"Singing Rage of the Gospel Age," Professor Alex Bradford, who has been called "Gospel's Little Richard," arguably stands as the most influential male artist of gospel's post-World War II Golden Age. Important as composer ("I'm Too Close to Heaven and I Can't Turn Around"), singer (alternating between a rough, husky chest voice and a falsetto that turned him into a male soprano), stage (and altar) performer, record producer, and group and choir leader, Bradford also pioneered the extension of gospel to secular contexts, particularly with his world tour with Marion Williams in +Black Nativity (1960), based on texts by %Langston Hughes. He was, rare among important gospel performers, both instrumentalist and vocalist.
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