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“Yes, [Gospel] Is Real”: Half a Century with Chicago's Martin and Morris Company
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 October 2017
Abstract
The Martin and Morris Music Studio (MMMS) imprint permeated the first fifty years of black gospel music. Jointly owned by singer/impresaria Sallie Martin (1895/6–1988) and composer/arranger/pianist/organist Kenneth Morris (1917–88), the MMMS delivered gospel songs to an eager public and offered ordinary Americans the chance to see their names in print as author or composer on the cover of a gospel octavo, copies of which could then be sold to benefit that same ordinary American. Their influence extended far beyond that service, however. Martin and her Singers performed and popularized music bearing the MMMS imprint in venues ranging from small churches in the Deep South to national conventions in Washington, D.C., and widened circulation of MMMS music via Los Angeles recording studios. The unprecedented accomplishments of the MMMS, active from 1940 to 1993, have not been fully explored. Relying on transcribed interviews of the owners by Bernice Johnson Reagon, James Standifer, and others, accounts in historical newspapers, and company archives, this article addresses that void. The centrality of the MMMS in twentieth-century gospel of all types is clarified through examination of contexts for black-owned music publishing in the last century, the owners’ early business models, and their changing roles in the creation, publication, popularization, and dissemination of gospel music for more than fifty years.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Society for American Music 2017
References
References
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“Gospel Choruses Hold National Convention in Indianapolis.”
Chicago Defender, 21 August 1937, 3.Google Scholar
“Gospel Music Leaders Hold Board Meet: Plan Erection of School for Race Music.”
Chicago Defender, 29 February 1936, 12.Google Scholar
“Gospel Singers Stop Singing to Protest Jim Crow in Armed Forces.”
Chicago Defender, 17 August 1940, 6.Google Scholar
Murray, Virgie W. “Gospel Tribute Slated at Forum.” Los Angeles Sentinel, 11 December 1975, C10.Google Scholar
Marovich, Robert M. Email messages to author. 12, 14, 19, and 20 October 2015; 1 and 9 November 2015; 4 March 2016; 29 July 2017.Google Scholar
Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator
. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.Google Scholar
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Discogs.com.
http://www.discogs.com/artist/206619-Gospel.Google Scholar
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Discogs.com.
https://www.discogs.com/Mahalia-Jackson-Newport-1958/master/84743.Google Scholar
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Dorsey, Thomas A. “I'll Tell It Wherever I Go.” Precious Lord: Recordings of the Great Gospel Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey. With Sallie Martin. Columbia KG 32151, 1973.Google Scholar
Jackson, Mahalia. “City Called Heaven.” In the Upper Room with Mahalia Jackson. With Kenneth Morris, Hammond organ. Apollo ALP 474 [1950–52], 1960.Google Scholar
Martin, Sallie, and Martin, Cora. Sallie and Cora Martin: Just a Little Talk with Jesus. Gospel Friend Records/Mr R&B Records, PN-1509, 2015.Google Scholar
May, Brother Joe. “Search Me, Lord.” Brother Joe May: Thunderbolt of the Middle West. With Kenneth Morris, Hammond organ. Specialty [1949], CDCHD 466, 1993.Google Scholar
Sallie Martin Singers with Cora Martin. Throw Out the Lifeline. Specialty [1950–53], SPCD-7043-2, 1993.Google Scholar
Goreau, Laurraine. Recording and transcript of “Interview with Sallie Martin,” 4 November 1972. Sallie Martin Interview (LG001), Side A (1-19) and Side B (1-4), 7. Courtesy of the Laurraine Goreau Collection, Hogan Jazz Archive. Tulane University.Google Scholar
Martin and Morris Company Records. Archives Center, National Museum of American History (NMAH), Smithsonian Institution. “Biographcal/Historical Note” and “Provenance” by Deborra Richardson. http://amhistory.si.edu/archives/d5492a.htm.Google Scholar
Martin and Morris Music Company Papers. Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Chicago Public Library. http://www.chipublib.org/martin-morris-gospel-sheet-music-collection/.Google Scholar
Standifer, James. “Interview with Sallie Martin,” 19 September 1981, transcript, 1–33. Formerly available at the African American Music Collection at the University of Michigan. Transcript provided to present author courtesy Robert M. Marovich.Google Scholar
Anthony, Heilbut. The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times, updated and revised. New York: Limelight Editions, 1997.Google Scholar
Anthony, Heilbut. The Fan Who Knew Too Much: Aretha Franklin, Soap Opera, Children of the Gospel Church, and Other Meditations. New York: Knopf, 2012.Google Scholar
Beary, Shirley A. “The Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company.” DMA diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1977.Google Scholar
Boyer, Horace Clarence. The Golden Age of Gospel. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Boyer, Horace Clarence. “Kenneth Morris: Composer and Dean of Black Gospel Music Publishers.” In We'll Understand It Better By and By, ed. Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 309–28. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Dean, Talmadge W.
A Survey of Twentieth-Century Protestant Church Music in America. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1988.Google Scholar
DjeDje, Jacqueline Cogdell. “Los Angeles Composers of African-American Gospel Music: The First Generations.” American Music
11, no. 4 (Winter 1993): 412–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Dena. “Music Publishing.” The Encyclopedia of Chicago, http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/862.html.Google Scholar
Fink, Robert. “Goal-Directed Soul? Analyzing Rhythmic Teleology in African American Popular Music.” Journal of the American Musicological Society
64, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 179–237, 275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, Luvenia A. “Lucie E. Campbell and the Enduring Tradition of Gospel Hymnody.” In The Songs of Lucie E. Campbell: Gospel Music Composer, ed. Kilkenny, Niani and Curzon, Rebecca E.. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, 1984.Google Scholar
Harris, Michael W.
The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Heilbut, Anthony. The Fan Who Knew Too Much: Aretha Franklin, Soap Opera, Children of the Gospel Church, and Other Meditations. New York: Knopf, 2012.Google Scholar
Heilbut, Anthony. The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times, updated and revised. New York: Limelight, 1997.Google Scholar
Koppel, Lily. “Mary T. Washington, First Black Woman to Earn C. P. A. Credential, Is Dead at 99.” New York Times, 25 July 2005, nytimes.com.Google Scholar
“Lynching Report Recalls Grim History, Some of It in Athens Area.” Online Athens [Georgia], 11 March 2015, http://onlineathens.com.Google Scholar
Marini, Stephen. Sacred Song in America: Religion, Music, and Public Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Marovich, Robert M. Liner notes for Sallie and Cora Martin: Just a Little Talk with Jesus. Stockholm: Gospel Friend Records/Mr R&B Records, 2015.Google Scholar
Marovich, Robert M.
A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Larry G., Melton, J. Gordon, and Ward, Gary L.. S. v. “Clarence H. Cobbs.”
Encyclopedia of African American Religions. New York: Garland, 1993; repr. Routledge 2011.Google Scholar
Reagon, Bernice Johnson. “Kenneth Morris, ‘I'll Be a Servant for the Lord’: A
1987
Interview Conducted and Edited by Bernice Johnson Reagon.” In We'll Understand It Better By and By, ed. Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 329–41. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Sanjek, David. “One Size Does Not Fit All: The Precarious Position of the African American Musical Entrepreneur in Post–World War II American Popular Music.” American Music
15, no. 4 (Winter 1997): 535–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorson, Theodore Winton. “Notes on Publishing in Chicago.” Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1961.Google Scholar
Walker, Juliet E. K.
The History of Black Business in America. New York: Macmillan/Simon & Schuster, 1998.Google Scholar
“Baptists Bear Burdens of Nigerian Hospital: Fundraiser at Liberty Baptist Church August 28 to Raise Funds to Equip the New General Hospital in Issele-Uku, Nigeria, West Africa.” Chicago Defender, 24 August 1964, 11.Google Scholar
“Crowd of 6,000 Attend Candle Lighting Service in Park.”
Chicago Defender, 24 September 1938, 6.Google Scholar
“Gospel Choruses Hold National Convention in Indianapolis.”
Chicago Defender, 21 August 1937, 3.Google Scholar
“Gospel Music Leaders Hold Board Meet: Plan Erection of School for Race Music.”
Chicago Defender, 29 February 1936, 12.Google Scholar
“Gospel Singers Stop Singing to Protest Jim Crow in Armed Forces.”
Chicago Defender, 17 August 1940, 6.Google Scholar
Murray, Virgie W. “Gospel Tribute Slated at Forum.” Los Angeles Sentinel, 11 December 1975, C10.Google Scholar
Marovich, Robert M. Email messages to author. 12, 14, 19, and 20 October 2015; 1 and 9 November 2015; 4 March 2016; 29 July 2017.Google Scholar
Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator
. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.Google Scholar
“Discogs: Gospel Discography: 1943–2000.”
Discogs.com.
http://www.discogs.com/artist/206619-Gospel.Google Scholar
“Mahalia Jackson: Newport 1958.”
Discogs.com.
https://www.discogs.com/Mahalia-Jackson-Newport-1958/master/84743.Google Scholar
Stern, Alexander. “‘I'm In The Battle Field For My Lord’—Rev. D. C. Rice and his Sanctified Congregation.” Where Dead Voices Gather: Life at 78 RPM (blog). http://theanthologyofamericanfolkmusic.blogspot.com/2010/05/im-in-battle-field-for-my-lord-rev-dc.html.Google Scholar
Dorsey, Thomas A. “I'll Tell It Wherever I Go.” Precious Lord: Recordings of the Great Gospel Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey. With Sallie Martin. Columbia KG 32151, 1973.Google Scholar
Jackson, Mahalia. “City Called Heaven.” In the Upper Room with Mahalia Jackson. With Kenneth Morris, Hammond organ. Apollo ALP 474 [1950–52], 1960.Google Scholar
Martin, Sallie, and Martin, Cora. Sallie and Cora Martin: Just a Little Talk with Jesus. Gospel Friend Records/Mr R&B Records, PN-1509, 2015.Google Scholar
May, Brother Joe. “Search Me, Lord.” Brother Joe May: Thunderbolt of the Middle West. With Kenneth Morris, Hammond organ. Specialty [1949], CDCHD 466, 1993.Google Scholar
Sallie Martin Singers with Cora Martin. Throw Out the Lifeline. Specialty [1950–53], SPCD-7043-2, 1993.Google Scholar