Carl Lavon Bell – Carl Lavon Sings, Jesus Swings

Carl Lavon Bell

Tate Music Group (2013)

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog

The second half of the title of Carl Lavon Bell’s new album refers to its opening track, “Jesus Swings.”  Backed by a hip jazz combo, Bell strings together gospel and spiritual song titles into a call for divine assistance.

The resonant baritone delivering the lyrics sounds right at home with the small, uncredited jazz group.  Hailed as the “Nat King Cole of Gospel,” Chicago’s Carl Lavon Bell has the easy delivery and relaxed pacing of the crooner, who was in fact a distant relative, as well as big band alumni Sinatra and Bennett.  In the liner notes, Bell jokingly refers to himself as “an unknown artist who sounds like he fell out of the ’50s and ’60s,” but in reality he sounds as if he also fell from the ’40s, when big band vocalists were at their apex.  He would have fit in swimmingly.

Bell wrote or arranged the eight songs on the album, including “The Gospel Train,” which bathes the “get on board” classic in a laid back Sunday afternoon feel, but chugs to a halt one stop too early.  “Love and Amazing Grace” is performed in a minor key, unusual for gospel but ideal for Bell’s musicians.  On “Bless His Holy Name,” Bell interpolates a few bars of Gershwin’s “’S Wonderful,” and falls into a steady rhythm on “J-E-S-U-S.”   He and his group seemed to be having so much fun with the latter number they could have gone another round.

Carl Lavon Sings, Jesus Swings makes it plain that Carl Levon Bell ought to consider recording a full album of gospel classics with his combo, the kind of songs that were originally printed in four-page octavo format.  Of course, having fallen from that golden era, he will know exactly what songs those are.

Pick: “The Gospel Train.”