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Category: gospel

2010

Sunday, May 23, 2010

You don’t have to go to Chicago’s south or west sides to hear music that comes from the gospel tradition. The other day, at a Catholic church in a far northwest suburb (Barrington), a funeral service (for my uncle) closed with this.

Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993), “Precious Lord,” live,  c. 1981 (Say Amen, Somebody [1982])

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More from Mr. Dorsey (and Say Amen, Somebody):

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Since it’s the best-known gospel song [‘Precious Lord’], it was perfectly natural for Dr. Martin Luther King to request its performance the night of his death.

—Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (6th ed. 2002)

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Want more gospel?

Here’s the theme song for one of my favorite radio shows, Kevin Nutt’s Sinner’s Crossroads (WFMU-FM), which can be heard live on Thursday night from 7-8 p.m. (EST) or at the archives anytime.

Silver Quintette, “Sinner’s Crossroads” (1956, Chicago)/mp3

(This comes from The Widow’s Might, a DVD containing [in mp3 format] every song played on Sinner’s Crossroads in 2009, which is available as a premium for a $75 pledge to WFMU.)

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2010

Thursday, May 20, 2010

These guys sounded awfully good the other day—let’s hear some more.

Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, “Orleans & Claiborne,” live, New Orleans, 2010

There are a lot of things to like about this performance. One is the way Shorty, following two hot solos (tenor, baritone), doesn’t try to out-blow those guys. Instead, he changes directions (3:20). Sometimes nothing packs more punch than restraint. (Yeah, I don’t know why this clip cuts off when it does, either.)

Want more? Here.

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passings

Soon I’ll be leaving for a funeral—my uncle, Hugh Frebault. Nine days ago we sat and talked and laughed for over an hour; now he’s silent. Does life get any more understandable as you get older? I don’t think so—if anything, it seems to become only more mysterious, more unfathomable.

Blind Willie Johnson, “Dark Was The Night – Cold Was The Ground” (1927, Dallas)

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2010

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Same song (as last Sunday), same city, different singer.

Grandpa Elliott, “Amazing Grace,” live, New Orleans, April 29, 2010

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Interview with Grandpa Elliott, New Orleans, April 29, 2010

This is like my medicine, my doctor, my everything.

—Grandpa Elliott

Want more? Here.

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2010

Sunday, May 9, 2010

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2010/part 3

Aaron Neville, “Amazing Grace”

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2010

Sunday, May 2, 2010

The records this man made, during sessions in Dallas in the 1920s, where he played an instrument that has long mystified listeners (dolceola? fretless zither?), are like nothing else I know.

Washington Phillips

“Lift Him Up” (1927, Dallas)

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“What Are They Doing In Heaven Today?” (1928, Dallas)

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“Denomination Blues,” Part 1 (1927, Dallas)

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2010

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Someone could offer me a million dollars to forget this voice and I still couldn’t do it.

The Soul Stirrers featuring R.H. Harris

“Walk Around” (1939)

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“Lord I’ve Tried” (1946)

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“I Want To Rest” (1946)

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“I’m Willing To Run” (1947)

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“He [R.H. Harris] was The Man – the guy everyone tried to sound like,” says gospel historian Anthony Heilbut. “If you’ve been to a black church or listened to R&B music, you’ve heard the influence of R.H. Harris.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame made the Soul Stirrers its first gospel inductees in 1989.

Musically, Harris and the Soul Stirrers helped shape gospel’s transition from the old “jubilee” a cappella style into the “quartet” style, with a more distinct lead voice and musical parts.

Harris sang in a striking high voice Heilbut calls “a combination of gospel moans, cowboy yodels and a clear Irish tenor.”

Harris helped found the Soul Stirrers in Texas in the 1930s. When he left in 1950, Cooke took over as lead singer and always called Harris his major stylistic influence. He then passed the style to the likes of Al Green.—David Hinckley, New York Daily News, September 6, 2000 (obituary)

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2010

Saturday, 4/24/10

Sixty years from now what will folks think about today’s music?

Barton Brothers, “Cockeyed Jenny,” c. 1947, on Victrola Favorites: Artifacts from Bygone Days (Dust-to-Digital)

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Here’s a profile of this fine small record label (previously featured here [Sister O.M. Terrell] and here [email from founder Lance Ledbetter]).

Dust-to-Digital

Part 1

Part 2

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2010

Sunday, 4/18/10

Some singers—like this one, featured a few weeks ago—you just can’t get enough of.

Dorothy Love Coates & the Gospel Harmonettes

“(You Can’t Hurry God) He’s Right On Time,” live (TV broadcast)

(This song, written by DLC, reportedly inspired the Supremes’ hit “You Can’t Hurry Love” [Holland-Dozier-Holland].)

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“You Must Be Born Again,” live (TV broadcast)

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“It’s Getting Late In The Evening,” live, Los Angeles, 1955

Want more? Here.

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2010

Sunday, 4/11/10

Earlier this week the last surviving member of the Chicago-based Gay Sisters passed away. She was a piano wizard—sometimes referred to as the “Erroll Garner of gospel piano.” A musical tribute is scheduled for Friday evening, April 16th, at the Prayer Center Church of God in Christ, which is located at 526 E. 67th St. in Chicago.

Geraldine Gay, 1931-April 6, 2010

Gay Sisters, Savoy Records, 1951

“I’m A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord”

That’s Geraldine on the right.

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“I’m Goin’ To Walk Out In His Name”

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“God Will Take Care Of You”

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‘God Will Take Care Of You’ . . . sold an easy 100,000 units (an astounding amount of records for any genre to sell at the time), which in today’s sales would be equal to the popularity of a platinum album.—Bill Carpenter, Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia (2005)

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Chicago is known the world over as the birthplace of gospel music. So it comes as no surprise that city officials can barely contain their excitement over the possibility of a gospel museum opening on the city’s south side. How excited are they? Well, an official with the Chicago Board of Tourism recently made this commitment: the gospel museum “is exactly the kind of thing,” she said, that they “would put up” on their Web site. Yes, you heard that right: a city official announced, publicly, that they would include it on their Web site. Take that, Nashville!

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2010

Sunday, 4/4/10

When it comes to working an audience, no one outshines gospel singers.

Paul Porter, “Two Wings,” live, Cleveland, 2009

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Want more gospel?

Stevie Wonder

Al Green

Aretha Franklin

Otis Clay

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art beat

Henri Matisse, Flowers and Ceramic Plate (1913)

This is just one of dozens of reasons to see “Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917,” which will be at the Art Institute through June 20th, then at the Museum of Modern Art beginning July 18th. At the risk of sounding like a PR flack, this exhibit (which I saw opening weekend and will return to soon) has critics scrambling for superlatives: “revelatory” (Artforum), “thrilling” (San Francisco Chronicle), “breathtaking” (Los Angeles Times)—well, you get the idea.

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