NOTE: Gregory Gay, the son of Donald "Preacher" Gay, wrote this brief history of the Gay Sisters, a family that gospel music historian Anthony Heilbut once wrote "is worth a longer study; they provide in microcosm a history of black migration." ################################################################################### The church and gospel music has long played [...]
From the South Side of Chicago -- where gospel music found its voice more than eight decades ago -- comes Fortitude (Jamie Simond, Cinque Cullar, Leon "Rock" Guyton and Teddy Jackson). Originally the Stellar nominated NuWave, the group has been reborn as Fortitude with the same tight harmonies, only richer [...]
On its list of "Best Decisions of 2004," Professor James Roberson's JDI Records must have included at the top its release of DeNetria "Aretha" Champ's first solo CD: "I Really Love You." Having appeared as a guest on a number of JDI projects, including Chicago's Greater Walters ("He Can Do [...]
Week #114: "To the End" - Hightower Brothers Nashboro 719, early 1960s [also available on Nashboro LP 7011; on CD as "The Best of the Hightower Brothers" NASH 4004] Eschewing the frenetic shouting typical of the Hightower Brothers' most popular recordings, Robert Lee "Sugar" Hightower slows it up on "To [...]
Bishop Leonard Scott – “Hymns for the Nation” (Tyscot 2004) There are some projects that I especially enjoy reviewing, and this is one of them. Bishop Leonard Scott’s “Hymns for the Nation” not only features an all-star cast, including Albertina Walker, DeAndre Patterson, and Nicki Ross-Turnley, but also showcases old [...]
Joe Stevenson & Friends: "I Had to Wait on Him" (Blessed Man Music, 2004) Joe “Quarterback” Stevenson – a high school and college gridiron athlete, law enforcement officer, elected official, and musician – passes for far more completions than incompletes on his debut effort, “I Had to Wait on Him.” [...]
Personally, I'm not a big fan of "American Idol" type contests, but I must admit that they have identified some very talented singers, especially LaShell Griffin. LaShell was the winner of Oprah's Pop Star Challenge, and if this is a way for a 36 year-old mother of five to get [...]
"Great Get'n Up Morning"/"Get Away Jordan" D.C. Christian Harmonizers North American (no #) ca. mid-60s Back in the 1950s and early to mid-1960s, one side of a pop single very often contained a medium or quick-tempo song for fast dancing, and the other side a slower, ballad-style recording for slow, [...]
If you enjoy old-school music (as I do), you won't be able to get enough of the Williams Brothers' cover of "Love Train," the Gamble-Huff ode to unity made famous by the O'Jays in the 1970s. The track is on the recently released Blackberry Records CD SoulLink Live by The [...]
“Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray” Frederick ‘Nee’ Smith & the Sensational Gospel Light Rae Cox 144 early 1960s The Rae Cox and Enrica labels were formed by veteran jazz musician Teddy McRae and Eddie Wilcox sometime around 1959. The labels featured RnB, doo-wop, and a fair amount of gospel. It is [...]
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