Dorinda Clark-Cole

by Andree Farias
As part of contemporary gospel phenomenon the Clark Sisters, Detroit-based Dorinda Clark-Cole helped hone the inimitable Clark sound, an intricate harmonic blend that would go on to influence scores of performers in the R&B, pop, and hip-hop realms. Born Dorinda Grace Clark in 1957, the singer first took to the church stage when she was 5, and, like sisters Jacky Clark-Chisholm, Elbertina "Twinkie" Clark, and Karen Clark-Sheard, she learned the tools of the music trade under the tutelage of her mother, church music matriarch Mattie Moss Clark. A stern, demanding instructor, Moss Clark had high expectations for her daughters, going beyond the typical, raised-singing-in-the-choir approach of other black vocalists. In time, all the Sunday specials, tough rehearsal schedules, and late-night practice sessions Moss Clark imposed on her offspring paid off, serving as a springboard for the launch of the Clark Sisters as a bona fide quartet sensation in the early 1970s. Clark-Cole, in particular, earned the reputation of being the "jazzy one" of the group -- a potent mezzo-soprano with a distinctive command of escalating runs, scats, and riffs. Clark-Cole's surefire rasp was featured front-and-center during the apex of the Sisters' run in the ‘80s, when she took the lead of the funkafied "Overdose of the Holy Ghost," a b-side to foursome's career-defining single "You Brought the Sunshine." The songbird stuck it out with the group after sister Twinkie left to pursue a solo career in the early ‘90s, but then refocused her energies on other ventures as the group's star dwindled in the middle of the decade. Clark-Cole took a more active role preaching and ministering at the Clarks' longtime denomination, the Church of God in Christ, where she also held various administrative and music-related titles both regionally and nationally. Following in the footsteps of Twinkie and younger sister Karen, Clark-Cole stepped out as a solo artist in 2002 with the release of her self-titled debut on Gospo Centric, a disc that yielded the hits "I'm Coming Out" and the showstopping "I'm Still Here." She issued the live follow-up, The Rose of Gospel, in 2005, and the all-studio Take It Back appeared in 2008. While the singer earned acclaim and a number of awards for this solo material -- most notably two Stellar awards and a Soul Train Lady of Soul statuette for her first disc -- it took a 2006 reunion with the Clark Sisters, the smash comeback album Live One Last Time, for Clark-Cole to score her first two Grammy awards.