W.Y Songs

Born in 1929 in Chicago Illinois, Albertina was one of nine children raised within a deeply religious Christian Baptist family. Her singing career started at the age of 10 when she and her sister joined the choir at their local church, the West Point Baptist Church, from which a children’s group evolved to be known as the Williams Singers. This group became well known throughout Illinois and surrounding Mid Western states.

During her formative teenage years at the West Point Baptist Church, Walker was deeply influenced by Mahalia Jackson and other notable gospel singers who appeared in concerts held at the church. It was during this time that she began to sing with established musicians Robert Anderson and Willie Webb, gaining increasing exposure on radio through church performances with Anderson’s group.

As her public exposure began to rise, Walker soon made her first recording with Robert Anderson’s band and on Anderson’s retirement, formed the Caravans in 1952 with some of the members of Anderson’s former ensemble. James Cleveland, then a young keyboard player soon joined the Caravans, the first of a long line of illustrious gospel musicians that was to include Dorothy Norwood, Bessie Griffin, Inez Andrews, Imogene Greene and others.

For the rest of the fifties the Caravans dominated the gospel musical arena, appearing all over the world.

The group was uniquely characterised and blessed in that every member was endowed with strong and rich vocals; and Walker, astute as ever, allowed rotation of the lead vocalist among her talented female ensemble. In 1958 a young Shirley Caesar joined the band and soon became their lead vocalist.

The Caravans remained a leading force in gospel music well into the sixties. But with such depth of rich vocal talent in abundance within the group, individual members gradually began to pursue solo careers and in 1967, the group was disbanded by Walker. The group’s original founder, Walker also found herself pursuing a solo career.

Walker’s solo career developed throughout the seventies. She made her first solo record deal with Savoy Records and later signed with other big name record companies, working on gospel projects with numerous choirs including her home church choir, The West Point Choir. Her first solo work, Put A Little Love In Your Heart, was recorded in 1975 and she went on to conduct several gospel projects with Reverend James Cleveland and others. Over a long illustrious career, Walker has churned out over sixty albums, many of them golden hits.

Walker’s contribution to gospel music is widely acknowledged and she is often referred as the “Queen of Gospel”. Over the years, she has often worked on projects with other artists, producing popular Gold record albums and Grammy nominations. In 1993 she was nominated for a Grammy for Albertina Walker Live.

In 2006 Walker recorded a reunion album with The Caravans which featured in the Billboard top 40 album charts for 16 weeks. The album, titled Paved The Way, was distributed by Malaco Records and featured Caravan star names: Inez Andrews, Delores Washington, Dorothy Norwood and Walker.

Today, she still pursues an active Christian life and busy recording career. Often working on collaborative projects with other gospel artists, Walker was instrumental in organizing the Operation PUSH People’s Choir. She also founded the Albertina Walker Scholarship Foundation of which she is a significant contributor. Still based in Chicago, Albertina Walker has become a living gospel legend, always seeking to improve the lives of others through the word of God. This “Queen of Gospel” testifies to having led a deeply rewarding life and puts it all down to her early exposure to the church, saying: “I would like to encourage young people to stay with the Almighty God, because if they do, he will surely be with them.” Walker has spent most of life trying to encourage people to stay with the Lord.

By: Richard Blake

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By: Scott G

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