Clara Ward - The Magnificent Clara Ward - Rare Recordings 1949-1972 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Giraffe is the new collaboration from Dave Harrington (Darkside), Robert Walter (The Greyboy Allstars), Spencer Zahn, and Kosta Galanopoulos (Rio Kosta). Their debut album, The Towering Inferno With Bongo Drums, channels spacey psychedelia, jazz-informed interplay, and open-ended improvisation into a fluid, exploratory listen. Recorded in a single day at 64 Sound in Los Angeles, the album captures four accomplished musicians locking into an instinctive groove.

Apart from outdrawing contemporary blues and jazz artists for live appearances, Clara Ward and her Famous Ward Singers had no other peers in selling records. They kept an earthy sound, despite refined arrangements and accomplished musicianship. Soprano Marion Williams (later the celebrated leader of the super gospel group, the Stars of Faith) is the featured soloist on many of the songs on the CD. Gospel expert Anthony Heilbut has contributed with intriguing observations in the notes, written by Robert Sacr'. These 25 recordings span the years 1949-1958.

The Famous Ward Singers, based in Philadelphia, were one of the foremost gospel groups of the post-war era. Originally founded as a family group in 1931 by Gertrude Ward as a family group, then called, variously, The Consecrated Gospel Singers or The Ward Trio, the collective achieved fame after the Second World War when Gertrude's daughter Clara Ward was leader. - A gifted singer and arranger, Ward adopted the lead-switching style, previously used primarily by male gospel quartets, creating opportunities for spontaneous improvization and vamping by each member of the group, while giving virtuoso singers such as Henrietta Waddy, Marion Williams and Willa Ward Moultrie the opportunity to perform the lead vocal in songs. - This 77-track collection comprises a fairly significant proportion of the 130 or so A and B sides released on the Gotham and Savoy labels during this era, which represented the years when they achieved their greatest success. The releases were under various guises - Clara Ward as a solo artist, The Famous Ward Sisters Of Philadelphia, The Clara Ward Specials, Clara Ward & the Ward Singers, The Clara Ward Singers, The Famous Ward Singers and simply as The Ward Singers. It features the million-seller Surely God Is Able, along with How I Got Over, and Packin' Up, plus many gospel classics and standards. Ward died in 1973 at the age of 48 and Aretha Franklin and Rev. C. L. Franklin sang at her funeral in Philadelphia. She was honoured posthumously at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City four years later in 1977.