Norris Garner Don’t Stop the Praise Norris Garner Music (2015) By Bob Marovich A North Carolinan by birth but a resident of California’s Bay Area, Norris Garner is a choir man. He has written, sung with, accompanied, directed, and taught choirs at the Gospel Music Workshop of America, the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, and in Europe. So while Garner’s 2015 Don’t Stop the Praise is billed as a solo album, it features a talented background vocal ensemble that supports Garner and his guest soloists with plenty of polish. The ensemble consists of Tony and Toni McFarland with Blessed Union from ...

Norris Garner / Szymon Markiewicz God Created: Musical Oratorio (DVD) Norris Garner Music (2017) norrisgarnermusic@gmail.com By Bob Marovich Several years ago, singer, director, and songwriter Norris Garner (“He’s Blessing Me”) wrote “God Created” while teaching gospel music workshops in Poland. His Polish colleague, conductor Szymon Markiewicz, suggested he turn the humble song into a masterwork. Garner did. The result is God Created, a gospel oratorio recorded live on May 8, 2015, at the Sulwalki Gospel Festival in Poland and released this year on DVD. What’s an oratorio, you may ask? It is a large musical composition written for orchestra, choir, and soloists, and ...

Dr. Clarence Eggleton and the Singing Ecclesiastics (self-titled) Clareton Music (2015) Available from Amazon.com By Bob Marovich Dr. Clarence Eggleton, a GRAMMY-nominated songwriter who wrote for artists from the Reverend James Cleveland to Sara Jordan Powell, convened several talented vocalists to breathe life into a dozen compositions from his catalog of more than 500. The result is the self-titled project Dr. Clarence Eggleton and the Singing Ecclesiastics. Accompanied by a crew of very competent musicians and a seven-member mixed vocal group, one soloist after another steps to the microphone to put his or her own imprint on Eggleton’s creations. Many vocal colors—from ...