"I done my best" are at once the soulful and uplifting words of Thomas A. Dorsey uttered shortly before his death at age 94.
Mr. Dorsey was a pioneer of black gospel music, composer of more than 300 blues and gospel songs and co-founder in 1933 of The National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses.
From 1924-1930 he was Ma Rainey's piano accompanist and song-writer, touring the Jim Crow South and the Midwest on the Negro T.O.B.A. Circuit, in tent shows and in vaudeville.
In 1930 he formed the Thomas A. Dorsey Gospel Songs Music Publishing Company. Recognized as the first to write and publish gospel songs, his most famous, Take My Hand, Precious Lord, was written following the sudden death of his wife and stillborn son.
During his latter years Mr. Dorsey founded and became Choirmaster of the Interfaith Church Choir in St. Louis, Missouri.
Beginning as a blues pianist in honky-tonks, he became a self-made man and a person revered throughout the black church community.
Having in mind the words of Jesus urging us to "Love thy neighbour as thyself" and to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," can each one of us say in all honesty, day in, day out, "I done my best?"
G.D. Kilbourn
bwfaithministry
Email blwoodard@shaw.ca
UNSUBSCRIBE Email blwoodard@shaw.ca
No comments:
Post a Comment