Reverend Donald Raymond Vails, Jr. (December 25, 1948 – September 10, 1997), was an American gospel musician and pianist.
Vails released sixteen albums with two labels, Savoy Records and Sound of Gospel.
Vails was born on December 25, 1948, in Atlanta, Georgia, as Donald Raymond Vails, Jr.,[1] whose parents sent him to a nursery school at Gospel Choral Union, and this instilled in him a love of gospel music and the piano.
[2][3] He was leading a choir by age twelve, and after high school, he relocated to Detroit, Michigan to pursue a degree in engineering at Detroit Institute of Technology[2][3] and formed The Choraleers in 1969.
[2][3] Vails relocated to Washington, D.C., in 1985 to attain a master's degree in Music at Howard University.