Amazing disgrace?

Ed. Note: TBGB agrees 100 percent that a gospel museum belongs in Chicago, the city in which the music was given its voice.

Republished courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times
May 28, 2006

BY DAVE HOEKSTRA Staff Reporter
Chicago Sun-Times

The world's first gospel museum, hall of fame and educational center is being planned for Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

That's like having a surfing museum in Chicago.

Chicago is the birthplace of gospel music. Mahalia Jackson came of age in Chicago. The Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey lived his adult life in Chicago after being born in Villa Rica, Ga. As the "Father of Gospel Music," he wrote more than 3,000 blues and gospel songs. Dorsey mentored Jackson, James Cleveland, Albertina Walker and many other gospel greats at the historic Pilgrim Baptist Church, 33rd and Indiana, which was destroyed by fire in January.

There wouldn't be the uplifting Chicago soul of the Staple Singers, Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield without Chicago gospel. R. Kelly's music teacher at Kenwood Academy was Lena McLin. Her uncle was the Rev. Dorsey.

At the center of the Fort Lauderdale initiative is gospel superstar Dr. Bobby Jones. The museum will be named the Dr. Bobby Jones Gospel Complex For Education, Heritage and Preservation. Last week, Jones began moving portions of his operation from Nashville to Fort Lauderdale. Jones is host and producer of "Bobby Jones Gospel," which has aired on Black Entertainment Television (BET) since 1980.

"Nowhere in the world do we have a home for gospel music," Jones said in an interview from Nashville. "This will be the first, and it will be quite elaborately built. This will include a (1,100-seat) theater and a production studio. Fort Lauderdale had the desire to build this. I thought it would have been Chicago first, but if Chicago wanted it, it would be there by now."

The 22nd annual Chicago Gospel Festival kicks off on Friday. CeCe Winans headlines Saturday's performances in Grant Park, and Sunday closes with "The Gospel Champions" featuring The Caravans, Doc McKenzie & The Hi-Lites, and Joe Ligon & The Mighty Clouds of Joy.

Pam Morris has been the city's gospel fest coordinator since 1989. "We're not happy about Florida," said Morris, who also hosts a weekly gospel show on WVON-AM (1450). "Albertina Walker was doing it before Bobby Jones. She's from Chicago. I'm shocked. I'm not sure this was offered to Chicago, and Chicago is the mecca of gospel music."

Morris has been meeting with the Rev. Stanley Keeble, who is trying to find a home for a Chicago Gospel Music Heritage Museum. He has artifacts such as the tuxedo worn by the late James Cleveland when he received the first of his five Grammy awards, plus uniforms from Chicago's legendary Thompson Communiy Singers. "This is a crucial situation for gopsel music," the Rev. Keeble said on Monday. "And it is crucial for the city of Chicago."

Meanwhile, Albert Tucker, vice president of multicultural business development at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, said ground will be broken for the 60,000-square foot Florida project next year. He hopes a portion of the Jones gospel center will be open in 2008.

"We saw the need for the industry to have a permanent home," Tucker said. "And we are one of the major tourist capitals of the country. From an economic standpoint, we put our money where our mouth was."

Church and state

Earlier this month Florida State Rep. Christopher Smith announced $350,000 had been appropriated for research and development of the gospel complex. The money is in the state's new budget, awaiting approval from Gov. Jeb Bush. Ultimately, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau hopes to obtain between $5 and 10 million from the state. Tucker chairs the state's program for multicultural tourism.

Chicago's Rev. Keeble said, "My problem has been finding funding. Bobby didn't have any trouble finding funding. And he gets exposure from his television show."

The Rev. Keeble was a frequent performer on the "Jubilee Showcase" television show that ran from 1963 until 1984 on WLS-TV. By July he hopes to launch a Sunday morning "Chicago Gospel Jublilee" show on WCPX-Channel 38. ("Jubilee Showcase" tapes can be viewed at the Chicago Public Library Music Information Center in the Harold Washington Library.)

The key element in gospel coming to Fort Lauderdale is the bi-annual International Gospel Industry Retreat, hosted by Jones. Three years ago Jones, 67, moved his retreats from Las Vegas to Fort Lauderdale. Earlier this month, the 18th biannual retreat was held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. The next retreat will be Dec. 4-6 in Fort Lauderdale. Tucker said each retreat results in nearly $1 million for the local economy.

"He brings in just about all the major gospel artists for educational summits as well as television tapings," Tucker said. "Last time he had Yolanda Adams, Kirk Franklin, Shirley Caesar." That three-day retreat drew 1,100 people daily, according to Tucker. "It's really focused on the industry," he said. "The numbers have gone up in the education component where youth participate. At one point it was only for artists and label people."

Geography vs. unity

Lifelong Chicagoan Darius Brooks appears at 5:40 p.m. Saturday in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion as part of this year's Chicago Gospel Festival. His mother, Ethyl, played piano for Cleveland and Mahalia Jackson. Brooks was the songwriter and producer for the late Rev. Milton Brunson and the Thompson Community Singers. Brooks bleeds Chicago gospel, yet he understands Jones' initiative.

"Everybody in the gospel industry knows Bobby Jones," said Brooks, 43. "Any attatchment to Chicago would be awesome for him. The detatchment from Chicago would make eyebrows go up. Because of gospel, I would support him. I believe in unity. But there should be a museum in Chicago, and maybe this will open it up."

In 1989, a Jazz-Blues-Gospel Hall of Fame opened in the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington. The project was led by Charles Suber, former publisher of Down Beat magazine from 1955-62 and 1968-82. Initital inductees were Jackson, Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. The "hall of fame" moved to the Harold Washington Library when it opened in 1991 and is now available as part of the library's archival collection.

The Rev. Keeble's Chicago Gospel Music Heritage Museum idea has its roots in a computerized history kiosk at the DuSable Museum. This week the kiosk will be moved to Grant Park in conjunction with the gopsel festival. The Rev. Keeble has played with Inez Andrews and Jessy Dixon. In 1968, he formed his own gospel choir, the Voices of Triumph.

In the fall of 2002, the Gospel Music Heritage Museum was ready to launch out of a donated building at Michael Reese Hospital. But hospital president Steven Weinstein, who offered the space, was transferred to Washington, D.C., and the musem never opened.

"I'm looking at various sites," the Rev. Keeble said. "I don't know their avalibilty."

'This is going to happen'

The International Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Detroit was founded in 1995. That effort includes a Web site (www.igmhf.org) with a digitized history of gospel music. A "Wall of Time" tracing gospel music from 1865 and the museum's touch screen exhibits can be seen inside the Dorohn Records studio, a gospel label at 18301 W. McNichols Rd. in Detroit. The group is also seeking funding for a permanent museum.

"There's no real building in Detroit," Jones said. "There's concepts all over the country."

Jones' television show is produced in Washington, D.C., and that will continue. He said he will also continue to use Nashville as the base of rehearsal for his choir. Jones also will book gospel talent for the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The prestigious Stellar Gospel Music Awards has a hold on the 2,700-seat Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for its 2007 awards show.

The Fort Lauderdale gospel hall of fame will have inductions like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Tucker said, "I've already talked to individuals from the Gospel Music Workshop of America [founded by James Cleveland], the Praise and Worship Conference. We have word out to Bishop [Kenneth] Moales in Connecticut who worked with Thomas Dorsey.

"This is going to happen," he continued. "There is nothing like this anywhere for gospel. Our convention bureau put in $100,000 for the feasibility study, and we continue to support the efforts of the retreats. We want to make sure that Dr. Jones not only has a location, but a true team around him, supporting him."

Chicago Gospel Music Fest Schedule: June 2 - 4, 2006

TBGB invites you to attend the Chicago Gospel Fest. This year's roster is one of the best ever! And if you are in town for the Fest, be sure to tune into "Gospel Memories" Sunday morning from 3:00 to 7:30 a.m. for classic gospel to get you started! "Gospel Memories," hosted by yours truly, Bob Marovich, is on Chicago's WLUW 88.7 FM, with a real-time webstream at www.wluw.org.

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22nd Annual Chicago Gospel Music Festival
June 2 - 4, 2006 * Millennium Park

Gospel Youth Tent operates Friday 4-5:30 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 1-4:30 p.m.

Friday, June 2 - Jay Pritzker Pavilion
6:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m. - New Direction
6:40 p.m.-7:00 p.m. - Joann Rosario
7:10 p.m.-7:30 p.m. - Bishop Neal Roberson
7:40 p.m.-8:00 p.m. - VaShawn Mitchell & Friends
8:10 p.m.-9:25 p.m. - Dottie Peoples, Marvin Sapp

Saturday, June 3 - Walgreens Day Stage
12:05 p.m.-12:30 p.m. - The Salem Travelers
12:35 p.m.- 1:05 p.m. - "Unity Segment" featuring Just Talent, Inc & Michelle Taylor Buster
1:10 p.m.-1:30 p.m. - Eddie Tucker
1:35 p.m.-2:00 p.m. - Jason Shepherd & Another Level
2:10 p.m.-2:40 p.m. - New Orleans Exchange Artist
2:45 p.m.-3:15 p.m. - Joey & Veronica Woolfalk
3:20 p.m.-3:45 p.m. - The Ray Sisters featuring The Angie Ray Ministries Recording Choir
3:55 p.m.-4:30 p.m. - The Singletons

Saturday, June 3 - Jay Pritzker Pavilion
5:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. - Pastor Ray Berryhill & Evangel Assembly of God Choir
5:40 p.m.-6:10 p.m. - Darius Brooks
6:20 p.m.-7:35 p.m. - "An Evening of Gospel Elegance" featuring Pastor Maceo Woods & The Christian Tabernacle Concert Choir, Felicia Coleman Evans, and The Four Most Tenors
7:45 p.m.-8:30 p.m. - "The Old Ship of Zion" featuring Rev. Dr. Clay Evans, Lou Della Evans Reid & The Reunion Choir of Fellowship Baptist Church
8:45 p.m.-9:30 p.m. - CeCe Winans

Sunday, June 4 - Walgreens Day Stage
12:00 p.m.- 12:45 p.m. - Joe Ligon & The Mighty Clouds of Joy
12:50 p.m.-1:05 p.m. - Pastor James Bolton
1:10 p.m.-1:35 p.m. - The Sensational Harmoneers
1:40 p.m.-2:05 p.m. - The Silver Stars
2:10 p.m.-2:35 p.m. - The Friendly Gales
2:40 p.m.-3:05 p.m. - The Mixon Singers
3:10 p.m.-3:35 p.m. - Dr. Mack McCollum
3:40 p.m.-4:15 p.m. - The Douglas Singers

Sunday, June 4 - Jay Pritzker Pavilion
5:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. - Malcolm Williams & Great Faith
5:40 p.m.-6:25 p.m. - "A Touch of Chicago's Gospel Pioneers" featuring Billie Barrett Greenbey, Shirley Wahls, Bishop Claude O. Timmons, and Rev. Ernest Franklin, hosted by Dr. Lucius Hall
6:40 p.m.-7:25 p.m. - "The James Cleveland Tribute" featuring Pastor Walter Butts, Pastor Chris Harris, Pastor T.L. Barrett, and Elder Kevin Vasser
7:35 p.m.-9:30 p.m. - "The Gospel Champions" featuring The Caravans, Doc McKenzie & The Hi-Lites, and Joe Ligon & The Mighty Clouds of Joy

Essential Gospel – Classic Recordings: No. 135

“Pray On My Child”
Missionary Travelers
Sensational 1823
ca. late 1960s/early 1970s

The name of the record label best describes the recording it carries by Chicago’s Missionary Travelers, led by Rev. D. Hardiman: sensational.

While the story of The Dying Mother has been sung so often on gospel recordings as to be cliché today, the Missionary Travelers treat their variation on the theme with elegiac dignity and reverence. In fact, most of the song focuses on Rev. Hardiman’s reminiscences of the life lessons that Mother taught. It is only in the last minute that we learn this honorable woman is walking the last mile of the way.

During the final line of Rev. Hardiman’s soulful gospel performance, “Then she closed her eyes/And went on home to glory,” you feel as though you are right there at Mother’s bedside, weeping with her loved ones, experiencing the moment of grace firsthand. The peaceful, sadness of the instant of death is captured more vividly here than on most gospel recordings. Indeed, the final grooves alone make your hunt to find this record very much worth the effort.

Gospel Festival to honor sounds and work of James Cleveland

Gospel Festival to honor sounds and work of James Cleveland

By Aaron Cohen
Special to the Tribune
Published May 28, 2006

When Aretha Franklin set out to make gospel history, she knew who to call. In 1972 the soul legend returned to her devotional beginnings to record what would become a landmark crossover album, "Amazing Grace" (Atlantic). Although the soaring lead voice was certainly hers, the choir director, main pianist and secondary vocalist was Franklin's longtime friend, Rev. James Cleveland.

Years later, in Franklin's memoirs ("Aretha: From These Roots"), she calls him "a gospel genius" and adds, "no one could put together a choir like James Cleveland."

For most musicians such praise and a record such as "Amazing Grace" would have defined a career. For Cleveland, it was just another day at the office.

This year's Chicago Gospel Festival includes a memorial tribute to Cleveland as his rough baritone voice and extensive work behind the scenes transformed the music. As a songwriter, he penned hundreds of church standards. Major singers, such as Franklin and Marion Williams, excelled when they collaborated with him. And it was Cleveland who made rigorously organized choirs the focus of popular gospel performance.

But for all that Cleveland's life's work has accomplished, his death in 1991 of AIDS-related complications still raises a stony silence among his colleagues in the church. As Detroit gospel pianist Herbert Pickard said, "It's one of those unwritten things that you know, but you don't speak of it."

"He was the greatest gospel singer I ever heard," said Pastor Walter Butts, who is participating in the tribute. "And he wrote the most powerful songs for gospel. The arrangements call you to shout, rejoice, laugh -- they had all the different elements."

Well-nurtured

Gospel's elements surrounded Cleveland when he was growing up on Chicago's South Side. Born in 1932, he jumped at numerous opportunities to study under an early generation of gospel creators who flourished in his neighborhood. He sang soprano at the historic Pilgrim Baptist Church when the hugely influential Thomas A. Dorsey was musical director. Cleveland was also drawn to the classically trained pianist Roberta Martin, even though his family could not afford the instrument.

As Cleveland grew, his voice inevitably deepened. Anthony Heilbut, author of the definitive study, "The Gospel Sound," says that his vocals "were not conventionally beautiful, but so expressive and so rugged, nobody cared." A key inspiration for Cleveland was the rhythmically forceful baritone, Eugene Smith.

The admiration was mutual. Smith -- who still performs at age 85 -- marvels that with Cleveland's "delivery, narration and presentation, he was quite a star."

At first, Cleveland worked diligently behind gospel's small-group star vocalists. He wrote for the Roberta Martin Singers and his arrangements fueled Albertina Walker's group, The Caravans. Herbert Pickard says that what made Cleveland's songs, such as "Grace Is Sufficient," so popular was their simplicity.

"People could jump on them and sing them as soon as they first heard them," Pickard said. "They had that kind of charm."

Sometimes these songs reached audiences in ways that Cleveland did not anticipate. At Chicago's Chess studios, Cleveland's "I Had a Talk With My God Last Night" got reconfigured as an R&B hit for Mitty Collier ("I Had A Talk With My Man Last Night"). But Cleveland was clever enough to reverse such secularization as he turned Gladys Knight's "Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me" into "Jesus Was The Best Thing To Ever Happen To Me."

In the 1950s, Cleveland moved to Detroit and for a while lived with the prominent minister, C. L. Franklin. He taught Franklin's daughter, Aretha, the strong bluesy piano chords that formed the bedrock of his own music. Equally important was that around this time, Cleveland began his intensive work with choirs as part of The Voices of Tabernacle.

"James disciplined the choirs into sleeker versions of the congregations," Heilbut said. "He placed much more emphasis on harmony and it was his boldest conception that choir soloists could be as professional as the great lead singers of the smaller groups."

Cleveland's musical vision for choirs can be heard on two of his best albums: "James Cleveland Sings With the World's Greatest Choirs" and "James Cleveland and the Angelic Choir, Volume 3" (both on Savoy). Gospel's familiar call-and-response is wrung through surprising tempo shifts. He also led these large groups through amazing octave leaps on such songs as "Peace Be Still." Sometimes the choir's contribution is more subtle: On "Christ the Redeemer" the voices add quietly eerie tension to the background of his haunting narration of the crucifixion and resurrection.

"One time, James Baldwin told me that just the way Cleveland sings the word `master' is terrifying," Heilbut said.

Along with professionalizing the choirs, Cleveland personally mentored their young musicians, such as keyboardist Billy Preston. After he moved to Los Angeles and began leading the Southern California Community Choir, Cleveland founded the Gospel Music Workshop of America in 1968. Education is still the forefront of the workshop's mission.

"A mantra that James always used was, `Everybody is somebody,'" Butts said. "That's what the workshop is about -- developing upcoming artists. And he would make even the worst singers feel good and encouraged."

Had a `killer instinct'

Which doesn't mean that Cleveland wasn't competitive when he was onstage.

"He was a lot of fun to be around, but James had that killer instinct," Pickard said. "If it was one of those dry nights and he didn't get the house, he would be mad at all the musicians."

Pickard adds that Cleveland was competitive offstage too.

"I remember that James loved to play cards," Pickard said. "And cheat, of course."

Despite some observers' claims that Cleveland's voice was weakening during the 1970s and 1980s, he could still show off his strength in more ways than one. At the close of the 1982 performance film, "Gospel," Cleveland playfully wrestles an overly excited young drummer off the stage. While some critics, such as Heilbut, lament the maudlin pop ballads that Cleveland went on to write (and earned him a shelf of Grammy Awards), others say he always stuck to the style of his Chicago roots.

"James Cleveland was traditional gospel when he started and carried traditional all throughout his lifetime," Smith said. "And he was doing that type of music when he passed."

While Cleveland's passing from AIDS was shocking, Heilbut is adamant that the church's hushed treatment of the disease has been equally disheartening.

"It was symptomatic of the church's abdication of its responsibility that its greatest star should die of AIDS and so little was made of it," Heilbut said. "There were so many gifted performers and choir directors -- perhaps a whole generation -- killed by the virus."

What everyone does acknowledge is that Cleveland's legacy lives on not only in his numerous recordings and hundreds of compositions, but also through the ongoing generations of musicians who are developing their art through the Gospel Music Workshop.

"Singers and choirs have a forum where they can exchange ideas and dream their dreams together," Pickard said. "That was James' plan."

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"The James Cleveland Tribute" featuring Pastor Walter Butts, Pastor Chris Harris and others is at 6:40 p.m. Sunday, June 4, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, as part of the Chicago Gospel Festival. Admission is free. Phone: 312-744-3315. Web: cityofchicago.org/specialevents.

Baylor Announces $350,000 Gift to Preserve Black Gospel Heritage

TBGB thanks Eric LeBlanc for providing this article, and congratulates Bob Darden on getting the funding to begin this very important project.

May 2, 2006

Media contacts: John Wilson, director of library advancement, (254) 710-3457 and Robert Darden, associate professor of journalism and author of "People Get Ready: A New History of Black Gospel Music," (254) 710-6353

Baylor University journalism professor Robert Darden was angry.

Darden, a former Gospel Music editor for Billboard Magazine and author of People Get Ready: A New History of Black Gospel Music (2004, Continuum International Publishing Group), knew that each day, a piece of the history of black gospel music was slipping away.

And so, with a passion rarely seen outside a tent revival, Darden wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times in February 2005. He wrote about how gospel music has influenced today's contemporary hits, how new gospel releases sell millions of copies today and how, when he plays snippets of the old music during radio interviews, the public clamors for more.

"It would be more than a cultural disaster to forever lose this music," Darden wrote. "It would be a sin."

Such passion inspired Charles Royce, a businessman from Connecticut who knew little of Baylor, to call Darden. What, he wanted to know, could be done to change this course?

Darden started doing his research. He contacted the Arhoolie Foundation in Berkeley, Calif., an organization dedicated to preserving Mexican-American music. He learned how to work with the fragile media like 78s, the dominant recording available from the 1940s to the mid-1950s.

"In most cases, the original masters are long lost, destroyed or damaged. We're going to have to get the best quality 78s that we can and make copies from those."

Darden submitted a proposal to Royce that involved not only digitizing the music, but preserving ephemera like photos, liner notes, record jackets and other accompanying material as well.

On Jan. 1, 2006, Royce approved the proposal and pledged $350,000 to support the project. Royce is president and chief investment officer of Royce & Associates LLC, and president of The Royce Funds. Royce & Associates, an investment firm based in New York that he founded, has 30 years experience in the small- and micro-cap markets. Though basically unfamiliar with Baylor, Royce was motivated to support the project because he recognized the need and was impressed by Darden's zeal.

"We've done such a bad job of protecting this priceless musical heritage," Darden said. "As people begin to realize the value of this most original of all music forms -- this music that everything that comes out of America is rooted in -- they'll appreciate the fact that we, their ancestors, made an effort to save it. Not only will they love it for itself, but for its historic nature as well. Future generations will appreciate our efforts, especially as a lot of other historic media, music and film, is already lost."

Royce's gift will allow Baylor to identify, acquire, clean, digitize and catalogue black gospel music and the accompanying ephemera as part of the Charles M. Royce Black Gospel Music Restoration Project.

Baylor already is equipped to handle a project of this nature. The project will utilize the Riley Digitization Center, a lab used to digitize, catalog and provide electronic access to unique and special collections of materials located in the Baylor Libraries. Harold and Dottie Riley of Austin made the generous donation equipping the center, named in memory of Harold's father, Ray I. Riley.

"With our outstanding School of Music, our premier library facilities and our Christian heritage, Baylor University is the perfect institution to spearhead this project," said Baylor President John M. Lilley. "We can provide the tools, the knowledge and the enthusiasm necessary to preserve this treasured past."

Over the past few years, the university has been digitizing the Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music, a collection that contains approximately 28,000 pieces spanning a period from the last part of the 18th century to the 1950s.

"Preserving these historic recordings will be a service for our nation and the world," said Bill Hair, interim dean of the Baylor Libraries. "Without such an undertaking, many of these priceless recordings could be lost forever."

Darden agrees, pointing out that every day historic materials are slipping away. Never was that more apparent than this past January, when the historic Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago was destroyed by fire. Thomas Dorsey, considered to be the father of gospel music, was music director there from 1932 to the 1970s. Dorsey's greatest hit was "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," a song popularized by Mahalia Jackson (a famous visitor to the church) that became a favorite of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Much of the memorabilia of Thomas Dorsey was still there -- a lot of the sheet music he wrote, some of his 400 original gospel songs, irreplaceable photos and files," Darden said. "What we're doing now may be the last chance we have in this country to save the majority of these songs. When it's gone, it's gone. The fire was just further proof that this needs to be done now. Every day is a day too late."

TBGB Pick of the Week: May 22, 2006

“Listen to the Lambs”
Cliff Go-Ber
From the Expressions from the Heart album
4-Life Musick 2004

Okay, I’m a little slow to jump on this one, but if it weren’t for Numero Group Records owner Rob Sevier passing this gem on to me, I wouldn’t have heard it in the first place. And that would have unfortunate.

On his Expressions from the Heart album, soul and gospel stylist Cliff Go-Ber gives the spiritual “Listen to the Lambs” a 1970s Curtis Mayfield touch to chronicle the trials and tribulations of 21st Century America. Included in Go-Ber’s litany of modern problems are violence, jobs leaving cities, children receiving low grades, high taxes, and jails running over with inmates who “look like my brother.” “People in high places ain’t got no pity,” replies the backing vocal group the Voices of Truth with head-shaking affirmation.

Go-Ber’s supplication, tinged with sincere frustration, is punctuated by a brief but effective rap by N-Trakit (Curtis Walton) on the above litany, leaving the listener with the conclusion that the “government is full of lies.” “Listen to the Lambs” is old-school gospel providing a knuckle-smacking lesson for the new-school society.

In other words, if the world makes you "throw up both your hands" like Marvin Gaye sang on "What's Going On," you'll enjoy "Listen to the Lambs."

TBGB Pick of the Week: May 15, 2006

“Praise On My Lips”
Sonja G. Whitmore & the High Praise Chorale Ensemble
From the Twin Diamond Springs Production album Praise On My Lips
2006
www.sgwhpce.com

Remember Sonja Whitmore, the composer of “More Abundantly?” The gospel song that propelled Ricky Dillard and the New Generation Chorale to superstardom in the 1990s? The song that turned four-part gospel choral singing into an Olympic sport? What has Sonja been doing lately?

The Texas-born and Chicago-bred singer/songwriter has a solo project and ensemble of her own now. “Praise On My Lips” is the first single release from Sonja’s eponymously titled album, featuring her High Praise Chorale Ensemble. While “Praise On My Lips” is not as high-octane as “More Abundantly,” it is nevertheless a pleasing rapid-tempo high praise lifter reminiscent of 1990s Chicago Mass Choir workouts. The “High Praisin’ Saints” cut that immediately follows “Praise” on the album is even more frenetic. Had it been edited to the end of “Praise On My Lips” instead of being a reprise track, the whole package would have made for an incredible out-of-body musical experience. Nevertheless, gospel music fans take heed: Sonja is back!

CD Single Review: "For All the Love" -- June Rochelle

“For All the Love”
June Rochelle
From her forthcoming album, Changing Places
Vision Entertainment Media Group 2006

For the first few seconds, “For All the Love” sounds every bit like a love song to a human partner. A few seconds later, one learns that it’s not an earth-bound being at all that June Rochelle is referring to in her RnB-flavored sacred song. You get the idea. June Rochelle’s trained, lovely voice and impeccable breath control steers the rhythm in this quiet storm production. “For All the Love” is gospel music for the twilight hours.

Dixie Hummingbirds named 2006 Artists of the Year

TBGB just learned from The Belle Report that the iconic gospel quartet the Dixie Hummingbirds will receive the 2006 Artists of the Year Award from Pennsylvania's 2006 Governor's Awards for the Arts.

The Governor's Awards for the Arts honors outstanding artists, arts organizations and patrons of the arts in Pennsylvania.

The Belle Report notes that "Governor Rendell will present the awards at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday, June 20, at The F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County. The ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will include presentations and special performances. A ticketed reception will immediately follow the ceremony."

Congratulations to Ira Tucker and the 'Birds for receiving such a wonderful honor from their home state. You make us all proud, but you especially make proud the residents of the City of Brotherly Love!

CD Review: La Varnga G. Hubbard – Nobody Else Compares to You

Nobody Else Compares to You
La Varnga G. Hubbard
LA Sing Management 2006

This is the best gospel album I’ve heard this year. And it’s not on a major label. In fact, it’s not really attributable to any label. It’s independently produced. But to paraphrase the title, nothing else compares to it.

Nobody Else Compares to You makes up in musical energy what it lacks in top-shelf packaging and marketing. La Varnga Hubbard is well schooled in Chicago gospel and it shows in her irrepressibly sassy, raw-throated vocals. Mix the spunk of Evangelist Shirley Caesar with the metabolism of the Warriors’ Dianne Williams and you have LaVarnga Hubbard. The chorus that accompanies La Varnga is also cut from Chicago cloth in that it is extremely comfortable singing with almost athletic prowess and at marvelously ear-splitting decibels, much like Ricky Dillard’s New Generation Chorale (in fact, Dillard makes a special appearance on the project).

Most of the performances on the album, especially the workouts “Don’t Judge My Praise” and “Call Him Up,” are reminiscent of the high-octane singing of the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer Warriors and the Chicago Mass Choir. Listening to the electrifying rawness of the performances on this album took me back to my earliest exposure to gospel music, when on Sundays in the 1970s and 1980s I would tune my transistor radio to the soulful singing of South Side choirs and congregations.

Other standout performances on the album include the foot-stomping, blues-tinged “He’s Already Done Enough,” and La Varnga’s interpretation of Roberta Martin’s “God’s Amazing Grace,” during which she all but channels the vocal intensity of Dot Coates.

The project was produced by the prodigious Vashawn Mitchell (he also directed the choir) and recorded live in the best of all Windy City venues, Sweet Holy Spirit Church. Although for many years Chicago gospel music was committed to tape at Universal or Paul Serrano’s P.S. Studios, Sweet Holy Spirit is where the tape rolls today.

So will somebody please offer this lady a record deal so many more ears can hear what REAL Chicago gospel sounds like? Amen!

DeNetria Champ Sings Flawlessly!

TBGB note: I've been a strong supporter of DeNetria Champ for some time, and now that she's received Oprah's attention, perhaps this will be her season! Let's hope!

DeNetria Champ Sings Flawlessly!
by Sheilah Belle (from The Belle Report)

Richmond, VA -- JDI Recording artist DeNetria Champ, stopped by St. Paul’s Baptist Church on yesterday. Known for her hit single, “I Really Love You,” and to many sounding like Aretha Franklin, Champ actually sounds even better than her hit song. Before ending the song, Champ said, “Everyone thought it was Aretha, but praise be to God, He blessed me with an anointed voice for His glory and for that I thank Him.” The 10am and 12 noon congregations were almost in awe to hear this woman of God belt out such a powerful tune that matched her single, note for note.

Champ said, “It was during the last Stellar Awards when I met Aretha Franklin.” Rev. Jesse Jackson introduced us.” By this time the single was already being played in Franklin’s hometown of Detroit as well as many other cities across the country.” However Champ said, “It was a delight to finally meet the woman so many people have compared me to.”

Just last year, Champ was nominated for four Stellar Awards and three Grammy Awards. She was invited by Oprah Winfrey to sing at the “Legends Awards,” and because of her performance there, she will be appearing on Oprah in the coming weeks.