Thomas Andrew Dorsey

Happy Birthday, Thomas Andrew Dorsey aka Georgia Tom 1899-1993...This Cat had two lives! Georgia born Dorsey was the son of a preacher and a piano playing mother but it wasn't hymns that first got him interested in music, it was "The Devil's Music"-the blues. His family relocated to Chicago during WW1 and   Dorsey began studying at the Chicago College of Composition and Arranging and took a job as an agent for Paramount Records.

Dorsey put together a band for Ma Rainey called "The Wild Cats Jazz Band" in 1924, putting himself on piano for a time. He was a prolific song writer and he was soon performing at rent parties and Al Capone's Chicago speakeasies as Texas Tommy, Barrelhouse Tom and most famously as Georgia Tom. He teamed up with slid guitarist Tampa Red and together they recorded one of the most popular blues tunes "Tight Like That" in 1928, selling over seven million copies. In all he wrote over 460 Rhythm and Blues and Jazz songs.

Dorsey also began recording gospel music in the mid 1920's which lead him to eventually turn away from the blues and to pour his talents into more spiritual music. He became discouraged with the treatment of black song writers and the old methods of trying to peddle his sheet music. He opened his own music publishing company in 1932, Dorsey House of Music, becoming the first independent publisher of black Gospel music. Although the subject of his music was now  his devotion to God, he retained the rhythms of jazz and the blues, changing the feeling of the music so much that songs written in the new style were sometimes referred to as 'dorseys'.

His most famous composition, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" was written after the death of his wife and infant son in childbirth. It was most memorably recorded by Mahalia Jackson but others as diverse as Tennessee Ernie Ford, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and Elvis recorded it as well. It was the favorite gospel song of both Martin Luther King, Jr., who asked that it be sung at the rally the night before his assassination, and Lyndon B. Johnson who asked that it be sung at his funeral. Another composition, "Peace in the Valley" also became a gospel standard. In all, Dorsey wrote over 1.000 songs and is considered the undisputed "father of black gospel music." His gospel songs are now included in hymnals throughout the world and his racy blues tunes are still played today.