CD Review: Bishop Larry D. Trotter and the Sweet Holy Spirit Choir

Already Looking Bettah!
Bishop Larry D. Trotter and the Sweet Holy Spirit Choir
Tyscot 2005
www.tyscot.com

Larry Darnell Trotter, International Presiding Bishop of the United Pentecostal Churches of Christ is one of the reasons Chicago remains the Mecca of gospel music. His Sweet Holy Spirit church is one of the go-to places to hear good gospel music in the city, and the church choir honors the tradition of gospel choruses that started more than seventy years ago on Chicago’s south side, not terribly far from Trotter’s pulpit.

Already Looking Bettah!, the ensemble’s most recent release on Tyscot Records, features an all-star cast of gospel music talent. The diminutive dynamo Leanne Faine duets with Bishop Trotter on “Praise Him,” a VaShawn Mitchell composition that sounds as if it came from an old choir hymnal. The chorus shines particularly on “After This…You Shall Live,” featuring Donald Lawrence soloing on his own opus.

“Break Through” is an appropriately titled song for Yolanda (Tinka) Harris to lead, as her sharply penetrating, blues-soaked voice could break through the thickest of walls. Similarly, Betty Lott channels Dorothy Love Coates on “I’m Holding On,” an old-timey production written by band director Rick Robinson. The final track, “Bettah,” finds Mitchell reprising Kirk Franklin’s conversational call-and-response style from “Why We Sing” to great effect. Joey Woolfolk is a featured guitarist on the project. Such talent as assembled here could conceivably be considered gospel’s house band.

Already Looking Bettah! makes for excellent listening. With the number of superstars lending their expertise to the project, it provides one surprise after another.