Morris, John F., interviewee Walker, Daniel, interviewer

Description

Interview with Bishop John F. Morris. Bishop Morris is a national gospel recording artist, born May 18, 1948. He was raised in Huntington, West Virginia, a small college town. After his father's death, his grandmother Elder Katherine Jackson started a new church called Christ's Temple A.O.H. (Apostomic Overcoming Holy Church of God) in the west end of the town. She was the main influence on his coming to Christ. In this tiny church of about fifteen members, Morris played the drums for the music worship team. He recalls his extraordinary skills with music back to the early age of 6 years, when he arranged "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and distributed harmonizing parts among his classmates at school. He had no formal music training, but he knew he had a gift for musiche learned everything by ear, and taught each part to members of a group to sing. When he was 18 years old, once he graduated high school, he moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he expanded his worship musical repertoire in the city, and joined the Grace Temple A.O.H. He names Jimmy Smith, Chubby Checkers, Mary Wells and the Vendellas, and James Cleveland as significant influences on him. According to Morris, one of the most progressive songs in gospel was "Oh Happy Day" coming from New York.James Cleveland, a mentor, and Andrea Crouch, who reached beyond the African American gospel audience into the Caucasian market, were among the most influential artists in gospel music. Bishop Morris cut his first...

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University of Southern California Digital Library

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California Digital Library