Richard Smallwood, a gospel singer and recording artist nominated eight occasions for Grammy Awards, has died. He was 77. Smallwood’s songs have been carried out and recorded over time by artists equivalent to Whitney Houston, Stevie Surprise, Future’s Youngster and Boyz II Males.
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Richard Smallwood’s Trigger Of Dying Revealed
Richard Smallwood died Tuesday (Dec. 30) of issues of kidney failure at a rehabilitation and nursing heart in Sandy Spring, Maryland, his consultant Invoice Carpenter introduced. Smallwood had well being points for a few years, and music gave him the energy to endure, Carpenter mentioned in an interview.
“Richard was so devoted to music, and that was the factor that stored him alive all these years,” he mentioned. “Making music that made folks really feel one thing is what made him wish to preserve respiration and preserve shifting and preserve dwelling.”
Lately, delicate dementia and different well being points prevented Smallwood from recording music, and members of his Imaginative and prescient choir helped take care of him.
A Gospel Legend Gone However Not Forgotten
As talked about, Whitney Houston introduced his music to movie by performing ‘I Love the Lord’ within the 1996 film ‘The Preacher’s Spouse,’ in line with Smallwood’s biography on the Gospel Music Corridor of Fame.
Richard Smallwood was born Nov. 30, 1948, in Atlanta and commenced to play piano by ear by the age of 5, per Related Press. By age 7, he was taking formal classes. He had fashioned his personal gospel group by the point he was 11.
Later, Smallwood turned a music pioneer in a number of methods at Howard College in Washington, the place he graduated cum laude with a music diploma. He was a member of Howard’s first gospel group, the Celestials. He was additionally a founding member of the college’s gospel choir, in line with an obituary from his rep Carpenter.
After faculty, Smallwood taught music on the College of Maryland and went on to type the Richard Smallwood Singers in 1977. He introduced a recent sound to conventional gospel music.
He later fashioned Imaginative and prescient, a big choir that fueled a few of his greatest gospel hits, together with ‘Complete Reward.’ The music turned a modern-day hymn that touched folks from all forms of backgrounds and walks of life, Carpenter mentioned by telephone Wednesday.
“You possibly can go into any sort of church — a Black church, a white church, a nondenominational church — and also you may hear that music,” he mentioned. “In some way it discovered its footing all through the entire Christian world. If he by no means wrote anything, that will have put him within the trendy hymn e-book.”
Stevie Surprise carried out ‘Complete Reward’ on the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.’s son Dexter Scott King at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Feb. 10, 2024.
Chaka Khan Reacts To Richard’s Dying
Richard Smallwood “opened up my entire world of gospel music,” singer and songwriter Chaka Khan wrote on Fb after his demise.
“His music didn’t simply encourage me, it reworked me,” she mentioned. “He’s my favourite pianist, and his brilliance, spirit, and devotion to the music have formed generations, together with my very own journey.”
His legacy will reside on “by way of each word and each soul he touched,” Khan mentioned. “I’m really trying ahead to singing with you in heaven,” she mentioned.
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Related Press Jeff Martin contributed to this report by way of AP Newsroom.
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