Pastor David Wright Presents the Rev. Timothy Wright Memorial Choir – The Legacy Continues…

Pastor David Wright Presents the
Rev. Timothy Wright Memorial Choir
The Legacy Continues… (2011)
www.gracetabernaclecogic.com

Did the late Rev. Timothy Wright imagine, in the early 1970s when he was laying down his contemporary choral sounds for the forward-gazing Glori label, that his music would someday be labeled “traditional?”

Hard to say, but everything old is new again, as evidenced by The Legacy Continues…, a tribute to the late Godfather of Gospel, his wife and grandson who were victims of a July 2008 auto accident. And the most traditional tracks are presentations of Wright’s own compositions.

It is my understanding that the Rev. Timothy Wright Memorial Choir was formerly known as the New York Fellowship Mass Choir, a group blessed by Wright’s leadership. On this tribute album, the choir and a parade of remarkable lead singers sink their gospel teeth deep into their songbook, selling even the most conventional of compositions as if producing the definitive versions in testimony to their friend and minister.

Danielle Kelley’s lead on the current single, “God Has Been So Good,” is emotion-laden and the reprise is nearly as long as the song, as the Godfather of Gospel’s son, Pastor David Wright, exhorts the assemblage to consider their blessings with comments like, “You got a headache but it ain’t an aneurism – God is good to you.” And then the praise break washes over the singing like a tsunami.

The album’s highlight is “Higher.” It is a spectacular COGIC-style gospelization of Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher” but sufficiently distinct from the original that it cannot be compared to other, more faithful choral takes on the sanctified pop song. It is ready-made for gospel radio.  This and other Rev. Timothy Wright songs and arrangements, such as “Take Care of You” and “If I Suffer,” with its rocking chair rhythm, will raise the pulse of choir music fans.

Moses Tyson makes a cameo appearance, making the B3 all but speak in tongues. The Legacy Continues… is evocative of the robust singing featured on the annual GMWA and Dorsey Convention mass choir collections of the 1970s and 1980s.

Five of Five Stars

Picks: “God Has Been So Good,” “Higher,” “If I Suffer.”