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• 1 media/IMG_20200130_105947788.jpg 2020-04-27T09:57:26-07:00 Don Lee White 5 gallery 2020-06-23T14:39:55-07:00 Don Lee White was born in Los Angeles, CA, on October 25, 1926 and attended both Los Angeles City College and California State University, Los Angeles before earning his Master’s degree in Music in 1958 from the University of Southern California (USC) where he majored in Church Music. White completed graduate work towards his doctorate in Musical Arts at both USC and Stanford University, and was given an honorary doctorate in 1984 by the University of Monrovia, West Africa. In his early career, he served as organist for New Hope Baptist Church before accepting the position as college organist and Professor of Music at Prairie View A. & M. for five years. Upon his return to Los Angeles he taught organ, piano, choral music, conducting and music appreciation at California State University, Los Angeles for 27 years.
  
  White also served as the organist and musical director of the Grant African Methodist Church, Los Angeles, for over 38 years. Under his leadership, the Grant A.M.E. adult choir achieved national recognition for their musical versatility. Under his leadership, the adult choir of Grant A.M.E. Church gained substantial recognition for their versatility in music and professional performances throughout the United States and has several recordings. White also served as director of music for the Southern California Conference Fifth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Church for 15 years and served eight years as associate director for the Connectional Music Department for the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
  
  In 1988, White took a leave of absence from Grant A.M.E. and organized the D.L.W. Community Chorale, whose purpose is to perform the extended compositions of African American composers. White preferred anthems, cantatas, and opera, saying “The smooth performance of the classical sacred music is something the musicians of today should strive to keep alive and valued for future generations”. White was an active member in many music organizations, among them the National Association of Negro Musicians and the American Chorale Directors Association. In addition he was often requested to give lectures and workshops across the country.
  
  In 2008, White was inducted as a "Living Legend" into the California State University Dominguez Hills Georgia and Nolan Payton Archive of African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians (ADSMM). He passed away on September 16, 2010. Explore the Don Lee White Collection.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 1 media/IMG_20200130_105935397.jpg 2020-04-24T12:24:46-07:00 Gospel Roots: African American Churches in Los Angeles 4 gallery 2020-06-05T16:15:07-07:00 Hear music from the choirs of Second Baptist, Grant AME, and Holman United Methodist.
  
  The church has been a center of African American life since the earliest congregations were established in the 1700s. Its role has always extended beyond worship to include education, business, and social action. It has also often been the center of the community’s musical traditions. This legacy was brought to California by African Americans who arrived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from states that had strong African-American communities steeped with the musical culture of the African diaspora. They found new outlets in the music of the church; their migration transformed the spiritual, gospel music, blues, and jazz in California.
  
  The first African American church to be established in Los Angeles was First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) which was organized in 1872 in the home of Biddy Mason, a former slave who won her freedom after her master brought her to California. In the years that followed, more churches were founded, including Second Baptist Church (1885), Grant African Methodist Episcopal (1906), St. Paul Baptist (1907), and People's Independent Church of Christ (1910).
  
  During the first Great Migration the number of churches swelled dramatically as émigrés sought out community and cultural centers in their new home. By 1920 there were over 30 African American churches in Los Angeles. These churches had choirs often led by highly educated musicians who had moved to the area seeking something new. The musicians of these churches, once separated by geography and limited in their exposure to each other, were now able to collaborate, building a flourishing music community and discovering new paths in sacred music. Their churches became concert halls, hosting both local performances and touring ensembles from across the country.
  
  The Azusa Street Revival, hosted by Pastor William Seymour in 1906, was a musical turning point. Many found the music of the traditional church too sedate for revivals and camp meetings, and created new music to match the passion they felt. New genres of African American sacred music were born, most notably “the Holy Blues,” which combined sacred lyrics with secular musical style and was one of the precursors to the gospel movement in Los Angeles.
  
  Gospel music was born out of a unique confluence of African American religion, politics, and culture in the 1930s. The holy blues evolved into gospel through the work of composer Thomas A. Dorsey and rapidly spread across the country, driven by the Second Great Migration. As the population and the demand for gospel music in California grew, the music took on new forms. In cities like Chicago, the expression of gospel focused on soloists, duets, and small groups like the Sallie Martin Singers or Roberta Martin Singers. Los Angeles gospel was rooted in the choir and its conductors and composer-arrangers. Los Angeles churches such as St. Paul Baptist Church, Mount Moriah Baptist Church, Grant AME Church, and Victory Baptist Church attracted and supported many up-and-coming musicians who migrated to Los Angeles, introduced gospel music, and sought to cultivate the talents of local artists.
  
  One such innovator was Reverend James Cleveland. Cleveland moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in 1962. Like other artists before him, Cleveland found that Los Angeles was the perfect place to experiment. He fused gospel with soul, jazz, and pop and developed what is known as “the big choir sound” for mass choirs, including his own Southern California Community Choir. In 1968, Cleveland launched the Gospel Music Workshop of America to teach contemporary gospel, nurture the artistry of gospel musicians, and preserve the music’s legacy. In 1972, he brought Aretha Franklin to the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in South L.A. to record the live album “Amazing Grace,” a Grammy winner that captured the voices and experience of South Central coming together to create a new gospel sound.
  
  Inevitably, as the popularity of African American sacred music grew, Hollywood came to call. In 1936, Jester Hairston came to Los Angeles with the Hall Johnson Choir to perform in the movie “Green Pastures,” and decided to make L.A. his home. His prolific work, both in Hollywood and the church. had a major impact on many talented African American musicians. Andraé Crouch, already an influential choir director and composer, arranged and performed music in the pop culture arena. When singers like Michael Jackson and Madonna and movies such as “The Lion King” recorded songs that required a choir, they turned to Crouch. Musicians like Hairston and Crouch helped bridge the gap between sacred and secular and increase exposure to gospel music.