labels. On July 7, 1957, the Drinkard Singers made an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. After the appearance, the Drinkard Singers recorded an album for RCA Victor in April 1958. This was the group's first appearance on a major record label. The Drinkard Singers continued to record through the 1960s for the Choice label and HOB Records.

Here are the Drinkard Singers in action from 1957 at the Newport Jazz Festival singing "That's Enough."

Funeral Arrangements for Min. Gene Viale

The funeral service for Min. Gene Viale will be held on Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 11am at Allen Temple. 8501 International Blvd. Oakland, CA 94621.

Here is audio of Min. Viale leading "Heartaches" with the James Cleveland Singers in 1965.

Happy 80th Birthday, James Cleveland!

December 5, 2011 marks what would have been James Cleveland's 80th birthday. One can only imagine what the gospel field might have been like today had he lived until now.

Here's a few songs to check out from his 40 year recording career, including his recording debut in 1951 with the Gospelaires as pianist and vocalist, and his last composition and recording in 1990 with the LA Gospel Messengers.

I've broken the list up into different phases of his recording career so you can hear how his style of arranging changed and adapted over the years. There's a 3-6 year gap between each song, and 2-3 songs per decade with exception to the 1990s.

1951 "The Lifeboat is Coming" by the Gospelaires

1955 "What Kind of Man Is This" by the Caravans

1961 "The Love of God" with the Gospel All-Stars

1966 "Christ the Redeemer" with the Walter Arties Chorale

1969 "Over My Head" with the Southern California Community Choir

1973 "Lord, Help Me to Hold Out" with the Harold Smith Majestics

1979 "God Is" with the Southern California Community Choir

1983 "This Time, I'm Going All the Way" with the NJ Mass Choir of the GMWA

1988 "He Knows How Much We Can Bear"with the LA Gospel Messengers

1990 "Always" with the LA Gospel Messengers

Happy Birthday, "King James!" We're sure you're having one heck of a celebration up in Glory with Prof. Dorsey, Mahalia, Roberta, Albertina, Clara, Sallie, Alex, Jessy, Gene, and the rest of your colleagues and mentors.

R.I.P., Min. Gene Viale, James Cleveland Singer

Min. Gene Viale, member of the famed James Cleveland Singers during the mid 60s, has died. He was 65 years old.

According to his personal website, Viale was born on October 31, 1946, and began singing at the age of five. In 1964, Viale joined the James Cleveland Singers and recorded two albums with them, "Heaven, That Will Be Good Enough for Me", and another album, which remains unreleased. Viale served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968, and was licensed to preach in 1967. In 1968, Viale released his first solo record, "What Color Is God", on the Checker label, and made his first appearance on Jubilee Showcase. Through the late 70s and early 80s, Viale toured the country with gospel singers and appeared on program with singers such as James Cleveland, Inez Andrews, Shirley Caesar, the Mighty Clouds of Joy, and Dorothy Norwood.

In 2007, Viale was ordained by The Fellowship by Bishop Yvette Flunder, and just last year, Min. Viale released a book titled "I Remember Gospel."

Viale touched many hearts and souls through his nearly five decades of recording, as seen by the posts from mourners and colleagues on his Facebook profile's wall. His loss is another devastating blow to the Golden Era Gospel community, which already lost tremendous voices like Delois Barrett Campbell and Jessy Dixon earlier this year. Viale was truly a Golden Era singer, having worked with singers such as Mahalia Jackson, Cassietta George, the Staple Singers, the Roberta Martin Singers, the Ward Singers, Doris Akers, the Caravans, the Gospel Harmonettes, the Argo Singers, Sallie Martin, the Barrett Sisters, the Davis Sisters, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and many more.

Information about the service(s) for Gene Viale will be posted as it becomes available.

Jessy Dixon (1938-2011)

Internationally renowned gospel singer Jessy Dixon has died in Chicago at the age of 73. Dixon was born in San Antonio, TX, but relocated to Chicago with his family when he was a teenager. In the 1960s, Dixon was a member of the James Cleveland Singers and was featured as a studio pianist for Savoy Records. In the 1970s, Dixon toured with his own group, The Jessy Dixon Singers, and became a studio keyboardist for Chess Records and played behind both gospel and secular recordings. Some of Dixon's most popular songs included "I am Redeemed", and "Sit at His Feet and Be Blessed." Dixon was a leader in the Chicago Community Choir and was an inspiration to many current gospel artists, including Donald Lawrence. Dixon is survived by a brother and a sister. Arrangements are pending at this time.

O Johneron Davis, I finally found ya!

By: Joseph Middleton

It's been over a year since I released the original plea, but I am still searching for information on Johneron Davis, a longtime member of of the Caravans (1953-1962). Today, I received a wealth of information on her thanks to Libra Nicole Boyd and Rev. James Herndon of the Caravans (1959-1967).

Johneron was born on April 12, 1929, which is coincidentally just two days before Inez Andrews's birthday. According to Rev. Herndon, Johneron, a second soprano, was "wild about the Caravans" and was "a good soldier", singing in the group from their early days with early members such as Bessie Griffin, Gloria Griffin, Imogene Green, and Louise McDowell, until their early 60s heyday with Shirley Caesar, Inez Andrews, and Cassietta George. She left the group in the fall of 1962 and was replaced by Josephine Howard. Johneron died on August 4, 1965 at the age of 36 of cancer. She was buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL, which is the same cemetery where Emmett Till, Dinah Washington, and Roberta Martin are also buried.

Johneron married at some point and became Johneron Austin. At this point, it is not known if she married an Austin from the family of Rev. James Austin, husband of Roberta Martin, son of Rev. Lucy Smith, and father of Lucy Collier, aka, Little Lucy Smith. There's still more infomation to be found. Did she have children? Does she have any descendants? I hope the answers to those questions can be found soon. I know there are other Golden Era Gospel fans awaiting those answers, too.

How Lerone Baker's quest to deify the already grand Cassietta George is wrecking the hard work of Gospel Music Historians

By: Joseph Middleton

Cassietta George (seen at right) was a gem of the Golden Gospel Era. From her days in the early 1950s with the Songbirds of the South, until becoming one of the longest tenured Caravans, there's no doubt she reserved herself a great place amongst the top gospel singers in the history books.

Unfortunately, her nephew's recent actions to honor her name reeks of callousness and ill-hearted intentions. In the past few years, Lerone Baker of Atlanta, GA has released a beyond mediocre, poorly written and poorly researched book that has become both the laughingstock and the bane of the Golden Era Gospel Community. I don't have to remind you that when it comes to the history Golden Era Gospel, it's often hard to get truly correct information when you have different versions of one story coming from different singers. Baker's book only complicates matters that will make the less informed believe they are receiving correct information. Perhaps this stems from the fact that Baker himself is likely misinformed about the rich legacy of the late Cassietta George.

This misinformation has spread to YouTube, causing the deletion of accounts of friends of the Golden Era Gospel Blog such as DJ and Historian, Linwood Heath, Timothy Williams and Emmanuel Jones. In good news, Linwood Heath recently won his counter argument against Baker and had his account fully restored.

This is a message to Lerone Baker from the Golden Era Gospel Community. STOP. CEASE. QUIT. Or to respond with a case of ungrammatical profundity, SITCHOAZZDOWN! It's clear that you are only trying to fill your pocket book and not honor your aunt. Cassietta George truly deserves better than the likes of you representing her. If you truly cared about your aunt's legacy, you would build a platform to raise her up without un-necessarily deriding the names of other members of the Caravans in a libelous manner, publishing outright and easily debunked lies, and claiming works that pre-date your aunt's birth by over 50 years as being owned by her.

Folks, I've done the research, and he's been claiming songs copyrighted by Roberta Martin and James Herndon of the Caravans among others as being his aunt's work. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but in addition to being unethical, isn't that also illegal? Hmm..

To Sonny Austin (son of Roberta Martin), Rev. Herndon, I know you're probably not receiving the proper dues from those copyrighted works, but you may want to speak to a lawyer. He doesn't have the right to claim the hard earned works of Miss Martin and others as his aunt's works.

Lerone Baker, I know you're reading this, and just know that your unkind deeds WILL be stopped. I've got a band of educated scholars and historians, descendants of Golden Era Gospel Singers and even a few Golden Era Gospel Singers on my side and we're ready to debunk your false claims at every turn. Bring it.