Clara Ward
| Clara Ward | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 21, 1924 |
| Origin | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Died | January 16, 1973 (aged 48) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Years active | 1931–1972 |
| Associated acts | The Ward Singers, The Ward Trio, The Clara Ward Specials, Willa Ward Singers, Gertrude Ward Singers |
Clara Ward (April 21, 1924 – January 16, 1973) was an American gospel artist who achieved great artistic and commercial success in the 1940s and 1950s, as leader of The Famous Ward Singers.
A gifted singer and arranger, Ward adopted the lead-switching style, previously used primarily by male gospel quartets, creating opportunities for spontaneous improvisation and vamping by each member of the group, while giving virtuoso singers such as Marion Williams the opportunity to perform the lead vocal in songs such as "Surely, God Is Able" (among the first million-selling gospel hits), "How I Got Over" and "Packin' Up".
Clara Ward's mother, Gertrude Ward (1901–1981), founded the Ward Singers in 1931 as a family group, then called, variously, The Consecrated Gospel Singers or The Ward Trio, consisting of herself, her youngest daughter Clara, and her elder daughter, Willarene ("Willa"). Clara Ward recorded her first solo song in 1940, and continued accompanying the Ward Gospel Trio, thereafter.
The Ward Singers began touring nationally in 1943, following a memorable appearance at the National Baptist Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, earlier that year. Henrietta Waddy joined the group in 1947, after Willa Ward retired. Waddy brought to the group a "rougher" alto sound and the enthusiastic stage manners learned from her South Carolina church background. The group's performance style, such as the mimed packing of suitcases as part of the song "Packin' Up", condemned by some gospel music purists as "clowning", was wildly popular with their audiences.
The addition of Marion Williams, who arose of the Miami, Florida Pentecostal tradition brought to the group a powerful singer with a preternaturally broad range, able to reach the highest registers of the soprano range without losing either purity or volume, with the added ability to descend "growling low notes" in the style of a country preacher. Williams' singing style helped make the group nationally popular when they began recording in 1948.
In 1949, the Ward Singers toured from Philadelphia to California in their new Cadillac, appeared on national television programs, and recorded for the Miltone Record Company of Los Angeles. The Miltone recordings were purchased in a multi-artist package by Gotham Record Company, which had moved to Philadelphia. Gotham's Irv Ballen recorded some new Ward material, including "Surely God Is Able", and some of the Ward Singers' Gotham recordings were transferred to Savoy Record Company in Newark, New Jersey to settle a contract dispute. When Savoy began contracting with the Ward Singers for new recordings in the 1950s, they were primarily recorded and engineered in Bergen County, New Jersey, by Rudy Van Gelder.
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