Alex Bradford

Alex Bradford is a gospel composer, singer, arranger and choir director from Bessemer, Alabama, United States. Known as “Professor,” he is associated with Alex Bradford & Company and with the development of the modern mass choir movement in gospel.

Early life and musical beginnings

Born in 1927, Bradford first appears on stage at the age of four. By thirteen he is singing with a children’s gospel group and soon has his own radio show. After a racial incident, his mother sends him to New York City, where he organises another group. He later returns to Alabama to attend Snow Hill Institute in Snow Hill, where he earns the title “Professor” while teaching as a student.

Career

Bradford moves to Chicago in 1947. There he works briefly with Roberta Martin and tours with Mahalia Jackson before forming his own groups, the Bradford Singers and later the Bradford Specials. His style is marked by a wide vocal range, from a gravelly bass to a whooping falsetto, and by a highly energetic stage presence.

His first major hit is “Too Close To Heaven,” released in 1954 and billed as Professor Alex Bradford and his singers. The record sells more than one million copies and earns a gold disc. He follows it with a series of other successes through the rest of the decade.

Influence and collaborations

Bradford influences artists including Little Richard, Bob Marley and Ray Charles. Little Richard imitates his vocal style and stage manner, while Ray Charles borrows vocal mannerisms and bases his Raelets on the Bradford Specials. Bradford’s 1962 composition “Let the Lord Be Seen in Me,” recorded for the album One Step & Angel on Vacation, is also recorded in 1964 by Bob Marley & the Spiritual Sisters. Marley later adopts Rastafarian faith, but in this period sings gospel with his mother at the Shilo Apostolic Church.

Stage work and later career

In 1961, as his recording career declines, Bradford joins the cast of the off-Broadway show Black Nativity, based on the writings of Langston Hughes, and tours Europe with the production in 1962. Madeline Bell is in the Alex Bradford Singers at this time and later settles in England. Bradford also appears in Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, and wins an Obie Award for it in 1972. He dies in Newark, New Jersey, in 1978 while Your Arms Too Short to Box with God is in production.