Richard Smallwood - Research Paper Example

Richard Smallwood In the modern music business there are many outstanding personalities, but only few of themcan be called inspirational. Inspirational artist has an amazing capability of arousing the best feelings in human souls. In the given paper we will talk about one of such personalities, a musician Richard Smallwood. Richard Smallwood is a famous American musician. He is an artist of gospel music. In 1977 the artist created Richard Smallwood Singers. Smallwood is deservedly called a legend.

Many people like his compositions, “Center of My Joy;”, “I Love the Lord” and “Total Praise;” are among the favorite. As a child Richard liked pop music and gospel motives very much, so it predetermined his destiny. Many musicians do not have corresponding education. Richard studied in Howard University. He has got two qualifications: of a pianist and of a vocalist, while his graduate research was made in the field of ethnomusicology. Being a student the future star already did much for gospel music development.

The young and talented man was included in the gospel collective in his own Institute. The group was called The Celestials. The work in the group inspired him to create the first gospel choir. Smallwood started his career as a musician in 1982. Young artist gained popularity very quickly. Already at the beginning of 1980’s Smallwood became one of the most famous and successful gospel musicians. His first project was called The Richard Smallwood Singers. This first album had a success and the next, called Psalms, was even nominated for a Grammy.

“I wanted to write a complete project with songs that dealt with the promises found in His Word so that I could encourage and remind us that God is still in control. Soon after, I began dreaming songs. I have dreamed a few songs before, but I can count the times on one hand that I remembered what I had dreamed after I had awaken. But this time, not only could I remember what I had dreamed but sometimes more than one song would come at the same time and I could barely keep up with them. I knew that God was saying something that we all needed to hear” (Smallwood).

The next album was called Textures. It also had a great success and nominated and won. Many famous musicians were interested in his music and recorded it, Yolanda Adams, Karen Clark-Sheard, Destinys Child are among them. Swallowed accompanied many great singers such as Leontyne Price. The current group of Richard Smallwood is called Vision, he created many great projects with it. After finishing his Master’s degree in 2004, the musician was invited to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Richard Smallwood’s life concert was recorded at the Manhattan Center in New York” (Ladywoo Ministry of Music").

Many famous musicians visited his concert including the members of his too collectives The Richard Smallwood Singers and Vision “5th Annual Stellar Award Results" (Murray). Richard Smallwood has been popular for forty years and now 63-year old artist continues to gain more and more popularity. Richard confessed “I had not written a song since my mom died in 2005, I thought the gift I had dried up. I would try to write and nothing would come. I’d sit at the piano, I’d pray and there was nothing” (Smallwood).

The artist is among the most inspirational singers, songwriters and composers, who did much for gospel music development. Works Cited "Ladywoo Ministry of Music". August 3, 2005. Available at http://www.freewebs.com/ladywoo/gospelnewshappenings.htm Murray, Jawn. "Jubilant Journey". AOL Black Voices. (August 30, 2005). Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Smallwood#cite_ref-stellar2003_4-0 Richard Smallwood. Biography. Available at http://www.richardsmallwood.com/content/biography