Brother Joe May - Topic, Aug 26, 2021
[...]
Live 1952 - 1955
[...]
Associated Performer,
Vocals: Brother Joe May
Associated Performer,
Vocals: Sallie Martin Singers
Associated Performer,
Piano: Theresa Childs
Composer Lyricist:
Beatrice Brown
-snip-
I haven't found any information about composer/lyricist Beatrice Brown. Please add any information that you know about this composer/lyricist to this post.
****
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases a YouTube sound file of the Gospel song "Jesus Is Real To Me" by Brother Joe May and the Sallie Martin Singers with pianist Theresa Childs. This 1952 recording is the earliest example of that Gospel song that I've come across as of the publishing date of this pancocojams post (April 15, 2024).
The summary for that YouTube sound file indicates that Beatrice Brown is the composer and lyricist for "Jesus Is Real To Me".
This post also includes the standard words for the Gospel song "Jesus Is Real To Me" (as found in this sound file and elsewhere online, without vamps.)
In addition, this pancocojams post includes information about Brother Joe May and information about Sallie Martin.
The content of this post is presented for historical, religious, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Beatrice Brown for composing "Jesus Is Real To Me". Thanks to Brother Joe May and thanks to the Sallie Martin Singers and pianist Theresa Childs for their musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to Brother Joe May for publishing this sound file on YouTube.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/john-p-kee-new-life-community-choir.html for a pancocojams post about the 1991 Gospel song "Jesus is Real" by John P. Kee.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-bolton-brotherss-2008-rendition-of.html for the pancocojams post entitled "The Bolton Brothers' 2008 Rendition Of "Jesus Is Real To Me" On The Bobby Jones Gospel Television Series".
Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/yes-god-is-real-1944-gospel-song.html for a pancocojams post entitled ""Yes, God Is Real" -The 1944 Gospel Song Composed By Kenneth Morris (sound file, information, & lyrics)."
And click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/three-examples-of-african-american.html for a pancocojams post whose title is "Three Examples Of African American Gospel Songs Whose Titles Have The Words "God Is Real" / "Jesus Is Real" ".
****
LYRICS - JESUS IS REAL TO ME
(composer and lyricist -Beatrice Brown)*
Real, real
well you know Jesus is real to me
Oh yes
you know God gives me Victory
Oh well well so many people doubt Him
and you know I can’t live without Him
and that is why I love Him so
Jesus is real to me
Well I woke up soon one morning
My pillow was wet with tears
I called on Christ the Savior
and I knew that He would hear
He eased my heavy burden
Dries my mournin ‘tear
That is why I love Him so
Dries away my tears
In the midnight, real real
You know Jesus is real to me
Oh yes
you know God Gives me Victory
Oh well well so many people doubt Him
and you know I can’t live without Him
and that is why I love Him so
Jesus is real to me
-snip-
"Mournin' tears in this song means "crying because you're mourning someone's death.
Alternatively, those words might be "morning tears" meaning "tears that were shed in the beginning of the day".
*These lyrics are from
Here's the last verse that is sung in the Brother Joe May/Sallie Martin Singers' record:
"Do you believe that
Jesus is real to me
Oh, believe it
God gives me victory
So many people doubt Him
You know, I can’t live without Him
and that is just why I love Him so
Jesus is real to me"
**
This verse doesn't appear to be sung in other versions of "Jesus Is Real To Me" that I have come across. Examples of this song tend to be somewhat different from each other with added often improvised lyrics, and tempo, but usually not the tune.
Other words for "Jesus Is Real To Me" that may also be sung are:
"In the morning
Real real Jesus is real to me
In the evening
Real real Jesus is real to me".
-snip-
Additions and corrections about the lyrics to "Jesus Is Real To Me" are welcome.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT BROTHER JOE MAY
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Joe_May
"Brother Joe May (November 9, 1912 – July 14, 1972) was an
American gospel singer. He was sometimes billed as "The Thunderbolt of the
Middle West", and has been described as "arguably the greatest male
soloist in the history of gospel music.... [with] a voice of unimaginable range
and power, moving from a whisper to a scream without the slightest suggestion
of effort".[1]
Life
Born Joseph May in Macon, Mississippi, he was raised as a
member of the Church of God denomination in which all males are referred to as
"Brother". He sang with the Little Church Out on the Hills' senior
choir and then the Church of God Quartet, building a reputation on the Southern
gospel circuit. He worked as a laborer in Macon, before moving in 1941 with his
wife Viola and their children to East St. Louis, Illinois, where he was
employed in a chemical plant.[1]
In St. Louis, he met and came under the influence of the
singer Willie Mae Ford Smith, and adopted much of her phrasing and performing
style. He began singing at Thomas A. Dorsey's National Conventions of Gospel
Choirs and Choruses, directed by Smith, and after a performance in Los Angeles
in 1949 was signed by talent scout J. W. Alexander to Specialty Records. His
first record, "Search Me Lord", became a gospel hit, and was
estimated to have sold over one million copies though without reaching any of
the published record charts of the day. His follow-up record, "Do You Know
Him?" in 1950, was equally successful, and May became a full-time
musician, touring nationally with gospel groups such as the Soul Stirrers and
the Pilgrim Travelers.[1] He also sang duets with Willie Mae Ford Smith, and
usually performed in a distinctive long white robe with a rope cross.[2]
As one of the Specialty label's most successful artists, the company tried to persuade him to record more secular material, but May refused, although he acknowledged blues singer Bessie Smith as a major influence. His records often used an organ-dominated rhythm section as well as a full choir, and he was sometimes described as a male equivalent of Mahalia Jackson, with whom he sometimes performed.[2] He was cited as a musical inspiration by Little Richard.
[...]
In 2000, he was posthumously inducted into the International
Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Detroit.[2]"...
****
INFORMATION ABOUT THE SALLIE MARTIN
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallie_Martin
"Sallie Martin (November 20, 1895 – June 18, 1988) was an
American gospel singer referred to as the "Mother of Gospel"[1] for
her efforts to popularize the songs of Thomas A. Dorsey and her influence on
other artists.
Biography
Martin was born in Pittfield, Georgia, on November 20,
1895,[1] where she was raised as a Baptist. She joined the Pentecostal movement
as a young woman. She began her career singing in Holiness churches after
coming to Chicago in 1927.
Martin's rough-hewn singing style, combined with the enthusiastic physicality of the Holiness church, nearly kept her from working with Dorsey, who looked down on the shouting style of many Holiness singers and was reluctant to hire a singer who could not read music. Martin nonetheless persuaded Dorsey, after three auditions, to hire her as part of a trio he had formed to introduce his songs to churches. She proved to be an able organizer with a shrewd financial sense who marketed Dorsey's songs, organized his finances, developed new avenues for business and helped launch the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, Inc. (NCGCC).
Martin was a successful artist in her own right, forming the Sallie Martin Singers, in which her daughter Cora Martin-Moore, Dinah Washington, then known as Ruth Jones, and Brother Joe May were featured, in 1940 after a dispute with Dorsey. She started her own publishing house, Martin and Morris Music, Inc., with Kenneth Morris (August 28, 1917–1988), a Gospel music publisher, arranger, composer, and innovator. They were responsible for publishing a number of gospel standards, including Just a Closer Walk With Thee (1940).[2]
[…[
Martin was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in
1991.[3]”…
-snip-
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Dorsey for information about Thomas A. Dorsey. Here's the beginning of that page:
"Thomas Andrew Dorsey (July 1, 1899 – January 23, 1993) was
an American musician, composer, and Christian evangelist influential in the
development of early blues and 20th-century gospel music. He penned 3,000
songs, a third of them gospel, including "Take My Hand, Precious
Lord" and "Peace in the Valley". Recordings of these sold
millions of copies in both gospel and secular markets in the 20th century.[1]"...
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment