Black American Gospel Music Series, Marion Williams
name: label: Collection Collector
content: Maltsby, Portia
label: Collection Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Program in African American Culture
setName: label: See more items in
content: Program in African American Culture Collection
label: See more items in
content: Program in African American Culture Collection / Series 1: Program Files
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1980 October 12
container: label: Container
content: Box 7, Folder 6
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Concert paid tribute to Marion Williams, a leading gospel music performer. Her singing career began at age three in her mother's church in Miami, Florida, where she performed her first a cappella song, "Yes, Jesus Love Me." Other early influences included the street sounds of blues, calypso, and West Indian rhythms, and the great traveling quartets such as the Kings of Harmony and Professor Smith's Jubilee Singers. By her mid-teens, Williams, a soaring soprano, was a premier local gospel singer. In 1947, at the age of 18, she joined the Ward Singers. She was a leading member of that group until 1958. In 1961, Alex Bradford and she starred in Langston Hughes's gospel musical, "Black Nativity," which played off Broadway and throughout Europe. Marion Williams performed at major European music festivals in Antibes, France; Montreux, Switzerland; and Bergamo, Italy; toured the Far East and Africa; and, with Duke Ellington, represented the United States at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal. Since 1967, Williams has performed as a solo artist.
From Notes on the Artist in Program Notes by Pearl Williams-Jones. See Program Notes for additional information about Marion Williams and the Black American Gospel Music Series. Program number AC408.8.