Biography
Kidney failure claimed O'Landa Draper, the Memphis-based ensemble's founder and creative force, at age 34 in July 1998, yet O'Landa Draper & the Associates persists in carrying forward his vision under the direction of his fiancée, Patrina Smith. In 2000 the group issued the concert video All About Him (Jesus), drawn from its annual Music Lover's Conference.
Born to a gospel promoter and recording artist, Draper guided O'Landa Draper & the Associates to the forefront of the genre. Following several releases on the independent Word Records imprint, the choir broadened its reach in 1994 by appearing on Billy Joel's hit single and video "River of Time" and by joining Joel onstage at the nationally televised Grammy Awards. Two years afterward, the album Gotta Feelin' climbed to the number-two slot on the gospel charts, yielded the Top Ten gospel single "Reflections," captured Stellar and Dove awards, and received four Grammy nominations.
Draper was just 22 when he assembled O'Landa Draper & the Associates in 1986, drawing early inspiration from gospel sounds encountered during his youth in Alabama and Washington, D.C. After relocating to Memphis in the mid-1970s, he joined a glee club and pursued formal training at Overton High School with choir director Lula Hedgeman, then continued at Memphis State University, where he led the school's gospel choir.
At the threshold of greater influence as a choir director, Draper suffered kidney failure and was taken to Metro Nashville General Hospital, where he died two days later on July 21, 1998, scant weeks before his planned wedding.
Born to a gospel promoter and recording artist, Draper guided O'Landa Draper & the Associates to the forefront of the genre. Following several releases on the independent Word Records imprint, the choir broadened its reach in 1994 by appearing on Billy Joel's hit single and video "River of Time" and by joining Joel onstage at the nationally televised Grammy Awards. Two years afterward, the album Gotta Feelin' climbed to the number-two slot on the gospel charts, yielded the Top Ten gospel single "Reflections," captured Stellar and Dove awards, and received four Grammy nominations.
Draper was just 22 when he assembled O'Landa Draper & the Associates in 1986, drawing early inspiration from gospel sounds encountered during his youth in Alabama and Washington, D.C. After relocating to Memphis in the mid-1970s, he joined a glee club and pursued formal training at Overton High School with choir director Lula Hedgeman, then continued at Memphis State University, where he led the school's gospel choir.
At the threshold of greater influence as a choir director, Draper suffered kidney failure and was taken to Metro Nashville General Hospital, where he died two days later on July 21, 1998, scant weeks before his planned wedding.