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Black Gospel Piano - Its
Influence and Its
Gospel Formed Today's Blues, Rock (R &
B), Soul And JazzOne approach to appreciating
black
gospel piano is to analyze its influence on other forms of music. A
major source of musical inspiration is gospel piano, and through
investigating its impact, we can recognize the value of its complete
application. This is because in the course of history, a variety of
musicians adopted the unique characteristics of gospel and used them to
form the blues, rock (R & B), soul and jazz that we have today. Ray
Charles, Ben E. King, Sam Cooke, And Aretha FranklinIf you listen
to the early piano work of Ray Charles for example, you'll definitely
hear black gospel piano. Ray Charles broke free from a Nat King Cole
"sing-alike" reputation when he produced music to gospel tunes in 1953.
"I Got a Woman" is a prime example of this phase in his career and he
didn't completely abandon the gospel influence until after the
mid-1960s.
Gospel music also influenced the Ben E. King and
Sam Cooke's productions. As soul artists, both King and Cooke filled the
air with modified gospel songs while Aretha Franklin, the daughter of a
church clergyman, demonstrated more success with the style. Gospel
Music Is Church Music From the 40s to the 50s, black gospel
dominated the style of most black musicians, and thanks to radio it grew
in popularity. But one of the controversies surrounding its popularity
was the fact that gospel music originated from the church and thus
considered a sacred entity. "Gospel music is church music," proponents
would say, "so it should stay in the church!"
Although the
church audience agreed, the controversy didn't seem to stop its
popularity or its influence on future generations. Mahalia Jackson, the
as the Soul Stirrers, Ruth Brown, Faye Adams, the Dominoes, the
Midnighters and hundreds more continued to build an identity from the
gospel effect.A Solid Fixation In The Church Despite it's
widespread use however, gospel music never died out. It went on to
influence rock or 'n' roll, but it remained a solid fixation in the
church. With such a strong impact on the history of music, we're
reminded of
black gospel piano's
importance both inside and outside of the church because it has also
promoted new interest in it. More and more pianists today express a
strong interest learning how to play it.
Still Has A Lot More To
Offer
It really is amazing to see how far
black
gospel piano
has come, but there's another point to consider - namely that we can
now apply a past-present-and-future connotation to the music that it
shares. Yes, we've learned a great deal about gospel piano thus far, but
experience has shown it still has a lot more to offer. And that's why
its unique, time-all presence forces us to recognize its critical value
and prompts us to accelerate its approaches. For depending on the
effects, black gospel piano may yet influence newer styles of music that
have yet to be discovered.
Further Gospel Piano Resources:
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