"Work a Miracle" - Spencer Taylor & the Highway QCs

“Work a Miracle”
Spencer Taylor & the Highway QCs
From the 4 Winds Records CD
Work a Miracle (2009)
www.malaco.com

Among the initial releases from Malaco Records’ newly-launched 4 Winds imprint is a new CD from a quartet that has been singing and recording together for several decades: Spencer Taylor and the Highway QCs.

The Highway QCs have produced its share of notable gospel and soul artists, including Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, Johnnie Taylor and Spencer Taylor. The latter Taylor has stayed on the gospel highway the longest of the QC membership, having joined in 1956, and the group shows no signs of slowing down in this new century.

The title track of their 4 Winds CD, Work a Miracle, is a mid-tempo hand-clapper about the need for miracles in these troubled times. In between spontaneous shouts, Spencer as lead vocalist reminds the Lord that while he often intercedes on others’ behalf, “I don’t mind telling you tonight, Spencer Taylor needs a little help.” I'm sure that after more than a half-century of singing the glory down, whatever Spencer needed was taken care of expeditiously.

Photo Credit: Malaco Records

R.I.P. - Quita Lumzy of the Lumzy Sisters

From D.A. Johnson of Malaco Music Group:

The Malaco Music Group regrets to announce the passing of Quita Lumzy of the renowned quartet, The Lumzy Sisters.

The funeral service will be held on Monday Nov. 2, 2009 at the First Baptist Church Of Lincoln Gardens, 771 Somerset Street, Somerset, NJ 08873.

The viewing will take place from 9-11am with the service starting at 11am.

On Sunday Nov. 1, there will be a musical celebration in memory of Ms. Quita Lumzy at her home church, Mount Calvary Baptist Church, 150 Throop Ave. New Brunswick, NJ. 08901. There will be a short viewing from 2-4 pm and the concert will start at 5 pm.

The funeral arrangements are being handled by:

Anderson Funeral Services
201 Sanford Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
732-545-7312

The Lumzy Sisters recorded two (2) albums on the Atlanta International Records (Air Gospel) label. If you are unfamiliar with their music ministry, please feel free to visit www.malaco.com to read and listen to this anointed woman of God, Ms. Quita Lumzy, and her sisters.

Please hold the Lumzy family and friends in prayer.

First Creation - Nobody Like Jesus

First Creation
Nobody Like Jesus
First Creation 2008
www.myspace.com/firstcreationmusic

On the infectious “Great Change,” First Creation sings, “I once was young, but now I'm old.” Such a line seems incongruous coming from the nattily-dressed, suave youngish group from Toledo, Ohio, but it’s their poetic license. Much like Commissioned, after whom they patterned themselves, First Creation delivers a youthful, contemporary sound.

The title track of First Creation’s latest release, Nobody Like Jesus, is one example of the group’s jaunty, keyboard-heavy contemporary sing-along groove. “All Because of You” is another, and a third is the group’s funky arrangement of Curtis Mayfield’s classic “People Get Ready.” On one hand, the latter borrows sufficient structure from the Impressions’ famous soul anthem for the listener to make the connection between this song and the original, but on the other hand, it’s a completely different arrangement and more relevant to today's issues.

In an interview with TBGB, First Creation founder Jerry Boose commented, “A lot of radio stations focused first on ‘Jesus You’re My Everything,’ but ‘People Get Ready’ is the song people enjoy most when we sing live. That’s why we are now promoting this particular single to radio.”

Nobody Like Jesus also introduces First Creation’s fans to the group’s newest member, William (Redd) Crook, Jr. Originally from Chicago, Crook handles most of the songwriting and arranging on the album. His Windy City roots show on the James Cleveland-influenced “Jesus You’re My Everything,” the album’s finest cut. A different side of the group can be heard on the soulful, quiet-storm “Possessed by His Love.”

Making last year's Stellar Awards first ballot for best contemporary group, First Creation heads to Florida in November to tour and promote Nobody Like Jesus.

Three of Five Stars

gPod picks: “Jesus, You’re My Everything,” “People Get Ready,” “Great Change.”

Chicago Anniversaries!

Just a few iconic churches and choirs that celebrated anniversaries this month...

Prayer Center COGIC, founded by Mother Fannie Gay and still pastored by Elder G. Donald Gay (right), celebrated its 50th Anniversary yesterday with a banquet at the Lexington House, Hickory Hills, IL. Elder Gay and First Lady Margaret were feted with tributes in song and spoken word, including a beautiful gospel ballad from Elder Carlis Moody, Jr. Donald's sisters Evelyn, Mildred and Geraldine, known as the Gay Sisters, were "America's Singing Sweethearts" in the 1950s, producing a gospel hit on Savoy Records, "God Will Take Care of You."



On Monday, October 26, Dr. Charles G. Hayes (left) and the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer "Warriors" celebrated their 50th anniversary as a choir in Cosmo fashion: by hosting a no-holds-barred gospel program. The church, founded by Dr. Hayes, was originally known as the Universal Kingdom of Christ. Today, the Warriors are an internationally-known choir renowed for their cover of Rev. Maceo Woods and Christian Tabernacle's "Jesus Can Work It Out."

Finally, as several colleagues reminded me, this month marks the 80th anniversary of the First Church of Deliverance Radio Choir. It held its first choir rehearsal the day after the stock market crash of 1929. In 1939, the F.C.D. Choir incorporated the newfangled Hammond organ into its music ministry. Famed gospel music composer and publisher Kenneth Morris played the warbly, chirpy notes on the church's well-known radio broadcast, though without the benefit of a Leslie speaker, which wouldn't be commercially available until 1940. Regardless, the sound caused such a stir that those who tuned in religiously to the F.C.D. broadcast flocked to the church (below) to see just what this unusual instrument looked like!

Johnny B. Williams - The Way I Worship

Johnny B. Williams
The Way I Worship
Johnny Williams Enterprises 2009
www.johnnybwilliams.com

Every now and then an independent project comes along that is so remarkable it leaves me wondering why it hasn’t been picked up by a major label. Such a project is the independently launched The Way I Worship by Houston’s Johnny B. Williams, released October 27.

This album has everything going for it. First, Williams scores as a songwriter, capable of writing current material as well as old-style anthems (“I Humbly Come To Thee”) and gospels (“I’m So Glad That Jesus Found Me”). He can worry notes with the best of the gospel singing community, and plays acoustic and electric guitar and keyboards. He’s fluent in praise and worship, R&B and traditional gospel. His production is superb, and as if that isn’t enough, he invites fellow Houstonian and gospel powerhouse Kathy Taylor to guest solo on “He’ll Pick Up the Pieces.”

For the sake of transparency, I was introduced to The Way I Worship some months ago by a colleague who wanted my off-the-record opinion. I thought then, and I still maintain, that Williams is a class act and deserves serious attention. Now that the project is officially available, others will be able to decide for themselves.

The album’s musical variety reflects the many ways Williams worships. On the opening track, “Faith (All You Need),” Williams barnstorms in the fashion of a J Moss or Deitrick Haddon. “I’m Gonna Serve the Lord,” a 70s quartet-style tribute to his late father, Johnny Bell Williams, Sr., who was a member of the Buffalo Male Chorus, is a testament to the power of old time religion in the present day. “I Humbly Come to Thee” is a lovely, prayerful performance with Take 6 harmonies. “Forever Praise,” co-written with Taylor, is a megachurch CCR praise and worship piece with strong support from the background vocalists.

An interlude featuring a teenaged female’s final cry for help is sobering, with the tension resolved through “He’ll Pick Up the Pieces.”

The Way I Worship is one of this year's best gospel albums.

Five of Five Stars

gPod picks: "He'll Pick Up the Pieces," "The Way I Worship," "Faith (All You Need)," "I'm Gonna Serve the Lord."

GOSPELflava.com Announces Slate of 25th Annual Stellar Award Nominees

GOSPELflava.com, the official media partner of the 25th Annual Stellar Music Awards, just announced the nominees for the 2010 Stellar Awards.

Award recipients will be announced at the taping of the Stellar Gospel Music Awards television broadcast on Saturday, January 16, 2010 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, TN.

Go to GOSPELflava.com for a complete list of nominees.

The Black Gospel Blog congratulates the nominees and all artists who made the first and second nomination ballots.

The Relatives: Is That James Brown?

Check out Thomas Fawcett's enjoyable audio report on the Relatives, a 1970s gospel group based in Dallas, Texas.

Lead singer Rev. Gene West not only sounds like James Brown, but according to West, he could have been a contender for the Godfather of Soul's title had he not refused to go secular.

Thanks to Heavy Light Records, the Relatives' funk-laden, psychedelic "street sound" recordings have been saved from obscurity and are available for discovery by a new generation of gospel enthusiasts.

Listen to Fawcett's audio report here: The Relatives

Photo courtesy of Heavy Light Records.

Horace Clarence Boyer to be Honored at Florida Program

Elizabeth Maupin of the Orlando Sentinel reports on a special tribute to Florida's native son, the late Dr. Horace Clarence Boyer.

The tribute will be held Sunday, November 1, 2009, at 4:00 p.m. at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, 130 Magnolia Avenue, Orlando, FL.

The learned Dr. Boyer, introduced to the gospel music world in the early 1950s as a member of the famed Boyer Brothers ("Step By Step"), passed away earlier this year.

Read more about the event, its organizers, and Dr. Boyer here: Dr. Horace Clarence Boyer.

Faithful to Believe - Byron Cage

Byron Cage
Faithful to Believe
Verity Gospel Music Group 2009
www.verityrecords.com

On March 13, 2009, Stellar Award-winning praise and worship leader Byron Cage brought his team to Detroit, where he once served as music minister at Greater Grace Temple, to record Faithful to Believe. The new CD was released today on Verity Records.

Aaron Lindsey, also a Stellar recipient, handled the production at Second Ebenezer Church, where the live recording took place. Cage is a veteran of the gospel highway, and it is evident in the practiced way he interacts with the audience, in how he moves through the program effortlessly, and how well the songs blend with one another.

That doesn’t mean the songs can’t stand on their own, because they do. For example, the title track is a compelling and energetic polyrhythmic piece on the subject of belief, and it even includes an intriguing Middle Eastern riff in the mix. “Simply Yes” finds Cage having church, complete with shouting lead, warbling B3 and a classic bluesy rocking-chair “gospel waltz” tempo that yearns to launch into a praise break. It succeeds, too, because the next track, “I Can’t Hold It,” is essentially a praise break with words.

On the other side of the Richter Scale, “He Will Answer” is a lovely, soothing praise ballad that in its delicate melody and straightforward lyrics obviously touched the hearts of the attendees. Likewise, “For My Good” is a simple, melodious and brief gospel song that hearkens back to pre-1970 gospel songwriting. The meditative “Thankful” expresses appreciation “for the times you stood by me,” no matter what. "Goodbye" has a touch of Deitrick Haddon/Marvin, Jr./J Moss tech-pop savvy.

Special guests on Faithful to Believe include Tye Tribbett on “In the Midst,” and Detroit natives Karen Clark-Sheard and Marvin L. Winans, who assist ably on the simmering gospel ballad, “Lord You Are My Everything.” In fact, if “Lord You Are My Everything” does well on radio, and it is likely to (albeit edited from its 8:35 album version), singing in Detroit with Karen Clark-Sheard will comprise the next one-two combination for a hit record, just as it was for Donnie McClurkin (“Wait on the Lord”).

Faithful to Believe is the whole package: great production, lovely songs, fantastic background vocalists, and the Cage-Sheard-Winans trio is a special treat.

Five of Five Stars

gPod picks:
“Faithful to Believe,” “Simply Yes,” “I Can’t Hold It,” “Lord You Are My Everything.”

"Amazing" - Rafiya

“Amazing”
Rafiya
From the EP Amazing (digital release scheduled for November 17, 2009)
www.myspace.com/rafiyamusik

Born to Congolese parents who traveled extensively (her father was a diplomat), Philly resident Rafiya has lived in Senegal, the Cape Verde Islands, Barbados, the Ivory Coast and other equally fascinating places. Soaking up the sounds of each locale and drawing upon them for inspiration, Rafiya offers an Afro-soul feel to her artistry.

The delicate, acoustic title track to her soon-to-be released EP Amazing is a bright, airy praise song with a dash of African lilt in the rhythm. In a world bursting with bad news, it’s good to breathe in an optimistic and positive outlook such as Rafiya provides in “Amazing.”

Incidentally, while Rafiya sings “Amazing” in English, she can also deliver a song in French. Check out "Je Me Cherche" on her MySpace page.

R.I.P. - Alexander "Pete" Dixon of St. Paul's Echoes of Eden

TBGB extends its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of gospel singer Mr. Alexander "Pete" Dixon who passed away from lung cancer October 13 at the age of 71.

Mr. Alexander's son Alshaun provided biographical information to share:

Raised in the churches of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Dixon moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s to live with relatives "because he wouldn't pick cotton or ride in the back of the bus." Once in L.A., Dixon joined St. Paul Baptist Church and became a member of the famous Echoes of Eden, St. Paul's radio and recording choir. During the mid-1950s, Dixon also served as the church's radio announcer for its regular broadcast on KFWB.

Alshaun adds that his father "tore up the church on Sunday and sang doo wop in the clubs on Saturdays with his group, known as the Visions." The Visions' 1963 "Cigarette," on which Dixon was lead singer, was released on the Original Sound label.

Photo Credit: Capitol Records

TBGB Pick of the Week: October 26, 2009

“New Day”
Troy Sneed
From the Emtro Gospel CD In Due Season (2009)
www.emtro.com

It seems appropriate to start the week with a joyous, upbeat song called “New Day.”

Troy Sneed’s latest single from his In Due Season CD takes us to church, quartet style. Sneed himself acknowledges this when he shouts, “Oh, y’all gonna make that quartet come out of me yet!” "New Day" is old-style praise with funky guitar riffs, a repetitive vamp, and background vocalists who serve as the congregation to Sneed’s singing preacher.

Shake off the past because today is a new day, Sneed declares, then he sustains a note Clarence Fountain-style.

Fire In My Bones: Raw + Rare + Other-Worldly African-American Gospel [1944-2007]

Various Artists
Fire In My Bones:
Raw + Rare + Other-Worldly African-American Gospel [1944-2007]
Tompkins Square 2009
www.tompkinssquare.com

Fire In My Bones features 80 amazing gospel performances that you’ve probably never heard but really should.

With able assistance from Kevin Nutt of WFMU’s “Sinner’s Crossroads” and a handful of dedicated gospel music collectors, Mike McGonigal assembled this three-disc set of out-of-print and obscure selections. An admirably-compiled and illustrated companion booklet provides as much detail on the recordings as is available.

This eclectic and electrifying collection is different from other compilations of gospel classics in that it does not focus exclusively on a specific location, gospel music style (e.g., quartet), artist, record label or timeframe. It also doesn’t line up tracks in chronological order. Establishing loose time parameters of 1944 to the present day, the collection leaps back and forth with glee between decades. Its unifying thread is the raw and genuine emotion expressed in musical performances and sermonettes by largely-forgotten performers and ministers. The singers and musicians are so rooted in the old time way, in fact, that it is often difficult to aurally define a song’s vintage by the performance alone.

Fire In My Bones draws on a variety of sources: mostly old 78s and 45s but also field recordings made by modern-day Alan Lomaxes in search of the untarnished. This is not to suggest that it contains all unknowns; the set also includes examples by well-known gospel artists such as Elder Samuel Patterson, Little Ax & the Golden Echoes, Rev. Robert Ballinger and Prof. J. Earle Hines. But for every track by Sister O.M. Terrell, Marie Knight and Lucille Barbee, who managed to eke out 15 minutes of fame (or more) in their day, Fire In My Bones introduces other equally intriguing but lesser-known performers such as the Hickory Bottom Harmoneers, Willie May Williams, and the Straight Street Holiness Group.

The compilation leans heavily on the sounds of the Sanctified Church, where any instrument is fair game as long as it gives praise. Electric guitars play a prominent role in Fire In My Bones. One recording in particular, “I Made a Vow to the Lord," originally released in 1953 on Elko Records, sounds so much like Elder Utah Smith, it wouldn’t be surprising if it actually is Smith under a pseudonym. After all, Elko issued a 78 by a “Sister Christine” which was really a well-known coupling on BBS by the Clara Ward Singers.

The CD booklet presents brief stories behind the music that are often as fascinating as the performances themselves. The selections from Rochester, New York’s Fine Records, for instance, would never have made it to this compilation had they not been saved from complete deterioration by Australian Mark Taylor. Taylor purchased the entire contents of the already-dilapidated studios and shipped them thousands of miles, square-inch by square-inch, to his home for cleaning and restoring. Or Elder Roma Wilson and Family, a harmonica band who in 1948 became unwitting recording artists. They made a test recording in Detroit, but later found out their performance was released commercially on Philadelphia’s famed Gotham Records.

What Fire In My Bones tells us, more than anything, is that the vein of astonishingly honest and powerful gospel recordings is rich, exciting, overwhelming, and the largest remaining frontier in American music collecting and archiving.

Five of Five Stars

NOTE: A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Fire In My Bones will benefit the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund.

Melba Moore & Phil Perry - The Gift of Love

Melba Moore and Phil Perry
The Gift of Love
Shanachie Records 2009
www.shanachie.com

Billy Preston and Syreeta. James Ingram and Linda Ronstadt. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Jerry Butler and Betty Everett. Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams.

Like all of these classic couplings, Melba Moore and Phil Perry are delicious together.

Their first album collaboration is The Gift of Love, a sweet sampling of songs about love and faith, which marks Moore's return to R&B in nearly 20 years. Most of the selections on the CD are ballads, though the pair's duet on Ashford and Simpson’s “You’re All I Need to Get By” is accompanied by a light disco beat. In addition to the compositions of Ashford and Simpson, Moore and Perry also cover Stevie Wonder (“Weakness”) and the Spinners (“Sadie”), an ode to a gentler, simpler time.

Gospel fans will enjoy the current single, “Optimistic,” which is an uptempo candidate for smooth jazz radio rotation; and especially the couple’s version of John P. Kee’s “It Will Be Alright.” Here, both Moore and Perry demonstrate their ability to shout old school-style.

Moore pulls upon her well-honed Broadway skills to render the chestnut, “I Believe.” A nice surprise is “We’ll Be Together Again,” a touching elegy about loved ones who have gone on to glory and the love they leave behind. Moore co-wrote “U Never Know,” a pleasant but brief jazz piece that in its expression of love could be spiritual, emotional or physical. Like many of the songs on The Gift of Love, that determination is left up to the listener’s own interpretation.

And perhaps that is the lesson of The Gift of Love: whether between two people, parents and children, friends, or people and their God, love is love.

For more information about the making of The Gift of Love, check out TBGB's interview with Melba Moore.

Four of Five Stars

gPod picks: “Optimistic,” "It Will Be Alright."

Adrianne Archie - HSMS: Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength

Adrianne Archie
HSMS: Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength
Independent Release 2009
www.cdbaby.com

Released at the end of September, Adrianne Archie’s HSMS: Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength is an eclectic and tech-savvy “rhythm & praise” collection. The seventeen tracks are atmospheric flights of pop/soul set to an R&B beat. Adrianne’s intimate neo-soul vocals are evocative of Lauryn Hill.

HSMS is the third release for the Louisville-based singer-songwriter, whose debut CD, HTHAELHH (He That Hath an Ear, Let Him Hear), earned her Best New Artist and Best Female Artist hardware from the Urban Gospel Alliance. Similarly, HSMS is geared toward the younger praiser but especially for youth requiring redemption. For example, pumping dance beats rage through songs such as the opening “Nothing for Something” (featuring a rap by Nemo), “All I Need is Love” and “Slow Down."

Adrianne wrote the songs, though more appropriate descriptors for her compositions are sonic vignettes about daily encounters with faith, hope, praise, inspiration, saving souls, getting saved and overcoming life’s innumerable challenges. Some tracks are more potent than others. Highlights are the unhurried and mesmerizing “Strong,” “Extra Credit” (“you’re gonna get it, you get the credit”) and the melodic “So I Know,” the latter which opens with a dramatic staccato violin. The listener gets the impression that Adrianne knows about the troubles whereof she speaks, and has survived them to tell it.

The final track, “Go Pop,” stresses the importance of using today's sounds to reach the unreachable. One line provides something of a motto for the project: “You gotta be relevant conduit/this message that we send/so it is evidence that this record’s meant to draw you into this, calm you into it.”

But Adrianne herself sums up HSMS far better than I can: it’s music for “the car, crib, club, cardio and church.”

Three of Five Stars

gPod picks: “Strong,” “Extra Credit,” “So I Know.”

Tracy Worth - Powerful Release for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

From Bridget Fleury:

Tracy sat quietly in the small room waiting for the results of the lastest MRI. She was a bit anxious because she couldn't figure out the need for a "special room" or the need to have two people tell her the results of one test.

January 5, 2009, she was excited about all the possibilities that come with a new year. She had plans to be a blessing to someone in 2009. She thought about the lump in her left breast, the size of a gumball. She thought about the mammogram that didn't detect it. She thought about her family. She thought about Multiple Sclerosis and the shot she had to take three times a week to keep her body in remission. She thought about hope and her faith in God. Then she thought, "How could one woman be so lucky?" The nurse and the radiologist entered the room.

"Tracy, your results came back positive. You have pre-cancer, stage 0. From what we can tell it hasn't invaded your body yet and that's a good thing. We need for you to see a surgeon so we can remove it before it breaks through."

Two weeks later, stage 0 jumped to stage 2 and another MRI showed the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. Thus began her journey... surgery, chemo, radiation, lots of tears and prayers. She never knew her own strength or worth, until she met cancer and found the strength to face it all because "Christ Is All."

Vanessa Bell Armstrong - The Experience

Vanessa Bell Armstrong
The Experience
EMI Gospel 2009
www.emigospel.com

Southwest Michigan Mass Choir alumna and Stellar Award winner Vanessa Bell Armstrong is one of the most powerful gospel singers in the church today. Her flawless delivery and pacing have as much to do with her God-given talent as with the tutelage she received under the exacting standards of the International President of the COGIC Music Department, Dr. Mattie Moss Clark.

Vanessa recently brought her larger-than-life voice to Chicago’s storied Harold Washington Cultural Center for The Experience, a live recording produced by Donald Lawrence.

In many respects, The Experience belongs just as much to Donald as to Vanessa. It certainly has his musical touch, and his company of background vocalists are an all-star cast, including Valencia Lacy (Shekinah Glory Ministry), Kim McFarland-Anderson, Faith Howard, Latrice Pace (The Anointed Pace Sisters) and DeWayne Woods – all strong soloists in their own right. Altogether, the singers provide steady support to Vanessa as she weaves her trademark vocal lines, scoops and soaring high notes, Aretha-like, around the melody.

In addition to an all-star background group and a dynamic producer, Vanessa also benefits from a collection of fine songs from fine writers, including the late Thomas Whitfield, VaShawn Mitchell and Lawrence himself. She contributes one of her own compositions, the mellow “I Will Praise You,” to the album. It’s a special and loving tribute to her son, who struggles with multiple sclerosis.

“Good News,” the first single from The Experience, is a strong selection with a hook-filled chorus that praises the power of prayer to get through each week. Other notable tracks include “You Bring Out the Best in Me,” on which Vanessa duets with fellow Michigander Rance Allen. The two in harmony remind me of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.

On “Hand of the Lord,” Vanessa waxes nostalgic, humbly recalling her forty-year career in gospel music and gazing in amazement at “how far I’ve come.” How far, indeed, and from the sounds of The Experience, she's catching her second wind.

Five of Five Stars

gPod picks: "What He's Done For Me," "Good News," "You Bring Out the Best In Me."

The Anointed Pace Sisters - Access Granted

The Anointed Pace Sisters
Access Granted
Tyscot Records 2009
www.tyscot.com

Take the cherubic close harmonies of the Famous Ward Singers in their prime, add the muscular evangelistic hard-singing of the Famous Davis Sisters, throw in the contemporary flair of the Clark Sisters and voila! You have the Anointed Pace Sisters.

The Anointed Pace Sisters’ newest offering and second live CD for Tyscot Records, Access Granted, was produced by the talented Alex Asaph Ward, who captures the singers in a variety of emotional hues. The one constant throughout the album, however, is the group’s seemingly effortless vocal interplay and democratic practice of spotlighting individual members as lead singers. There is plenty of diversity among the sisters, too. For example, Duranice is a hard-singing shouter, Leslie a churchy vocalist, while Lydia and Latrice have the RnB chops. Melonda has a sweetness to her voice, ideal for praise and worship ballads such as “Daily.” Each of the sisters has her moment at the microphone, and clearly there’s not a weak singer among the eight.

“If I Be Lifted Up” is the current radio single culled from Access Granted because of its steady beat and comfortable vibe, but the real gems here include “Finally,” a “hold on, be strong” song befitting the times. Duranice’s fiery song-preaching at the conclusion raises the temperature, turning the track from a powerful performance to a church wrecker. Another exceptional selection is Leslie’s pulse-pounding aisle-walking workout, “Jesus Will (Do It Again).”

“Seed of Righteousness,” led by Latrice, is about grasping the golden ring of prosperity. Its catchy Afro-beat fits neatly with the overall message of the “generational curse no longer binding me.” “It’s My Time to be Blessed” borrows from Ecclesiastes, and like “Seed of Righteousness,” the point is that today is the time for reaping.

The finest cut on Access Granted is “Someday,” written by Tyscot’s own Bishop Leonard Scott. It is also arguably the Anointed Pace Sisters’ finest performance to date. Led by Latrice and Lydia, “Someday” is a pop-swabbed ballad with an anthemic chorus and lyrics that are modern day variants of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” The sisters shake their heads at the troubles of the world and implore everyone to stop the violence (between nations, neighbors, loved ones) and embrace peace. It is a touching message with a lovely musical backdrop, and stands out like a high-beam of hope on the night sky.

Four of Five Stars

gPod picks: “Someday,” “Jesus Will Do It Again,” “Finally,” “If I Be Lifted Up”

TBGB Pick of the Week: October 19, 2009

“Won’t It Be Wonderful”
James Hall presents Voices of Citadel
Musicblend Records 2009
www.myspace.com/voicesofcitadel

From Brooklyn’s Citadel of Praise & Worship, where Dr. Kevin Bond is Pastor, Professor James Hall’s Voices of Citadel give the 1963 hit by the Pilgrim Jubilee Singers an extreme choir makeover.

While the Jubes’ assessment of the afterlife had macho, mid-tempo quartet strut, V.O.C.’s six minute-plus view of the heavenly “angels singing” and “joybells ringing” in “Won’t It Be Wonderful” is a fast-paced, hand-clapping, beat-pushing, hard-singing, extended Holy Ghost celebration. With long-time choir director Prof. James Hall at the helm, it's not surprising the V.O.C. can tear up a church.

Over there, shouts the chorus, “There’ll be no crying, there’ll be no dying.” With such exuberant singing, the only crying possible could be tears of joy.

The Grace of God - Paul T.

Paul T.
The Grace of God
Independent Release
www.paultmusic.net

Singer-songwriter Paul Tawonezvi, aka Paul T., has released several albums in his native Zimbabwe during the past seventeen years, with two CDs in particular making significant noise on the charts there. Now residing in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Paul enters the U.S. market with his latest project, The Grace of God. The ten songs on the album range from African gospel to inspirational songs with a sweet American soul sound.

Songs like “Come On, Let's Praise the Lord in an African Way” and “Your Will” are straight out of the spine-chilling African gospel choral tradition, complete with uncomplicated melodies, powerful harmonies, joyous rhythm, and praise and worship lyrics. “Come On” even features the traditional African shout. “Jerusalem” employs the solo Afro-beat that also used by reggae artists. In addition to praise and worship, Paul T’s songs encourage the listener to “turn this world around” through forgiveness and love. It is through love, the songs say, that we can make peace with one another. Can’t argue with that.

Paul T. sings in a relaxed, lower tenor register, a combination of Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s lead singer Joseph Shabalala and pop star Sting. On the ballad “We are God’s People,” however, Paul lets loose his wonderfully soaring high tenor. He should use this technique more often, as it is clearly his calling card.

Although The Grace of God features African-style songs that are in English and Shona (?), Paul’s sweet soul gospel songs are the ones that really stand out. Besides “We are God’s People,” strong tracks are “The World is Messed Up” and “Cast Me Not Away.” They are melodic, the beats are catchy, and they conjure up the soul and reggae music of the 1970s.

Three of Five Stars

gPod picks: “Come On,” “We are God’s People,” “The Grace of God”

Melba Moore: An "Optimistic" Singer

By Bob Marovich, The Black Gospel Blog

Melba Moore is known internationally for her chart-topping hits of the 1970s and 1980s, and for her work on stage and screen: the big screen (The Fighting Temptations) and the little screen (her own television variety show).

But Melba Moore the gospel singer?

Sure enough! And she has plenty of reasons to be “Optimistic” about it, too. Her new album, The Gift of Love, a collection of R&B and inspirational duets with crooner Phil Perry, was released on September 29, 2009. The album’s first single, “Optimistic,” is already garnering good radio play.

“I love gospel,” Melba said in an interview with TBGB. “It can do amazing things for you. I feel like when you are singing or praising or worshipping, you are learning, and God is one who is teaching you.”

Melba was born in New York to a musical family. Her mother, Bonnie Davis, was a singer with a hit record (the #1 charter “Don’t Stop Now”), and her biological father was the famous bandleader Teddy Hill. But it was Melba's stepfather, pianist Clement Moorman, who brought her musical talent to the fore.

“I really didn’t discover music in my life until I was around ten or eleven years old,” Melba explained. “My mother married my stepfather, who is a musician, and he made all of us kids take piano lessons. My mother was a singer and they worked together. Music became the centerpiece of our lives and that’s when I discovered I could sing.”

Growing up Catholic, one of Melba’s first solo songs was “Dear Lady of Fatima.” She also loved jazz. “We would listen to people like Ella Fitzgerald and Nancy Wilson, and then later on, I was in love with Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick…the same singers everyone else was in love with!”

Melba didn’t tune into gospel music until “about twelve years ago. I loved gospel, but I didn’t really listen to it and certainly didn’t think of it as something I could sing.” That changed after she became a born-again Christian (she has since returned to Catholicism) and began working in gospel stage plays.

“I traveled with a gospel play called, ‘Mama, I’m Sorry,’ written, produced and directed by Michael Matthews. That’s when I started to discover some of the gospel artists, because the people I worked with were gospel specialists. I began to listen to singers such as BeBe and CeCe Winans, the Winans, Vickie Winans after she went on her own, Yolanda Adams, the Clark Sisters, and Mary Mary."

Melba’s other favorite gospel artists include Ann Nesby, Yolanda Adams, Donnie McClurkin, Shirley Caesar, and Cissy Houston.

Even unknown gospel singers have had an impact on Melba. “I’ll never forget, I was watching a TV show and this lady sang. She was all off key, and she had a terrible sound and no sweetness in her voice, but I was sitting there in tears. I realized I passed everything and went right to her soul and her spirit. That is a beauty that only comes from heaven.”

When Melba started singing gospel, “people were fascinated but supportive. Everybody assumed because I am black I grew up with gospel. But I didn’t. I was probably the only one surprised I could sing gospel so well!”

The Gift of Love is a collection of R&B classics and inspirational songs about love and faith, such as “Optimistic,” but it is not her first recorded foray into the sacred. “I have released two ‘hardcore’ gospel projects: I’m Still Here and Nobody But Jesus,” Melba said. She laughs, “Or my attempt at hardcore!”

The Gift of Love is partly the result of Melba’s participation on the Time/Life Songs 4 Worship Soul project of inspirational songs by R&B artists. On it, she sang Andrae Crouch’s “My Tribute” with Freddie Jackson.

“[Producer] David Nathan suggested Freddie and I do a duet [on Songs 4 Worship Soul] and it turned out beautiful. He then asked Shanachie Records if they would be interested in Freddie and I doing a whole album of duets. They were interested, but Freddie declined. So David took the idea back to [Shanachie executives] Randall Glass and Daniel Weiss. Danny suggested they pair me up with one of the label's artists and recommended Phil Perry. I said, ‘Oh my God, yes!’”

She had not worked with Phil Perry before, but admired his artistry. “I never would have thought of it. It was such a wonderful surprise.”

Melba’s favorite song on The Gift of Love is “Sadie.” She explained: “’Sadie’ is a song about old fashioned black culture, about our grandmothers and great grandmothers. They were very simple and country, very loving and although they didn’t have strong education, they knew about spiritual things. We tried very hard to keep that old fashioned sweetness in there. Everything new is fabulous, but not everything old is bad!”

Besides singing gospel, Melba is now co-owner of a gospel club restaurant in Harlem called Gospel Uptown. It opened this past June and features live gospel and R&B performances. “Just positive music,” Melba added.

“People love the food, the ambience, we’ve had lots of events to get it rolling,” she said. "The greatest challenge now is to make sure there’s always something good going on there so people keep coming back.”

"Just Can't Tell It All" - James Jackson & Atlanta Praise

“Just Can’t Tell It All”
James Jackson & Atlanta Praise
From the International Sound Music Entertainment CD Thank You (2009)
www.myspace.com/atlantapraise

Derrick Stevenson and Puretonez Productions are the wind behind the sails of gospel singer (Derrick’s wife) Monica Lisa Stevenson. The Puretonez team also produced this gem from James Jackson and Atlanta Praise.

“Just Can’t Tell It All” jumps and swings with a hep cat rhythm. Atlanta Praise scats and handclaps and testifies and teaches and punctuates its message with full-throated jazz harmonies. After the group’s evangelistic call to Christ, the tenacious backbeat that holds things together gives way to a downright sanctified praise break. The production is as smooth as the group's vocal delivery.

While the group is “Atlanta Praise,” James Jackson himself grew up in Los Angeles, where as a young musician he was mentored by the late Rev. Robert Henry of the Los Angeles Voices of Watts and the late Rev. James Cleveland.

Aaron Sledge EMI Gospel Debut Available Oct. 20

From a press release:

October 12, 2009 - Chicago native Aaron Sledge, called the "Hottest Urban Inspirational Artist," will release his self-titled album, Aaron Sledge, on October 20, 2009.

This will be Sledge's second release, but first on an international record label. Aaron Sledge signed with EMI Gospel in early 2009.

The first release, Da Light, was an international hit, creating fans in Japan, Canada and Europe. It drew international acclaim from music journalists, bloggers, musicians and industry insiders. In fact, it caught the attention of EMI executives, who were excited to meet with Sledge and offer him the exclusive deal.

The album, Aaron Sledge, contains the top five songs from Da Light and a new, EMI exclusive track entitled "Extra Mile."

* * * * *

TBGB congratulates Aaron Sledge, the second independent artist featured on the Blog to land a major label deal in 2009! Read our December 2008 review of Da Light here.

Also, Sledge's "Did It All For Me" was one of TBGB's Top 10 Gospel Records of 2008.

Joseph Joubert - Total Praise: Classic Hymns for Piano

Joseph Joubert
Total Praise: Classic Hymns for Piano
GIA Publications 2009
www.giamusic.com

A rumbling of Rachmaninoff in Richard Smallwood? A sampling of Satie in Andrae Crouch? I’ll bet you have never heard gospel songs and hymns played this way before.

I certainly hadn’t until I heard prodigious arranger-orchestrator-director-pianist Joseph Joubert. On Total Praise: Classic Hymns for Piano, Joubert uses his well-honed classical piano technique to interpret some of the African American church’s most beloved gospel songs and hymns. Like a jazz performer in classical clothing, Joubert renders the motives and melodies at once familiar and also romantically exotic, like little sacred concertos.

Joubert wrote all of the arrangements featured on Total Praise over a period of nearly a quarter-century, during which he orchestrated, arranged and conducted major musical projects for Broadway, film, recordings and the concert stage. He has worked with everyone of significance in the pop and classical worlds: from Fantasia to the Three Mo' Tenors to opera star Kathleen Battle. While Joubert’s background is Baptist – he practiced on the piano in the basement of Community Baptist Church – he makes the piano sing like a seasoned COGIC soloist.

While Joubert leans heavily on his classical training, he tosses blue notes and jazz runs playfully into such hymns as “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine” and “Amazing Grace.” In fact, his performance of “Amazing Grace” for President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1994 left the Russian leader clamoring for a copy of the sheet music. No doubt Yeltsin heard in Joubert’s arrangement the artistic genius of the great Russian composers and pianists.

At the same time, Joubert does not rely on improvisation. All of his arrangements are meticulously written down. Every. Last. Note. His liberal use of arpeggios, trills and descending chromatic thirds floats the melody on a rapidly-changing and powerful river of sound. During quieter moments, the notes tinkle like raindrops on the melody. On his arrangement of Andrae Crouch’s “My Tribute,” Joubert plays with such dynamic intensity that his instrument sounds like a player piano gone delightfully mad.

Joseph Joubert’s Total Praise is an amazing work, a wonderment of technical skill, a masterpiece of hymnody that will leave the listener wondering whether he’s just had church at the symphony.

Five of Five Stars

Famous L. Renfroe - The Flying Sweet Angel of Joy

What I loved most about this brief description of a late '60s privately-pressed recording, made available once again by Big Legal Mess Records, is its assertion that vinyl is "the Lord's preferred format for recorded music."

Check out the article at www.arthurmag.com: Famous L. Renfroe.

Tifani Wilson - In Love

Tifani Wilson
In Love
Independent label 2009
www.tifaniwilson.com

When couples would ask Tifani Wilson to sing for their weddings, the singer-songwriter had difficulty finding love songs that truly fit their individual stories and personalities.

So Tifani wrote some herself.

The songs are available on her debut solo project, In Love: Songs of Love, Romance and Commitment, released this past spring.

Serving as Minister of Music at Grace Covenant Church in Chantilly, Virginia, Tifani has a talent for writing lovely melodies, while real life love stories serve as her lyric inspiration. She has honed her praise and worship skills by learning from and serving with top P&W artists such as Israel Houghton and New Breed, Kevin LeVar and One Sound and fellow Virginians Tyrone Powell and Team Judah.

In Love is essentially an EP of five songs and the five corresponding performance tracks. They are inspirational love songs ready-made for Christian weddings, the couple’s first dance at the reception afterwards, and, down the road, at the anniversary celebration.

The title track and “God’s Perfect Choice” have a country-pop ballad feel made sweeter by Tifani’s country-pop vocals, reminiscent of Faith Hill and Shania Twain. “Again I Do” has a distinctly RnB flavor. The musicians have studio-polish and the flowing arrangements come from the pen of Tyrone Powell.

Tifani asserts on the liner notes that her passion has been to record a praise and worship CD, and that it will happen, but the love song CD was heavenly inspired and therefore had to come first. In Love sounds heavenly inspired.

Four of Five Stars

TBGB Pick of the Week: October 12, 2009

"Optimistic"
Melba Moore and Phil Perry
From the Shanachie CD The Gift of Love 2009
www.shanachie.com

“Optimistic” is the first single from, and also the first of several inspirational tracks on, Melba Moore and Phil Perry’s CD The Gift of Love. It’s a smooth but lively jazz track – easy as Sunday morning – that oozes with positive vibes and statements repeated like mantras by the background vocalists (“You can win as long as you keep your head to the sky.”)

Moore and Perry are a new pair-up but you’d never know it, as they go together like bacon and eggs in both harmony and antiphony. A light piano darts in and out of the arrangement, which uses a thumping bass to support the soft melody. The whole feel hearkens back to the early duets of BeBe and CeCe Winans.

Hear "Optimistic" by clicking on this link: "Optimistic".

Danny Brooks & the Rockin' Revelators - Live at the Palais Royale

Danny Brooks & the Rockin’ Revelators
Live at the Palais Royale – Soulsville III
HIS House Records 2009
www.dannybrooksmusic.com

“When the trouble of the day gets in your way, hold on to yesterday” is a line from Danny Brooks’ “Hold On.” It could be his motto.

Brooks, the blue-eyed soulster from Canada, is back with the third installment of his Soulsville series. It is a recording of a May 2009 performance at Toronto’s Palais Royale. Part blues, part soul, part gospel, part swamp-pop, Live at the Palais Royale is all heart. In fact, it is hard to think of a current singer who demonstrates more admiration for ‘60s and ‘70s soul classics, especially those made in Memphis and Muscle Shoals, than Brooks.

The mainstay of Brooks music is a rootsy southern gumbo of boogie woogie piano, chugging blues harmonica, slide and electric guitar, punctuating horn section, B3, bass and drums. Brooks’ gritty vocals are supported by the dazzling harmonies of Amoy and Ceceal Levy. It’s the kind of music you hear emanating from the half-open door of a club on Beale or in the French Quarter. Upon closer inspection, however, you hear in the lyrics messages of encouragement from a man who has clearly traveled a rough road and credits personal salvation for where he is today. On songs like “Righteous Highway,” for example, Brooks delivers his testimony straight-between-the-eyes, no chaser.

Brooks’ clever way with a lyric is apparent on tracks such as the teeth-gritting “Down on my Knees,” on which he likens the devil to a “mathematician” who “likes to subtract and divide.” He concludes, “I’ve never stood half as tall as when I’m down on my knees.” “Other Side of the Cloud,” ranked #1 Song of the Year by the Rhythm and Blues DJ Association, sounds based on an old folk saying: “The sun is always shining on the other side of the cloud.”

On “Still Got This Thing for You” and “Hold On”, Brooks waxes autobiographical about growing up with the soul and gospel records his brother would bring home from Buffalo, or listening to the transistor radio tuned to Buffalo radio stations. These songs serve as the soundtrack for Brooks’ life, and on “Still Got This Thing for You,” he even interpolates titles of soul classics in the lyrics (and did I hear the yeah-yeah-yeah riffs from the Falcons’ “I Found a Love”?).

Brooks’ energetic cover of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Somebody on Your Bond” features the Levy ladies on superb background vocals. Amoy and Ceceal Levy deserve their own CD project, if they don’t already have one.

Imagine walking into a small club in the mid-south and finding a saved Bruce Springsteen jamming with a few of the E Street Band for an intimate group, and you have the feeling of Live at the Palais Royale.

Four of Five Stars

OverBoard Records Congratulates Shirley Bell...

...for making it onto the 2009-2010 Stellar Award's second and final round nomination ballot for "New Artist of the Year," based on her debut solo album, God Can Do Anything!

Darrell Jay Jones, Owner and CEO of OverBoard Records in Texas, encourages SAGMA members to vote for Shirley Bell of Chicago as "New Artist of the Year" on this ballot.

Remember, this time around, only members of the Stellar Awards Gospel Music Academy (SAGMA) can vote. This Second and Final ballot is available online now from October 9th - 23rd, 2009. To vote, or for more information on the Stellar Awards, go to http://www.thestellarawards.com/.

For more information on Shirley Bell, go to http://www.overboardrecords.com/ or contact Darrell Jay Jones at info@overboardrecords.com.

Marvin Sapp's Next Recording Session to be on the Web and Interactive

From Verity Gospel Music Group:

MARVIN SAPP TO RECORD 5th CD LIVE IN GRAND RAPIDS OCTOBER 16

Aaron Lindsey to Produce, Myron Butler to Direct Vocals

For The First Time In Gospel Music History, The Recording Will Be Streamed LIVE at www.verityrecords.com.

New York, NY – October 9, 2009 – Marvin Sapp is set to record the follow-up to his runaway hit Thirsty, and fans around the world are invited to the concert as it is streamed live over the web at www.verityrecords.com.

It will be an exciting evening as Gospel music’s most heralded voice takes the stage to record what is sure to be another hit project. And, for the first time in the Gospel music genre, fans are invited to take part in the recording through a live stream, which will begin with an exclusive pre-show at 6:30 p.m. EST.

In addition to viewing the concert as it happens, fans will be invited into the Marvin Sapp Recording chat room for an interactive experience during the recording that will include special contests throughout the evening, including the opportunity to win Marvin Sapp’s entire catalogue and a call from Sapp himself immediately following the recording.

As an added bonus, chat room visitors will be able to send Facebook and Twitter updates without leaving the Marvin Sapp Recording page. Those viewing the stream will also be the first to see one-on-one interviews with Marvin Sapp, Aaron Lindsey, and others involved with the recording.

With the dream team of Aaron Lindsey and Myron Butler returning to helm the project, the recording is expected to be dynamic from the time Marvin Sapp belts out his first note. Fans logged into the live stream can text to purchase a ringtone of one of the evening’s amazing songs - “I Came” - during the recording.

Finally...It's Monica's Time: Meet Monica Lisa Stevenson

By Bob Marovich

Atlanta’s Monica Lisa Stevenson is an independent gospel artist who knows how to put herself out front and get national notice. Last year, the Gospel Choice Awards awarded her Best Female Artist, and this year she returned to the GCA to collect Song of the Year for her single, “So Glad He Saved Me.”

Monica’s first full-length CD, the appropriately titled Finally…In God’s Time, was released this past March on Puretonez Records, an independent label the singer owns with her husband, Derrick Stevenson. Since then, it has been “non-stop” for the hard-singing young woman who grew up in Wetumpka, Alabama and attended Atkin Hill Baptist Church.

She told TBGB that her family “is very musically inclined. I have two brothers and three sisters. I am the oldest of the six and four of us are in music: myself, my sister A’Donna B. Williams, and my brothers Justin Walker who plays drums, and Olando Bowen who sang with Spencer Taylor & the Highway QCs and worked with the Lumzy Sisters.”

Monica’s apprenticeship as a gospel singer began when she was a youngster. “My mom started a group called the Inspirational Souls with her sisters, but once the sisters got married and started doing their own things, she began raising her kids up to sing with the group.”

In the early 1980s, the Inspirational Souls made an album, which produced the hit single, “A Long Journey.”

Interestingly, Monica’s mother formed another group that included one of her sons. It was called “The Little Mighty Clouds of Joy.” “Joe Ligon heard the group a couple of times and he enjoyed them,” Monica remembered. “He was very flattered that they wanted to name their group after his!”

While still in high school, Monica began traveling and singing, eventually migrating to Atlanta. “Once I moved to Atlanta and started going around singing and preaching, I knew that this was my calling, what God had called me to do: to go out and help build the Kingdom.”

She was a soloist originally, but soon formed a background vocal group to work with her. “I was singing solo at a church, and a couple of young ladies came up to me and wanted to know if they could sing with me. As time progressed, God sent other anointed vocalists to assist me, and I’m very grateful for that.”

What about Monica’s traditional sound? “It stems from my upbringing,” she explained, “but I love praise and worship as well. Praise and worship is when I get in the presence of God and really talk to Him when I’m there, so everybody tells me my music has a little praise and worship twist to it. But traditional is where I’m going to keep it.”

How’s radio treating the new album? “Radio play has been absolutely overwhelming,” Monica said. “The singles doing the best are ‘Lord Keep Me,’ ‘So Glad He Saved Me,’ and ‘Fall Fresh.’”

Monica recently had the chance to sing with her idols, the Caravans, at Dorothy Norwood’s and Albertina Walker’s respective birthday celebrations. “[The Caravans] have embraced me and told me they are molding me to be like them because they don’t know how much longer they are going to be on this earth, and they want to make sure that their legacy continues on. They told me I have everything they had back in the day.”

Then, “I recently got a call from my manager, and he was like, ‘Guess who just called me: Eddie Robinson!’ He is the writer of [the Caravans’] ‘Lord Keep Me Day by Day.’ He was very excited to know that we had taken the time to re-record his song. That was the highlight of my day!”

In addition to finding inspiration from the Caravans, Monica is also a fan of Kim Burrell, Angela Spivey, the Canton Spirituals, DeWayne Woods and Stephen Hurd. “All of them are my friends, and they have given me lots of encouragement. They taught me stuff I didn’t know, and I always have a listening ear.”

Monica awaits the results of her nomination in the first round of Stellar Award balloting in two categories, New Artist of the Year and Traditional Female of the Year. While this is the first time she made the first round Stellar ballot, she’s no stranger to the Stellars. “I go every year to the Stellars! I’m a big fan!”

What’s next? “We’re working on another single and some Christmas material right now,” Monica informed TBGB, “which we should have out very, very soon.”

Meanwhile, her schedule is packed. “Singing is a full time job now,” Monica said. “Ever since March, it has really been non-stop. The CD hit in March, and people started to call. I did the Bobby Jones retreat in May and that opened up some more doors. Now we’re traveling just about every weekend. I think I’m booked all the way to December.”

"Victory" - VIZHION

“Victory”
VIZHION
From the forthcoming Rimshot Records CD Pressin' On
www.myspace.com/vizhion

VIZHION is a male contemporary gospel group from Houston, Texas that can also do traditional when the spirit moves and the congregation requests. Larry Burton, Marlon Mack, and Stan Alexander handle the vocals, and James Smith lays down the bass.

The engaging, uptempo single “Victory” (aka “Victory Is Mine”) is from the group’s sophomore album Pressin' On, scheduled for release in the near future. While the vocals on “Victory” have plenty in common with solid traditional quartet singing, including an extended call-and-response vamp between lead and group, Stan Alexander’s rollicking drum work helps dress the song in more contemporary clothes.

R.I.P. - Elder Norvell Woolfolk; Accompanied Clara Ward Singers

Photo, Remembrance and Funeral Service Information Courtesy of Pastor Mack C. Mason:

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE FOR HOMEGOING SERVICES!

The Charles Harrison Mason Historical Society of the Church of God in Christ mourns the loss of its founder and International President Elder Norvell Woolfolk of Chicago, IL.

Elder Woolfolk passed away this week in Portsmouth, Virginia, where he was cared for by his daughter, Sarah and family.

Elder Woolfolk was born in Madison, IL where he became a noted musician, and had the distinction of playing for Bishop C. H. Mason, Bishop and Mother Bostic, and even accompanied the famous Clara Ward Singers.

Elder Woolfolk was a world traveler and a graduate of historic Howard University in Washington, DC. Upon the death of his father, he was appointed to pastor in Madison, IL by Bishop Turner.

Elder Woolfolk later moved to Chicago and retired from Chicago Public Schools as a history teacher. His love for history and the Church of God in Christ gave birth to the C. H. Mason Educational Foundation under Presiding Bishop J. O. Patterson in 1969. He later reorganized the C. H. Mason Historical Society under Bishop Chandler D. Owens and received re-appointments by the late Bishop G. E. Patterson and again earlier this year by Presiding Bishop Charles Edward Blake.

During his illness in Chicago and Virginia, and until the time of his passing, Elder Woolfolk was excited and determined to complete the publication of his life story, with the assistance of Pastor Mack Mason and Faithday Press.

FINAL HOMEGOING SERVICES OF
ELDER NORVELL V. WOOLFOLK,
INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT OF
C. H. MASON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
OF CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST

NOTE: By request of the Woolfolk Family, and to better accommodate the vast
anticipated audience, the location for the Homegoing Services for Elder Norvell Woolfolk has now been changed to:

FREEDOM TEMPLE COGIC
1459 WEST 74TH STREET
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

BISHOP CODY MARSHALL,
HOST PASTOR

BISHOP JAMES C. AUSTIN,
OFFICIATING

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2009
VISITATION 6:00 PM
FUNERAL 7:00 PM

Info (312) 266-7258 St. Luke COGIC

What's on your gPod?

Mp3 Player Recommendations...now on TBGB!

Starting today, with the James Grear & Company review (below), TBGB will recommend specific song(s) to include on your iPod or mp3 player from the full-length albums it reviews.

So scroll to the bottom of each review after October 6, 2009 to find out what to "put on your gPod!"

Don't Waste Another Day - James Grear & Company

James Grear & Company
Don’t Waste Another Day
Habakkuk Music 2009
www.myspace.com/jamesgrearandcompany

The Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota have a thriving gospel music community, and James Grear & Company is one of the reasons why. The group’s latest project, Don’t Waste Another Day, finds the hip ensemble rendering songs by top gospel writers, including Richard Smallwood, Carnell Murrell and VaShawn Mitchell.

Although most of the songs and arrangements on Don’t Waste Another Day fall into a measured or mid-tempo groove, Grear’s cover of Sounds of Blackness’ “Hold On (Change is Coming),” the group’s current single, is buoyant. It reminds me of Grear’s marvelously groovy take on the Youngbloods’ “Get Together” a few years back.

The quartet standard “Trouble In My Way” receives an appropriately traditional foot-stomping, but because its less optimistic lyrics would be out of place on an album titled Don’t Waste Another Day, Greer acknowledges that his interpretation is “moving trouble out of our way.” And that’s what they do: they shout trouble over. By the close, the group chants tunefully “It’s over – He fixed it.”

“Runnin’ Back” is an interesting closer because it showcases an urban side of Grear & Company, complete with PAJAM-style swagger, auto-tune vocals and a rap segment.

The album is most noteworthy, however, for its spotlight on “& Company,” the vocalists in Grear’s ensemble. Together, the group compresses its power into intense, searing harmonies, but their solo turns are what really command attention. On “Your Will,” for example, DeMarcus Green worries the notes to therapy during his aerobic gospel improvisation. Rachel Hurst and Angela Stewart are superb gospel shouters, but hard-singing songstress Willette Blakely turns in the MVP performance. We meet her on Don’t Waste Another Day during her tear through Pharis Evans, Jr.’s “Faithful Is He.” Later, she brings the group’s “Blood Medley” of traditional gospel songs to an end by singing so hard the audience seems suspended in breathless shock.

Four of Five Stars

Mp3 player recommendations: "Hold On (Change is Coming)," "Trouble In My Way," "Runnin' Back."

R.I.P. - Dr. Wesley A. Boyd

Pianist Eric Scott Reed informed TBGB that composer and conductor Dr. Wesley A. Boyd, formerly of the Richard Smallwood Singers and founder of the Wesley Boyd Gospel Music Workshop, died Sunday, October 4, 2009.

Funeral Arrangements for Dr. Boyd will be held Monday, October 12th at 10:00 am at the Union Temple Baptist Church, 1225 W. St. S.E., Washington DC.

Cards and condolences can be sent c/o Becky Mays, 194A Joliet St., S.W., Washington, D. C. 20032

TBGB will pass along additional information as it learns more.

Shirley Smith - In Hymn I Trust

Shirley Smith
In Hymn I Trust
The Sirens Records 2009
www.thesirensrecords.com

In Hymn I Trust, singer-pianist Shirley Smith’s debut recording for The Sirens Records, is a sweet album of sing-along hymns and congregational gospel songs straight from the proverbial little wooden church on the hill.

Raised in Detroit, Smith can play and sing in a variety of shades. For example, she gives “O Magnify the Lord” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” a smidgen of a jazz lilt while maintaining the simple beauty of the original melodies. Songs such as “Because He Lives” and “Something About that Name” get a more reverent, old-line Protestant church treatment.

Smith also breaks into some up-tempo congregational “handclapping” songs, such as “Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus,” on which she harmonizes with herself; and the introductory classic, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” The latter, which is entirely instrumental, sounds like the opening of a prayer service, during which the musicians get happy prematurely and launch into a praise break. “He’s Sweet I Know” finds Smith swinging on the everlasting piano keys. Throughout the project, she is supported amply by a combo of polished musicians, including jazz bassist Yosef Ben Israel.

Those familiar with other projects from Steve Dolins’ The Sirens label (Donald and Geraldine Gay, Rev. Dwayne Mason, e.g.) know that the imprint delivers consistently crystal clear sound, especially when it comes to recording the intricasies of the keyboards. The music has an almost three-dimensional effect, as if the concert or program is happening right in your living room, car, back porch, office, iPod, or wherever you may be listening.

You can find Shirley Smith in Jacksonville, Florida, where she serves as Minister of Music for the Potter’s House Christian Fellowship, pastored by Bishop Vaughn McLaughlin.

Four of Five Stars

TBGB Pick of the Week: October 5, 2009

“I Feel Like Going On”
Marvin L. Winans
From the World Wide Gospel album
The Gospel Music Celebration, Part I: Tribute to Bishop G.E. Patterson
www.gospeltruthmagazine.com

After a grand flourish from a Hammond B3, Marvin Winans delivers “I Feel Like Going On,” a lovely and powerful traditional gospel song in memory of COGIC Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson.

Recorded live in Memphis, COGIC headquarters, Winans thrills the live audience with his tear-stained vocals, hard shouting and song-preaching. The full-throttle choir raises the temperature behind Winans as the song marches toward its dramatic conclusion. It’s a fitting tribute to Bishop Patterson who loved old-time gospel and demonstrated it on his joyous Singing the Old Time Way projects.

"People Get Ready" for Toledo's First Creation

Gospel singer Jerry Boose took time from a busy schedule, including pastoring a Toledo, Ohio church and serving as a fireman, to tell TBGB about his gospel group, First Creation.

Boose organized First Creation in Toledo during the mid-1980s. “I had been singing around Toledo all my life, in different choirs and ensembles,” Boose explained, “but I had a desire to start a male contemporary group. That was when the Winans and Commissioned, some of the top groups of the day, were singing a different style of gospel music. I pulled together four guys I knew and had sung with over the years, and together we formed a group called Deliverance. Four years later, we changed the name from Deliverance to First Creation.”

From the outset, First Creation’s target audience was young people, “to inspire them” Boose said, “through the contemporary sound.”

First Creation made its first recording in 1989. Will You Take a Stand was released on the Philadelphia-based imprint Pure Gospel Sound. The title track secured radio play through a strong national distribution and marketing program. Today, First Creation has four CDs to its credit.

The latest release, Nobody Like Jesus, was recorded in May 2008 and earned the group a nomination on the first ballot of the 2008 Stellars for best contemporary group. The project’s singles are the traditional-flavored “Jesus, You’re My Everything” and a funky arrangement of the Impressions’ classic hit, “People Get Ready.”

“A lot of radio stations focused first on ‘Jesus You’re My Everything,’” Boose said, “but ‘People Get Ready’ is the song people enjoy most when we sing live. That’s why we are now promoting this particular single to radio.”

Like many singing groups, sacred and secular, First Creation has gone through its share of personnel changes over the years. “The cover of each CD has a different face on it,” Boose said. “The new face on Nobody Like Jesus is William (Redd) Crooks. He joined just before we entered the studio to record.” The current lineup consists of Boose, Crooks, Jesse Coleman and Ron Hogue.

While First Creation’s style remains contemporary, Boose acknowledges that the group’s sound has changed a little over the years, due mainly to the musical influences of its chief writers. “Minister Terry Cook wrote the music for our first CD and the project just before Nobody Like Jesus,” Boose explained. “He was influenced by Commissioned, so our earlier CDs sounded more like Commissioned and the Winans.” Crooks’s writing on Nobody Like Jesus adds a quartet feel to the mix. “William grew up in Chicago, where his mother sang in a gospel quartet,” Boose noted. “She has been one of his influences.”

That being said, Boose adds, “First Creation maintains a contemporary style and flow, even though we have been characterized as quartet. Yet I believe the CD has something for everyone, including a little praise and worship. Praise and worship has had a strong influence on all of us.”

First Creation continues to sing and promote its ministry. The group just returned from performances in Michigan and Indianapolis, Indiana. Evangelist Golden Lewis is organizing the group's singing tour of Florida in November.

Boose reflected on First Creation’s main message. “We are in a time when people are seeing different things happen in our country,” he said. “We’ve experienced recession, war, and we felt that people were giving up hope and didn’t know where to turn. We want our message to be that no matter what happens, no matter how dim your life looks or what your situation might be, there’s nobody like Jesus. He’s the one who can pull us out of every situation.

“Even when you feel like there is no hope, He’s the one who can give you hope again. People get ready. It’s not the end.”

Learn more about First Creation at: www.myspace.com/firstcreationmusic.

Micah Stampley - Ransomed

Micah Stampley
Ransomed
Interface Entertainment/Central South Distribution 2009
www.micahstampley.org

I first became acquainted with praise and worship singer Micah Stampley when he crooned the soothing “Take My Life” on T.D. Jakes’ 2004 He-Motions project (EMI Gospel/Dexterity Sounds). The components of this single – silky smooth, warm and impassioned singing; lovely, uncomplicated melodies; and gently pulsing arrangements -- can be heard in abundance on his latest album, Ransomed.

Recorded live August 15, 2008 at the Greater Travelers Rest MB Church in Decatur, Georgia (Rev. E. Dewey Smith, Jr., Pastor), Ransomed is peppermint candy for the soul. Thematically, the album asserts that disease, pain, sin, etc. are ills from which people are healed, or "ransomed," by God, who bestows upon us His power so we can keep ourselves out of trouble henceforward. At the outset, Dr. Cindy Trimm preaches on this theme during her almost poetic introduction of Stampley.

The musicians – including Joey Woolfalk and Jonathan DuBose on guitars – provide a firm foundation and a steady pace. Theory, the featured background vocal group, delivers modern harmonies and shifts dynamics in lock-step parallel with Stampley. Theory and Stampley are at their best, in fact, when together they build in volume and intensity during a musical climax.

While much of the album features meditative lyrics that frequently muse on the elements of wind and rain, and onomatopoeic melodies that ripple gently in support of the theme, Stampley flexes his gospel chops time and again, especially so on snippets of the gospel chestnut “Solid Rock” and Andrae Crouch’s “Always Remember.” His aerobic ad-libbing on these two songs turns the congregation out every time.

At the album’s conclusion, Stampley introduces fellow Houstonian and incendiary gospel singer Nakitta Clegg-Foxx who duets with him on “Be Encouraged.” She characteristically turns up the heat on the proceedings, as she has done in the company of other artists such as Kurt Carr, James Fortune, Gary Mayes and Nu Era, and Bishop Paul Morton.

V. Michael McKay’s “The Corinthian Song” is perfect for Stampley’s range and vocal delivery, and “Speak Into My Life” is another pleasing track, but “How Great You Are” is the album’s true praise and worship highlight. It is so illustrative of Stampley’s artistry it could be his musical cornerstone, but I’m sure there’s much more to come from one of P&W’s finest male vocalists.

Four of Five Stars