Until 1950s gospel had enjoyed no less popularity than R&B in the live circuit and had left many fine recordings. From then onward, however, it seems to me that gospel has been welcomed by fixed fans and has survived in a small way. While church people felt uneasy about the conversion of many singers or groups to secular music, they sometimes allow successful secular ones to sing gospel again. Moreover, today there seems to increase the number of gospel persons singing in loud arrangements like heavy metal or rap. When I hear the sound samples of 'Stryper' or 'Gospel Gangstaz', I feel like thinking that gospel in my fixed idea such as "vivid songs and raw voice exchanges" had already been deserted in the far-away past. But on the other hand there are old schools including Marion Williams, who left splendid songs which made folks be devoted to listening to her own voice and made their minds tremble until her death in '94. In her heyday her voice was unimaginably delivered from the vocal range of four octaves : it was still in the realm of 'voice', not like high 'tone' or hyper sound wave roughly thrown by Minnie Riperton or Mariah Carey, and its vibrato or melisma was allowed to move freely and was navigated completely and was charged with her deep sentiment. It is never all spoken by words why she is the 'greatest' singer : someone finds the improvisation of jazz in her song, someone says that it leads to the feeling of the blues, and someone brings the nobility of opera, and so on. High technique or fidelity doesn't always define the good or bad of music, however, I cannot help thinking that "Everybody has somebody above him" when I heard there was Marion Williams before the meter-wrecking voice of Little Richard or the long-reached voice of Aretha Franklin.
Miami-born Marion was said to sing gospel in the local church under the influence of her parents on the one hand, she grew up with the blues or jazz played on the jukebox of her old brother and calypso in the neighbourhood on the other : such background suggests her variety in music which is shown by the phrasings in her later days. When Clara Ward arrived in Miami during her national church tour Marion was called up to sing, and then she became a member of the Ward Singers in no time. Some photos on the booklet of their compilation in around '50, "I Feel the Holy Spirit", show them dressed in gorgeous costumes like colorful gowns or twinkling dresses or jewels and performing in the rock star's style, that is, holding a mike stand and dropping on her knees : these scenes suggested that their attitude, in which they never forgot entertaining the audience during singing the religion, should have caught the huge popularity as well as the conservative heat. Not only in the appearance, Clara Ward was also wonderful in singing with her clear and amiable alto sometimes accompanied with her own piano, and also in arranging choruses and solos of the Ward Singers ingeniously. Here you can have mighty voices and call & responses which are familiar to us in the late '60s soul. As you can hear on Each Day or Take Your Burdens to the Lord, Marion Williams roars "wwooooo" in her high part of chorus and sing out youthfully and powerfully in her solo. Anyone would agree that among the group she was especially called as 'Miss Personality' because of her preeminent existence. The Ward Singers' driving forces were the musical brilliance of Clara Ward and the management of her mother Gertrude Ward, and they were big shots in the gospel field, where they made some tours with Aretha Franklin and her father C. L. Franklin or they made the acquaintance of other famous singers. However, it was natural that far-outstanding Marion should have left them. In '58 Mariion launched her solo career and led her backing Stars of Faith.
There is none of the ultimate best album of her solo, though, I first listened to a compilation covering the tunes from '62 to '92 "My Soul Looks Back". Her live recordings in '62 with Stars of Faith, I Just Can't Help It, In the Upper Room, I'm Beggin' You Please, Packin' Up, and Surely God is Able are well ready to knock me out. The moment you catch up with her lower groaning like a roar, she goes up to high falsetto with a fine vibrato ringing in more than 10 seconds at a breath. If you see it in the day, all you can do is to clap your hands frantically. Studio recordings looks calmer as compared with her fiery live performances, however, her profound vocal expression is still fabulous, from the beauty of higher resonance which is slowly and steadily surging on Stretch Out or It's Your Time Now, to the colorful directions of her roaring on Look at the People or The Moan. She is trying various techniques on the country The Great Speckled Bird, and she gives a light but penetrating treatment on the bluesy Dead Cat on the Line. Anyway, I am impatient at my own explanations. "One hearing is more than one hundred words." You can also touch such tunes in other compilations like " The Gospel Soul of Marion Williams", mainly including deliberate studio ones, or "Remember Me", mainly previously unissued intense live ones. I'm sorry to say that some tunes ended suddenly just before entering into the ad-lib vocal exchanges which "make you tumble down". Despite such a mess generated by a record company, there spreads her splendid voice. I also found her studio albums featuring the Stars of Faith; "God And Me" in '62 and in "Let the Words of My Mouth" '63 released from Vee-Jay. They let us hear her vocals bearing comparison with her live performances accompanied with clear backings sometimes with a easy and jazzy touch. Songs well known like Hallelujah are re-arranged by her and fellows as if someone opened a jack-in-the-box.
As she should not have been missed for the secular side, Atlantic, who had kept taking the cream of R&B or soul, released her albums including secular sides whose lyrics led to religion : those were compromises between the company and Marion Williams who was loyal to religion. "The New Message" in '69 and "Standing Here Wondering Which Way to Go" in '71 reveal her extraordinary interpretations put on the tunes like Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released, I Pity the Poor Immigrant and Wicked Messenger, the Rascals' People Got to Be Free, George Harrison's My Sweet Lord or Percy Mayfield's Danger Zone. On the backing musicians' list there are big names like drummer Burnard Purdie or pianist Keith Jarrett, however, her songs seem to be rather well-mannered in front of fine accompaniments. Although my first impression may change after I listen carefully, I think Atlantic couldn't draw from Marion Williams the charm, which was generated by the marriage of the voice and the sound, more than simple addition or multiplication, like in Aretha Franklin's case. Anyway, gospel is well sufficient when backed by a piano and with only a voice it gives us the feeling of wider and wider sound space. It is no less than great. After I wrote above, I found her name in the motion picture soundtrack of "Fried Green Tomatoes" in '91. So I watched the DVD "Fried Green Tomatoes : Anniversary Edition". Then I found a scene, Marion Williams in person singing at a church where Academy awarded actress Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy dropped by, which I don't know whether it was included when put on the screen. Not only in the scene but she let me hear her moaning rather than singing with the support of Thomas Newman's orchestra. She splendidly read the tenderness and solemnity of the earth. It's regrettable to say that she passed away just after she was 'found' in this flim or at some awards. (2006/06/17)(2009/08/08)