Funmilayo Ngozi Unconstrained Unconstrained Music (2015) www.funmilayongozi.com By Bob Marovich A cursory look at Nigerian singer Funmilayo Ngozi’s name might suggest that her music is steeped in the African gospel tradition. In actuality, Ngozi lives in Augusta, Georgia, and studied and is a music educator in the U.S. She served [...]
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 [...]
“Victory Right Now” Angela “Missy” Billups From My Inspiration II E’Mazin Entertainment (2015) Available on iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon Remember the days when disc jockeys would listen to the B side of a record and decide that was the hit? “Get a Job” by the Silhouettes is just one of [...]
Laura Kaczor Restore Me LifeThirst Music (release date: July 10, 2015) www.laurakaczor.com By Bob Marovich Restore Me is Laura Kaczor’s (pronounced kuh-ZORE)’s fourth album and first in five years. It extends her work as a Christian songstress who knows just how to craft Billboard-charting gospels. Kaczor’s voice is lovely to [...]
“He Was Always There (That’s Why I Praise Him)” Zenobia Dewely Available on Amazon.com How can you not love a woman who “sangs” and runs a baked goods enterprise at the same time? Zenobia Pinckney Dewely, owner of Zenobia’s Sweet Tooth, is known as the "Cookie Lady," but she sings [...]
Mr. J. Matthew Cobb of HiFi Magazine informed the Journal of Gospel Music that Rickey Grundy, leader of the Rickey Grundy Chorale; a musician; and a composer and arranger of dozens of popular gospel songs, died in Los Angeles, California, today, July 27, at the age of 56. Grundy not only recorded [...]
Jenise La Vonne The Call Unusually Anointed Music Group (release date: June 5, 2015) www.lovejeniselavonne.com By Bob Marovich Apostle Lymus Johnson, a fiery preacher winding up to full whoop mode, opens New York singer Jenise La Vonne’s EP The Call. To an overlain modern beat, Apostle Johnson poses the question that serves as [...]
Read Keith Alexander's article in the Washington Post here: Richard Smallwood
Karen Clark Sheard Destined to Win Karew Records (2015) www.karewrecords.com By Bob Marovich “Can I take some time to talk to you? / To share a message to encourage you?” Karen Clark Sheard asks in “The Who Doesn’t Matter,” the opening of her new CD, Destined to Win, and a [...]
Jason Alvarez Time for Miracles (release date: March 23, 2015) www.jamm.org By Bob Marovich Ever wonder what happened to the bearded guy who sang alongside Sylvia Robinson on the 1975 proto-disco hit “Shame Shame Shame?” The guy who “got my sun roof down, got my diamond in the back” and [...]
