Jolie Rocke BrownRock of Ages: Hymns for the Soul (2013)
Album available at CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, or
Album available at CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, or
By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog
Dorothy Norwood famously commented that contemporary gospel has its merits, but when people are really hurting, they turn to traditional gospels and hymns for comfort.
Jolie Rocke Brown of Hartford, Connecticut, can attest to this. After the coloratura soprano was diagnosed with, and recovered from, breast cancer, she gathered four talented jazz musicians and recorded a handful of hymns. The product is Rock of Ages: Hymns for the Soul.
Rock of Ages has the feel of an intimate recital in an after-hours jazz club. Brown’s soprano is a blend of church singing, musical theater, and classical repertory. Her vocal training is anchored in classical: an undergraduate degree in music from the University of Hartford’s Hartt School, graduate work at Loyola College, and doctoral studies at the University of Connecticut.
All the selections on the album are familiar chestnuts, many of them gospel hymns from the Second Great Awakening, with its camp meetings and tent revivals. At 82 years old, Albert Brumley’s “I’ll Fly Away” is the most recent selection; the Dutch folk song, “We Gather Together,” is the oldest, from 1597.
Age doesn’t matter because the jazz arrangements make the songs sound fresh. The restful “His Eye is on the Sparrow” and “Great is Thy Faithfulness” find Brown and the combo in perfect congruence. The musicians and vocalist use the space to improvise, and even drop in blue notes from time to time.
The album belongs as much to the jazz quartet that serves as the backing band as to the singer herself. Truth be told, the combo—producer Joel A. Martin (piano and organ), Dan Campolieta (piano), Charlie Dye (drums), and Lou Bocciarelli (bass)–could do an album of jazzed hymns on their own. The brief musical interlude for “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” demonstrates this, and Campolieta’s piano on “Blessed Assurance” is nothing short of remarkable.
For the decades-old fuss over the relationship between jazz and the sacred, Rock of Ages demonstrates how the two are indeed first cousins.
Four of Five Stars
Picks: “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”
Written by : Bob Marovich
Bob Marovich is a gospel music historian, author, and radio host. Founder of Journal of Gospel Music blog (formally The Black Gospel Blog) and producer of the Gospel Memories Radio Show.
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