“Grace” Charles Jenkins & Fellowship Chicago feat. Le’Andria Johnson Inspired People, LLC (release date: July 7, 2017) Available from digital media outlets By Bob Marovich Pastor Charles Jenkins & Fellowship Chicago’s “Grace” feels like a quicker-tempo version of Kirk Franklin’s “I Smile” with its plinky piano, chirpy melody, finger-popping rhythm, and unison singing. The choir declares that they don’t look like what they’ve been through, and it’s because of God’s favor. God has brought them from a mighty long way. They’re blessed by the best. Then Le’Andria Johnson jumps in and drops a healthy helping of righteous southern soul on ...

Charles Jenkins Think About These Things Inspired People LLC / EMPIRE (release date: September 2, 2016) http://inspiredpeoplemusic.com By Bob Marovich I have followed Pastor Charles Jenkins since his Fellowship Chicago debut and Stellar Award-winning The Best of Both Worlds, which offered pew-burning odes to the church’s traditional gospel legacy and gave us the gospel smash and spiritual earworm, “Awesome.” The follow-up, Any Given Sunday, tamped down the high-charged gospel of Worlds with more helpings of P&W, save for the single, “War,” but it still contained songs to teach the church choir. So trust me when I tell you that Pastor Jenkins’s solo ...

CHICAGO, Jan. 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ : Central City Productions today announced that comedian, syndicated radio and TV personality Rickey Smiley (Dish Nation, Rickey Smiley For Real) and actress and TV personality Sherri Shepherd (Ride Along 2, The View) will return as co-hosts of the 31st Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards, having hosted together in 2014. Hailed as the “biggest night in gospel music,” this year’s Stellar Awards will be held at the Las Vegas Orleans Arena on Saturday, February 20, 2016. The telecast will premiere on TV One during the week of March 6, as well as in broadcast syndication ...

The June 20, 2015 episode of Gospel Memories on WLUW Chicago includes a long set in memory of the victims and their families, and all the members of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.  Gospel music helps us mourn, helps us heal, helps us remember.  May this kind of tragedy never happen again. Click on the Gospel Memories icon at left to listen to the entire show (the “in memoriam” set begins around 19:25).  JGM’s Bob Marovich is host.

Charles Jenkins & Fellowship Chicago The Best of Both Worlds EMI Gospel/Inspired People (2012) www.emigospel.com By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog. It could not have been easy for Charles Jenkins to succeed the iconic Rev. Dr. Clay Evans as Pastor of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago. Evans, a Civil Rights leader and founder of “The Ship,” had taken his church from very humble roots to one of the nation’s most significant religious institutions. Fellowship’s radio choir was no less celebrated than the church it represented. Directed at the beginning by Willie Webb and later by Evans’ sister, ...