Alex Bradford

Alex Bradford, born January 23, 1927, in Bessemer, Alabama, was an American gospel singer, composer, arranger, and choir director who became a significant figure in both sacred music and Broadway theater before his death on February 15, 1978, in Newark, New Jersey. His influence extended to artists including Little Richard, Ray Charles, and Bob Marley, and he is credited with helping shape the modern mass choir movement in gospel music.

Bradford made his first stage appearance at age four and joined a children's gospel group at thirteen, around which time he also secured his own radio show. After a racial incident prompted his mother to send him to New York City, he organized a new singing group there. He later returned to Alabama to attend the Snow Hill Institute in Snow Hill, where he taught as a student and earned the title "Professor." In 1947 he relocated to Chicago, where he worked briefly with Roberta Martin and toured with Mahalia Jackson before forming his own ensembles, the Bradford Singers and subsequently the Bradford Specials.

His recording career gained significant momentum in 1954 when "Too Close to Heaven," released under the name Professor Alex Bradford and the Bradford Specials, sold over one million copies and earned a gold disc. Bradford's vocal range, which moved between a gravelly bass and a whooping falsetto, along with his flamboyant stage presence, drew direct imitation from Little Richard. Ray Charles borrowed vocal mannerisms from Bradford and modeled his Raelets on the Bradford Specials. Bradford's 1962 gospel composition "Let the Lord Be Seen in Me," recorded for his album One Step and Angel on Vacation, was covered in 1964 by Bob Marley and the Spiritual Sisters. In 1967, Bradford provided narration and singing for an animated short film by Richard Williams Productions titled Sailor and the Devil.

As his recording career declined, Bradford joined the off-Broadway production of Black Nativity in 1961, a show based on the writings of Langston Hughes. The production toured Europe in 1962, and among the members of the Alex Bradford Singers during that period was Madeline Bell, who remained in England after the tour concluded. Bradford went on to star in the Broadway production of Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, for which he received the Obie Award in 1972. At the time of his death from a stroke at age fifty-one, he was in the process of preparing the musical Your Arms Too Short to Box with God.