“I’ve been thrown out of some of the very best churches,” proclaims the late gospel pioneer Thomas Dorsey proudly in George T Nierenberg’s critically lauded 1982 documentary on African- American sacred music. A pianist in the 20s for legendary jazz and blues shouter Ma Rainey, Dorsey saw the light after a nervous breakdown and, in the 30s, began playing a new form of religious music he baptised ‘gospel’. As he recalls in the film, there was a lot of resistance at first to his seemingly unholy marriage of the devil’s music (the blues) with messages from the Bible.
Now, of course, songs he wrote, such as Take My Hand, Precious Lord and Peace In The Valley, are considered classics of the genre. Nierenberg’s 90- minute film follows not only Dorsey’s life, but that of another gospel legend, Willie Mae Ford Smith, a bona fide matriarch of devotional music. Though it perhaps lacks the incisiveness and narrative thrust of modern documentary-making, it is nevertheless a warm, affectionate and ultimately fascinating portrait of some of the key – but largely unsung – figures in a genre that has become a big money-spinner in the USA during the last 20 years. This special 25th anniversary package also includes the CD soundtrack.
