“Never Forget” Atlanta Chapter of the GMWA Mass Choir Aspire International Music Group (release date: February 22, 2020) www.atlantagmwamasschoir.org By Bob Marovich The choir representing the Atlanta Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA) gives the classic Soul Stirrers hit from 1954, “Jesus I’ll Never Forget,” a distinctive choir-tet arrangement. Joining the mass choir on lead vocals is GMWA stalwart Bishop Richard “Mr. Clean” White. White, squalling vocalist Evangelist Saundra Cepeda, and the choir take the listener back to what church used to sound like—but with a twist, courtesy of jazzy chords and chord changes in the bridge. ...

From a press release: TIME LIFE WILL RELEASE AUDIO PERFORMANCES FROM THE EMMY® AWARD WINNING GOSPEL TV SERIES “JUBILEE SHOWCASE” AS A STREAMING-ONLY ALBUM FEATURING RAW PERFORMANCES BY ICONIC GOSPEL ACTS SUCH AS ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAMERS THE STAPLE SINGERS & THE SOUL STIRRERS, AND MORE! TIME LIFE will release Jubilee Showcase, 36 raw, live performances – before a studio audience – from the Emmy® Award winning  TV concert series, Jubilee Showcase, as a streaming-only album on January 17, 2020 – MLK Weekend. It will stream globally on more than 300 digital service providers, such as Apple Music ...

How They Got Over, a documentary film by Robert Clem about gospel quartets and their contribution to rock and roll, received the “Best Killer Soundtrack” Award from the ninth Chicago International Movies and Music Festival, better known as CIMMFest. The documentary was shown at the Davis Theater last Saturday afternoon as part of the festival. Gospel legend Willie Rogers of the Soul Stirrers joined Clem, co-producer Jerry Zolten, and gospel historian Bob Marovich for a brief Q&A session afterward. How They Got Over features interviews from singing stars such as Clarence Fountain (Blind Boys of Alabama), Rev. Thomas Spann (Brooklyn All Stars), Ira ...

Various Artists Jesus Rocked the Jukebox Craft Records / Concord Music Group (2017) http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/albums/jesus-rocked-jukebox-small-group-black-gospel-1951-1965/ By Bob Marovich In addition to its estimable contributions to the religious, social, and political life of African Americans, the church has also been an effective music training school. Untold numbers of men and women have learned to sing or play instruments before discerning but sympathetic church communities. While some singers and musicians committed their musical talent wholly to God, others sought fame in the financially lucrative world of rock and roll and R&B. This exit caused no small amount of consternation among churchgoers who felt that ...

Dave Bass The Welcome Table DNB Associates (1997) www.cdbaby.com/davebass By Bob Marovich Although he recorded The Welcome Table twenty years ago, gospel singer and songwriter Dave Bass is promoting his quartet-inspired album to a new generation of listeners. The eight radio-sized selections on The Welcome Table sound like nostalgic reflections by a revivalist vocal harmony group, the kind that appears on TJ Lubinsky’s PBS specials. The songs have a latter-day Soul Stirrers vibe, with Bass channeling Sam Cooke’s elastic tenor but without his trademark yodel. Bass is accompanied by an uncredited quartet and contemporary musical backdrop. The title track as ...

By Bob Marovich To carve out a niche in a quartet community crowded with local and national artists, the Gospel Sensations are employing a time-honored principle that has been all but abandoned in gospel music. A cappella harmony singing. That’s right: trendsetting by going back to the way gospel quartets sang prior to the 1950s: without musical instruments. And people like it. “Sometimes music takes a more commercial turn, and I get that,” said Robert C. Marion Jr., member of the Gospel Sensations. “It takes money to finance a ministry, but the a cappella sound, when it is done right, ...

When Art Rupe of Specialty Records recorded the July 22, 1955, gospel program at Los Angeles’s Shrine Auditorium, he was making history. It would be the first multi-artist gospel program to be recorded, and one of the most significant aural examples of live gospel music during its golden age. Artists appearing that day included the Soul Stirrers with a pre-soul star Sam Cooke, the Pilgrim Travelers, Dorothy Love Coates and the Original Gospel Harmonettes, the Caravans with Albertina Walker and James Cleveland, and Brother Joe and Annette May. Rob Strauss and Cameron Kell honored the 60th anniversary of the program by ...

Various Artists An Evening with the Legends of Quartet Live Malaco/4 Winds www.malaco.com By Bob Marovich Malaco Records and its 4 Winds subsidiary are the main standard bearers for gospel quartet singing, a style that once dominated the gospel charts but has since fallen behind mass choirs and small choirs in radio play and album sales. But unlike their secular peers in vocal harmony who retired and only gather for PBS retrospectives, many gospel quartet singers from the golden age are still working the road, albeit with groups comprised of new personnel. Some of the lead singers from quartet’s golden age gathered ...

Soul Stirrers Joy in My Soul: The Complete SAR Recordings ABKCO Records (release date: January 27, 2015 www.abkco.com By Bob Marovich The first ABKCO compilation of Soul Stirrers recordings on the legendary SAR Records was released more than a decade ago. With sixteen tracks, the Stirrers had the lion’s share of sides on the gospel portion of that two-CD set, but that was all; the rest of the set needed to feature other SAR artists. Gospel quartet enthusiasts as well as Soul Stirrers fans will therefore appreciate Joy In My Soul because it is all Soul Stirrers. And of the 33 selections ...

The Journal of Gospel Music is saddened to learn of the passing of LeRoy Crume. LeRoy was a member of Chicago’s Crume Brothers and the Soul Stirrers.  The Crume Brothers are credited for introducing the electric guitar into quartet music and many were members of the Soul Stirrers at one time or another. We will post information on homegoing services as it becomes available.