James_Cleveland

James Cleveland Reverend James Cleveland: Development of the Gospel Music Workshop of America There are many different types of Gospel music, and Reverend James Cleveland was responsible for bringing in the gap between all of them. Reverend Cleveland had a vocal style similar to Lois Armstrong, and influenced many music greats. He was called the “king” of gospel music during the post-war period. Cleveland was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 5, 1932. He first sang Gospel at the Pilgrim Baptist Church as a kid. In 1951, he joined the Gospelaires, and recorded several songs for the Apollo record label. He also sang with the group, The Caravans. During the mid-1950’s, he was performing with many popular Gospel bands and artists such as, The Gospel All Stars, The Meditation Singers, Manahalia Jackson, and many others. In 1959 he formed a group, The Gospel Chimes; they produced songs that are still sung today called “The Solid Rock,” and “Old Time Religion.” During the 1960’s his career did not slow down. He formed a different group called “The Cleveland Singers” which featured Billy Preston, who would later be an icon. Cleveland won fame in the Gospel community with the song “The Love of gospel, music, convention, cleveland, reverend, gmwa, songs, members, during, week, group, first, different, world, workshop, people, number, james, delegates, cleveland’s, called, between, artists, annually, annual, young, today, time, throughout, style, song, singers, several, sang, recorded, record