Gospel Music According to Chicago Choir – Volume One (Rewind 2008)

Gospel Music According to Chicago Choir
Volume One
Rewind Records 2008
www.rewindinc.com

Imagine, if you will, the combined energy of iconic, big-voiced choirs from Chicago’s First Church of Deliverance, Fellowship, Cosmopolitan, Greater Harvest, St. Paul COGIC, and the Tommies. That aural image should give you some sense of the power of the Gospel Music According to Chicago (GMAC) Choir, which is set to release its first project, Volume One, later this month.

GMAC is the brainchild of Chicago Area Gospel Announcers Guild President Dennis E. Cole. Cole’s vision is to honor Chicago’s gospel music roots, and the “living legends” who are the protagonists of that history, while maintaining the city’s role in the forefront of the gospel music industry. One manifestation of GMAC has been a choir comprised of several living legends, some legends-in-the-making, and other gospel singers of all ages who have signed on eagerly to fulfill GMAC’s mission.

The GMAC Choir, under the skillful direction of Fellowship’s longstanding music director LouDella Evans Reid, closed out this year’s Gospel Music Workshop of America with a grand flourish. But on Monday, October 22, 2007, the choir gathered at historic First Deliverance. Despite a chilly rainstorm, it was hot and humid in the church as the choir presented a program and live recording. Volume One captures the spirit and nostalgia of that event.

Listening to the songs on Volume One is like greeting old friends at a high school reunion. The only difference is that at a reunion, most people don’t look like they used to. Here, the songs sound as vibrant and fresh as they did when they were first recorded years ago.

The project is obviously focused on Chicago gospel performers and songwriters. It opens with Rev. Clarence H. Cobbs’ jaunty “Come On Children, Let’s Sing,” which features a swinging Hammond B3 reminiscent of the choir’s 11:00 p.m. radio broadcasts. Roberta Martin’s majestic “God is Still on the Throne” is given a royal reading by vocal firecracker Angela Spivey. Another Roberta Martin Singers classic, “Only a Look,” is performed with equal verve by the choir, and Martin Singer Eugene Smith’s classic gospel blues, “I Know the Lord Will Make a Way,” features the musky vocals of COGIC legend Vernon Oliver Price. James Cleveland’s “I Don’t Feel Noways Tired” is featured on the album, too, because with all due respect to Detroit and Los Angeles, the irrepressible King James was born in Chicago and spent his formative years singing, producing, playing, writing, directing choirs and otherwise marketing the music around the Windy City.

More recent but no less masterful choir pieces are not left out. Volume One contains Walt Whitman and the Soul Children of Chicago’s classic from 1990, “Perfect Praise” (aka “How Excellent”) as well as Rev. Clay Evans and Fellowship’s traditional rouser from this decade, “I’ve Got a Testimony.”

GMAC has done for Chicago gospel music history what Armen Boladian‘s Sound of Gospel Records did for the Motor City with its marvelous compilation, called Detroit Remembers. Simply stated, GMAC’s Volume One is the soundtrack of Chicago gospel music.

Four of Four Stars