Albertina Walker

Infobox musical artist
Name = Albertina Walker

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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name =
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Born = birthdate and age|1929|08|29 imdb|id=0907500|label=Albertina Walker]
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Origin = Chicago, Illinois
United States flagicon|USA
Instrument =
Genre = Gospel music
Occupation = Singer, Composer, Producer, & Actress
Years_active = 1950s-Present
Label = Malaco Records
Savoy Records
Benson Records
Word Records
A&M Records,
Associated_acts = Robert Anderson
James Cleveland
The Caravans
Mahalia Jackson
URL = [http://www.albertinawalker.org www.albertinawalker.org]
Notable_instruments =

Albertina Walker (born birth date|1929|08|29) is an African-American gospel singer.

Early years

Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois. She began singing in the youth choir at the West Point Baptist Church at an early age, and joined several Gospel groups thereafter, including The Pete Williams Singers and the Robert Anderson Singers. Albertina was greatly influenced by Mahalia Jackson, her friend and confidant. Mahalia Jackson took her on the road when she was just a teenager. "Mahalia used to kid me. She'd say, 'Girl, you need to go sing by yourself.' " recalled Walker in a recent Washington Post Interview. Albertina Walker did just that. In 1951, she formed the group called the "Caravans" while at the same time; was given the title "Queen Of Gospel Music" after the death of Mahalia Jackson for her outstanding achievements within the genre.

Musical career

In the early 1950s Walker founded her own Gospel music group The Caravans, enlisting fellow singers from The Robert Anderson Singers (Ora Lee Hopkins, Elyse Yancey and Nellie Grace Daniels). The Caravans membership has included: James Cleveland, Bessie Griffin, Shirley Caesar, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Loleatta Holloway, Cassietta George, and Delores Washington.Dicovering these artit also gave her the nickname "Star Maker". Walker retired The Caravans in the late 1960s, performing as a solo artist.

In the mid 1970s, Walker signed with Savoy Records then Benson Records, Word Records, A&M Records, and other record companies, recording a series of solo projects, many of them with big church choirs including The Evangelical Choir, The Cathedral of Love Choir, The Metro Mass choir, and her own church choir - The West Point Choir. Albertina recorded her first solo project "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" in 1975. She also recorded several projects together with Reverend James Cleveland. To date, she has recorded over 60 albums, including gold selling hits "Please Be Patient With Me", "I Can Go To God In Prayer", "The Best Is Yet To Come", "Impossible Dream", and "Joy Will Come". Fact|date=January 2008 Albertina still enjoys an active recording career, often lending her talents to the projects of other artists in addition to her own. These albums have yielded multiple Gold records and Grammy nominations. Fact|date=January 2008

Walker has sung for United States presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and South Africa's president, Nelson Mandela. Fact|date=January 2008

Albertina recently recorded a reunion album with her group The Caravans entitled "Paved The Way", which was released by Malaco Records on September 5, 2006. Fact|date=January 2008 Performers included Walker, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, and Delores Washington. The album was dubbed by Billboard Magazine as one of the most memorable releases of 2006 (Deborah Evans Price, Dec. 9, 2006) and entered the Billboard charts in the top ten and has remained in the top forty for sixteen weeks. Fact|date=January 2008 "Paved the Way" was recently nominated for a Grammy, Dove, Soul Train Music Award and two Stellar Awards.Fact|date=January 2008

Discography

Notable singles

*"I'm Still Here"
*"Please Be Patient with Me"
*"I Can Go to God in Prayer"
*"I Got A Feeling (Everything Will Be Alright)"
*"The Best is Yet to Come"
*"Impossible Dream"
*"Joy Will Come"
*"God is Our Creator"
*"Work on Me"
*"In Shady Green Pastures"
*"Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around"
*"When God Dips His Pin of Love in My Heart"
*"If I Perish"
*"Ain't Got Tired Yet"
*"Since I Met Jesus"
*"Lord Keep Me Day by Day"
*"Mary Don't You Weep"
*"Remember Me"
*"I Know the Lord Will Make a Way"
*"I'm Willing"
*"Show Some Sign"
*"I Won't Be Back"
*"Make It In"

Videography

Film and other appearances

*"Leap of Faith" - starring Steve Martin
*"Going Home to Gospel with Patti Labelle"
*"The Gospel Truth" - Off Broadway play
*"The Evolution of Gospel".

Television appearances

Walker has appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", "Good Morning America", and "The Tavis Smiley Show" among others. Albertina Walker is a frequent guest on the nationally syndicated BET and Word television networks, "Bobby Jones Gospel", "Testify" and "Singsation".

Awards

Albertina has earned many awards and honors over her six decades of music ministry. Among them, a 1995 Grammy Award for the Best Traditional Gospel Album (Songs of The Church); 10 Grammy Award nominations; 5 Gold Records; 3 Stellar Awards; 3 Dove Awards; several Gospel Music Workshop of America Excellence Awards; an induction into the 2001 Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2005, the Grammys, honored her contributions to the Gospel music industry. She is also the recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship. President George Bush honored Albertina Walker for her contribution to Gospel music May 31, 2002.

Influences

Ms. Walker is featured in the book entitled Who's Who In Black America as well as other volumes related to the Golden Age of Gospel Music. She has received several keys to various cities and was honored at the Chicago Gospel Festival where a bench bearing her name was placed in downtown Chicago's Grant Park. The City of Chicago paid tribute to Albertina by renaming 35th and Cottage Grove "Albertina Walker and The Caravans Drive". Albertina was also conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters Degree by the Chicago Theological Seminary, an institution of the University of Chicago.

Walker co-founded the Gospel Music Workshop of America along with James Cleveland. Albertina has also lent her support to many charitable organizations such as United Negro College Fund, American Cancer Society, National Council of Negro Women, Nation of Islam's Million Family March, One Voice "A Fight Against AIDS", NAACP and Operation Push. In 1988 Albertina Walker founded The Albertina Walker Scholarship Foundation for the Creative and Performing Arts. Her foundation offers financial assistance to college students in the form of scholarships to further their education in the field of music.

External links

* [http://www.albertinawalker.org www.albertinawalker.org]

References

Further reading

*Heilbut, Tony, "The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times" Limelight Editions, 1997, ISBN 0-87910-034-6.
*Horace Clarence Boyer, "How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel" Elliott and Clark, 1995, ISBN 0-252-06877-7.