Homegoing for Bill Moss, Sr.

TBGB thanks Sheilah Belle and The Belle Report for providing the following list of homegoing services for William "Bill" Moss Sr.

Viewing:
11 AM - 7 PM
Friday, June 29th
New Saint Paul Church , Southfield Rd. & Grand River
Detroit , MI

Family Viewing:
6 PM - 7 PM
Friday, June 29th
New Saint Paul Church , Southfield Rd. & Grand River
Detroit , MI

Family Hour:
10:30 AM
Saturday, June 30th
Greater Emanuel Church , 7 Mile Rd. & Schaefer
Detroit , MI

Homegoing Service:
11:00 AM
Saturday, June 30th
Greater Emanuel Church , 7 Mile Rd. & Schaefer
Detroit , MI

Gospel Legend Bill Moss Passes Away

TBGB learned from The Belle Report that Bill Moss, Sr., member of Detroit's Moss/Clark gospel music dynasty, went on to be with the Lord today. He died in a Detroit hospital.

Moss's sister, Mattie Moss Clark, almost needs no introduction, but for those who don't know, she was the leader of the Southwest Michigan State Choir of the COGIC and gave birth (literally) to the Clark Sisters.

Bill Moss is perhaps best known for founding the gospel group Bill Moss and the Celestials. A songwriter, Moss also started a record company, Bilesse, that recorded his group as well as other Moss Clark family members and Detroit artists. Moss' son, J Moss, has followed in the family business and has built a steady reputation as a gospel artist and A-list producer, the latter as part of the PAJAM team.

There's so much more to be said about Bill Moss and his role in the development of gospel music, but for the sake of getting this post out to you, I will be brief. As more details roll in about the services, I'll post them here.

Meanwhile, WLUW's "Gospel Memories" (www.gospelmemories.com) will pay tribute to Bill Moss by featuring his music and some of the recorded output of Bilesse Records on its July 1 broadcast.

Sarah McKissick Birthday Party!

Special thanks to Joseph Middleton for alerting TBGB about this notice, found on the Atlanta Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America website.

Monday, June 25th, 2007. The Atlanta Chapter of the GMWA, Inc. Mass Choir will be the guest of our own Sis. Sarah McKissick in her 87th Birthday Celebration to be held at the Mt. Patmos Baptist Church 2207 Candler Road, Decatur, Georgia 30032 where the Pastor is Rev. Raleigh Rucker. Service begins at 7:00 p.m.

* * * * *

Sarah McKissick was a member, along with Gladys Beamon and Catherine Campbell, of Chicago's Little Lucy Smith Singers (above, right). Little Lucy was the grandaughter of Elder Lucy Smith, founder of All Nations Pentecostal Church. Sarah was married to Norsalus McKissick, longtime member of the Roberta Martin Singers.

Happy Birthday, Sister Sarah!

CD Single Review: "Oh Clap Your Hands" - Pastor Brenda Jefferson

“Oh Clap Your Hands”
Brenda Jefferson
from A Time of Refreshing
Scripture Music Group 2007
www.myspace.com/brendajeffersononline

“Oh Clap Your Hands” is the radio single from Brenda Jefferson’s recently released collection of "Scripture songs," A Time of Refreshing. Pastor Jefferson and her husband, Bishop M.B. Jefferson, lead the congregation at Deeper Life Christian Church in Tampa, Florida.

“Oh Clap Your Hands,” featuring Lisa Page Brooks, is a mid-tempo foot-tapper that showcases the background singers (who chant a catchy motif) as much as the shouting interplay between Jefferson and Brooks. The song is sure to complement contemporary gospel radio playlists nicely.

For my money, however, a more powerful and effective track on A Time of Refreshing is Pastor Jefferson’s duet with the legendary quartet captain of the Mighty Clouds of Joy, Joe Ligon, on “I Will Trust in the Lord.” This cut is steeped in traditional gospel blues, and Ligon’s presence gives it even more authenticity.

Flashback: Essential Gospel – Classic Recordings #2

“Walk Around Heaven All Day”
The Caravans
Vee Jay 945 and VJLP 5058 (1964)

[Also available on Collectables CD The Best of Vee-Jay Gospel, Vol. 4]

(NOTE: This essay was originally published in 1996; it has been edited and updated for inclusion here.)

“One of these mornings, it won’t be very long;
You'll look for me and I’ll be gone.”

This couplet appears in thousands of gospel songs, but nowhere is it articulated with more elegance and foreboding than in the Caravans’ “Walk Around Heaven All Day.”

Although billed as a Caravans recording, "Walk Around Heaven All Day" is really a solo outing for member Cassietta George, and it ranks as her finest work. After a delicate but somber intro of piano and organ, Cassietta enters, a cry buried deep in her voice, singing about a hereafter where "nobody will be able to put me out.”

She has me at the line, "My mother will be waiting and my father, too/And we'll just walk around, walk around Heaven all day." If you substitute the names of your own deceased loved ones in that line, this song is guaranteed to break your heart.

By the time Cassietta lets loose an old-fashioned gospel shout during the song’s bridge, you are caught completely in the rapture of her voice and the lyrical imagery of a place where loved ones walk streets of freedom. Take notice, everyone: this is the recording I want played at my funeral.

One of Vee Jay’s most touching gospel recordings, “Walk Around Heaven All Day” is a poignant evocation of Heaven with a pointed social message. Seemed as if in 1964 America, the only way African Americans could achieve freedom was by making it to the pearly gates.

TBGB Reviews...Jim Byrnes

House of Refuge
Jim Byrnes
Black Hen Music 2007
www.blackhenmusic.com

If in the past ten to fifteen years, gospel’s lyrical content hasn’t strayed too far from its origins, its musical foundation sure has. North of the U.S./Canada border, it seems to have shed even more of its musical modesty, fraternizing openly with worldly sounds that church folk would have considered off limits back in the day.

Proof positive: House of Refuge from St. Louis-born and now Vancouver resident Jim Byrnes sounds like the Fairfield Four meets the Marshall Tucker Band over tumblers of Schwab’s Memphis mojo. Byrnes whips gospel, jazz, blues, country, and soul into such a divine froth that the listener can’t wait to savor the next track. Here Big Bill Broonzy’s “Big Bill’s Blues” is joined by Dorsey’s “Today,” and Robert Johnson’s “Last Fair Deal Gone Down” conjures the ghost of Nashville’s legendary disc jockey John “John R.” Richburg, a reminder of Byrnes’ earlier warning that we are “Running Out of Time.”

The finest moment on the album comes right at the beginning, in the opening strains of the first track, “Didn’t It Rain.” The joyous a cappella harmonies of the Sojourners, a quartet composed of Marcus Mosely, Will Sanders, and Ron Small, kick off the project, setting the mood for the marvelous musical combination to follow. I wanted to hear much more of the Sojourners on the album; they deserve a project of their own, if they don't already have one.

Although House of Refuge is noted for its unusual repertory, the most curious addition is an easy-going rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust,” which must have been a special request. Byrnes’ vocals bring forth the spirit of Louis Armstrong while instrumentally it’s all about Willie Nelson. Of course, the juxtaposition makes sense, given Byrnes’ eclectic but effective confluence of black and white roots sounds.

House of Refuge fits comfortably in the style of other Canadian gospel artists such as Danny Brooks and his fellow members of the NorthernBlues Gospel Allstars. This style of gospel is not clad in choir robes; it wears boots, and proudly so.

Three of Four Stars

Rev. Eddie Porter, Father of Tyrone & Paul Porter of The Christianaires

From D.A. Johnson of Malaco Records:

We regret to announce that Rev. Eddie Porter, Father of Tyrone & Paul Porter
of The Christianaires Passed on Thursday, June 7, 2007.

The Homegoing schedule is as follows:

Family Hour
Tuesday, June 12th
6:00 p.m. -7:00 p.m.
Williams Mortuary
212 E. Minnesota Street
Brookhaven, Mississippi 39601
601-833-5871

Home Going Celebration
Wednesday, June 13th
11:00 a.m.
Friendship Church
30 Friendship Lane
Monticello, Mississippi 39654
601-587-4269

Tyrone and Josie Porter
2103 Pipeline Lane
Sontag, Mississippi
39665

Email expressions may be sent via this address
quartetgmwa@aol.com

Ready At Last...The (Expanded and Revised) Gospel Discography

From Eyeball Productions:

The Gospel Discography 1943-1970 is the culmination of over forty years of research, starting with a column by Cedric Hayes called "Post War Gospel Records" in the fledgling Blues Unlimited magazine in 1963. Cedric was joined shortly afterwards by Bob Laughton, and the work slowly and painstakingly grew into the 1992 publication of Gospel Records 1943-70.

During the fourteen years that have passed since that edition, a wealth of new information and detail has been uncovered, resulting in this thoroughly revised and substantially expanded 658 page incarnation. The listings follow the same format as The Blues Discography, arranged alphabetically by artist and chronologically by session and matrix number. Also included are indexes for artists, song titles, 45/78rpm, LP and CD issues.

This book is essential. ESSENTIAL! Did I mention that it is essential?

Get your copy here:
http://www.eyeballproductions.com/pages/gospel%20discography.html

TBGB thanks Cedric Hayes, Bob Laughton and Bob McGrath for making this new edition available. Not only will it provide information on a greater number of gospel recordings than ever before, but since the earlier edition has been out of print and hard to find for years, more individuals will now be able to gain access to this valuable information.

Flashback...Building the Ultimate Gospel Collection, Essay 1 (1996)

[Ed. Note: Some of you may remember the "Gospel" website at www.island.net. From the late '90s to 2000, I contributed reviews and other content for the site. My reviews were of recordings I believed essential for building the ultimate gospel music collection.

When the "Gospel" site was discontinued two or three years ago, all of my gospel music reviews went with it. Thankfully, I have hard copies of most of the original essays and will edit, update, and re-post them as "Flashbacks" whenever I can.

Here is the first of more than 100 such recommendations I posted on "Gospel." This essay was posted in November 1996. Enjoy!]


"Everytime I Feel the Spirit"
Dr. Charles G. Hayes & the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer Choir
on the double LP Everytime I Feel the Spirit
Savoy Records 1982

This recording is where gospel music began for me. Tuning into a Chicago radio station to hear the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer's weekly radio broadcast one Sunday evening in 1983, I heard this very arrangement of the spiritual performed live by the choir, now nicknamed the "Warriors." It was as if my heart and breath stopped for six minutes and 40 seconds as the Warriors presented this song with the power and intensity of a train bearing down at full throttle.

This recording, my first taste of gospel music, remains my all-time favorite.

A highlight of the Warriors' "Everytime I Feel the Spirit" is the spotlight that director Allen Cathey shines on the men's section. The men take a "group solo" during the song's drive. This "group solo" technique appears in other Warriors performances and recordings, including "Work On, Pray On, Time Ain't Long" from If Anybody Can, God Can (Muscle Shoals Sound 1990).

Although Cosmo's organist Shelby Wills is credited with the arrangement, it borrows liberally from a 1964 Elektra recording of "Everytime I Feel the Spirit" performed by Rev. William Morris O'Neil and the Harlem Tabernacle Choir. Nevertheless, Dr. Hayes and the Warriors' version is the longer and better of the two, demonstrating the versatility of the gospel choir. It also showcases why the Warriors are one of the best aggregations on the gospel highway: they combine the unrestrained fervor of traditional gospel with the attack and vocal calisthenics of the modern mass choir.

In other words, if you're not moved -- or saved -- by this recording, check your pulse.

TBGB Reviews...The Original Edwin Hawkins Singers Reunion

Oh Happy Day Reunion
The Original Edwin Hawkins Singers
Light 2004 (originally released in 1992)
http://www.lightrecords.com/

OK, I admit it: I am not a fan of the early ‘70s contemporary gospel scene, so I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy this project. Suffice to say that I enjoyed it very much, far more than I thought I would.

Light’s 2004 “Classic Gold” reissue of the Original Edwin Hawkins Singers Reunion, a recording released originally in August, 1992, showcases an ensemble that sounds as fresh and energized as it did when it cut the genre-bending LP that went from private fundraiser to international blockbuster in 1969 with the release of the smash single, “Oh Happy Day.”

A subtle but gratifying aspect of the CD is that the introductions, testimonies, and other speaking parts have been eliminated in favor of no-nonsense singing. Some tracks – such as the iconic “Oh Happy Day” and the musically superior “I Heard the Voice” – are presented in bite-size chunks of a couple of minutes each, keeping the performance rolling seamlessly ahead. Meanwhile, Sylvia Guiton’s thoroughly sanctified reading of “I’m Going Through,” complete with false ending, gets nearly six minutes of play, which it deserves, being the most emotionally charged performance on the disc.

Two other performances of note are “Listen to the Rain,” and “Jesus, That’s My King.” Led by Walter Hawkins and Jewell Pittman, “Listen to the Rain” is an Edwin Hawkins re-arrangement of Roberta Martin’s original take on the spiritual. “Jesus, That’s My King” is a straight-ahead Holy Ghost stomp worthy of putting on “repeat.”

Of course, the solo voice of “Oh Happy Day,” Dorothy Morrison, isn’t present, but nevertheless, this is a satisfying aural snapshot of a group that proves that more than two decades of singing hadn’t burned them out. On the contrary, they sound better and stronger than ever.

Three of Four Stars