Featured Profile: Bradley the Entertainer

As a young boy growing up on the South Side of Chicago, Bradley Keith Walker was exposed to the life of an entertainer at an early age. Louise Elizabeth Walker, his mother, was a Vaudeville Dancer, Raymond L. Adams, his uncle, was a big band era saxophonist, there were no shortages of entertainment groups to emulate and after his debut performance, at the age of six, he knew that this was his destiny. He simply knew he would be an entertainer.

Bradley was born on February 8, 1954 and throughout his life he has found a way to engage in his “Field of Dreams”, known as entertainment. Whether it was being the family comedian, a singing and dancing child entertainer, choir directing or making music, he has always found a way to bridge to the next phase of his entertainment career.

Lil Bradley Walker

Bradley’s mother always watched him dancing around the house like James Brown and Jackie Wilson and knew, like herself, he had the gift of dance. She would continue to encourage and watched him develop at the very tender age of six.

During a party his mom attended things came to a head for Brad, he recalls, “they played some James Brown music and my mother knew I wanted to take off”, he continued, “my mother said, Brad do the James Brown”, on cue, Brad began singing, dancing and doing the splits to the delight of the crowd.

Black social clubs were prominent in the early to mid-Twentieth Century and were born out of the racial segregation of the time. These clubs flourished in Chicago and mostly ranged from groups of forty down to a dozen. Many were formed by family and friends and Brad’s mom and sisters were active participants. Almost all of these groups sponsored social activities and well-attended events.

Sometime later a socialite who attended the party where Brad had performed called his mom and wanted to know if Brad could perform at their annual social club event. At that moment his mother became his manager and promoter and “Lil Bradley Walker” was born.

That social event was held at the Grand Ballroom in Chicago and was his first paying gig. Bradley recalls, with a smile, “I never looked back, I knew this is what I wanted to do”.

Over the next six years his mother and manager kept Brad booked working the social club network and night clubs throughout Illinois and surrounding states. During this time period he also took tap dancing, guitar, drums and piano lessons but stuck mostly with the drums.

James Brown and Jackie Wilson were the biggest influences in Brad the entertainer’s life and he would watch them perform every chance he got. “I used to live at the Regal Theater” where he studied his idols, “I would study how they came out on stage, how they bowed and their general mannerisms while on stage”.

The Regal opened on February 4, 1928 and was located in the “Bronzeville” area on the South Side of Chicago and was one of the first entertainment complexes that was available for black audiences and also employed black staff members. Some of the performers that were brought in include: Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, The Temptations, Miles Davis, Nat “King” Cole, Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson, the Jackson Five, and several others.

Bradley continued to hone his craft and soon found himself performing on the same stage with the likes of The Jackson 5, Alvin “Twine Time” Cash, Lou Rawls, and others.

Operation Breadbasket

Around the month of May 1966, three months after Brad’s twelfth birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King named Jesse L. Jackson, a Chicago Theological Seminary student, to head the Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket. Louise Elizabeth Perkins was involved from the beginning and attended the early meetings to scope out what Breadbasket was all about. After attending several meetings and determining that this was a positive movement to be involved with she collected her son, Bradley, and grandchildren, Tracy, Cenita, Gail, Timothy, Jeune, and Paulette and ushered them to their first meeting one Saturday morning. They all went kicking and screaming but with Louise this was not a request.

Bradley and the other kids had been attending the Saturday meetings for some time when his mother informed them that they will be joining the choir. The initial choir had around ten members and almost doubled in size when Bradley, his nieces and nephew joined.

As Breadbasket began to gain momentum Rev. Jesse Jackson called upon Billy J. Jones to organize the choir which he did in June of 1968. A gifted and talented musician, Jones began singing at the age of 4 and later became a classically trained vocalist. According to former choir members, when Billy Jones directed a choir, you could count on a musical show.

The SCLC Operation Breadbasket Orchestra and Choir quickly grew to hundreds within a couple of years and became a popular and critical part of the operation. They traveled to events with Jesse and opened for all of the headliners during the annual Breadbasket / PUSH Conventions including Black Expo. By this time the choir had grown so large that Jesse Jackson appointed his “second mom”, Louise as the Head Matron. Billy Jones along with Brad and the choir shared the stage with such greats as Harry Belafonte, Bill Cosby, Diana Ross, Isaac Hayes, The Jackson 5, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack and many others.

Being an entertainer himself Brad connected well with choir director Billy Jones. Over the years Brad became an understudy to Billy while continuing to learn the ins and outs of choir directing.

When Rev. Jackson split from the SCLC at the end of 1971 he re-launched the organization as Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and thus the Operation PUSH Choir. Louise, Brad’s mother, had passed away fifteen months earlier but the family maintained a close relationship with Rev. Jackson and continued to support the organization and the choir.

The Reverend Marvin Yancy took over music operations of the Operation PUSH Choir in 1973 and immediately transitioned them to the next level. The choir released an album “The People’s Choir of Operation PUSH”, under Yancy’s direction, that year. Rev. Yancy was coming off fresh success with the Independents, a group formed by himself and Chuck Jackson (Rev. Jesse Jackson’s brother). Yancy continued to head music operations for the choir but most of the choir directing was handled by his brother Kevin Yancy. Brad was still heavily involved with the choir and had established a very good working relationship with Marvin during this time.

Ralph Evans took the musical reigns of the Operation PUSH Choir in 1977. During this period Bradley worked closely with Evans and began taking on more choir directing responsibilities. While directing Brad was able to add his own entertaining flare to the position further enhancing what he had learned from his mentor Billy Jones.

Under Ralph’s leadership the choir released its second album “PUSH For Excellence” in 1978 which was nominated for a Grammy Award.

The Music Scene

The “PUSH For Excellence” album was nominated in the 1980 Grammy Awards for Best Soul Gospel Performance – Contemporary. Ralph Evans and Bradley Walker represented the choir at the 22^nd Grammy Awards show on February 27, 1980, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. While at the Grammys Brad ran into his old friend, from Operation PUSH, Rev. Marvin Yancy who was attending with his wife Natalie Cole. Marvin and Gene Barge, also an old friend, were putting the final touches on Natalie’s next album “Don’t Look Back” and invited Brad to the studio.