Grounded in Tradition, Judith Christie McAllister Embraces the Future

JCM: Oh, absolutely, absolutely! But growing up in a Caribbean household did not prevent me from being influenced also by the classics, which is what I primarily studied as a child. I was trained classically in piano and didn’t venture into gospel music until I became a teenager.

My mother would only let us listen to hymns and standard sacred music. There was a family radio station where I grew up that used to play a lot of a cappella hymns. That was the only music my mother would allow us to listen to. Thank God she did, because it gave me such a rooted and firm approach to music.

TBGB: Who in gospel music did you listen to as a teenager?

JCM: There were so many: Andrae Crouch, Walter Hawkins, James Cleveland, Albertina Walker, Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin and some of the up-and-coming artists, such as a choir director from Hempstead, New York named Benny Cummings. He’s since passed away, but he was very influential in the late ’70s and the early ’80s with a new choir sound. I always wanted to have an opportunity to influence music the way he did.

TBGB: How did you become associated with the West Angeles Church of God in Christ?

JCM: I was singing on a daily television program at Oral Roberts University and my husband – at the time he was my fiancé – was one of the guest coordinators for the show, which meant he would pick up artists and guests and accommodate them while they were there for the program. One day my husband picked up Bishop [Charles] Blake [Pastor of West Angeles COGIC]. They began to converse and Bishop Blake asked him about his plans for the future. He said there were a number of things he’d like to do, but he didn’t have anything firm at the moment. So Bishop invited him to be his personal aide. Of course, since I was soon to be married to him, I came along. A couple of years later, he left to work for the police department and I stayed. He was at West Angeles two years and I was there for eighteen!

TBGB: Going back to your experience at Oral Roberts University, is that where you got into the praise and worship style?

JCM: When I arrived on campus in August of 1985, I was familiar with praise and worship but not the contemporary style that I learned at Oral Roberts University, by having the opportunity to sing on the television show and hearing others perform on the show.

TBGB: Has your musical style evolved over the years?

JCM: Yes, it has, but it still remains grounded in the roots of tradition. Not in the sense of being rigid, but in the roots of the hymns and sacred music. I have at least one hymn or sacred song on all of my projects. That’s important to me: to not only reach my generation but also to reach back and give something to the generation before me…and give something to the generation ahead of me that they can identify with.

TBGB: Your new album, Sound the Trumpet, was recorded before your life was beset by some personal challenges. What goes through your mind when you listen to the recording now?

JCM: I was just telling a friend, “You can’t hate my glory if you don’t know my story.” When I listen to the album, that’s what I’m thinking: that God in His sovereignty knew that this time in my life would take place, and He prepared me. He gave me songs that I can refer back to, to see the faithfulness of God, to see that He doesn’t leave a worshipper in the dark.

TBGB: What are the most meaningful tracks on the album for you?

JCM: “Sound the Trumpet,” “Thank You for the Healing,” and “Nobody Like the Lord.”

TBGB: On “Just For Who You Are,” you sing with Nancey Jackson Johnson. I feel it is the best song on the project and Nancey is an underappreciated gospel singer. Singers and musicians know who she is, but the general public doesn’t necessarily know. How did this song come into being?