Norris O. Garner – “Praze Party” (Gospel Praze 2007)

Norris O. Garner
Praze Party
Gospel Praze 2007
http://www.prazeparty.com/

Born in North Carolina but now a resident of California’s Bay Area, Norris Garner is a choir man. He has written, sung with, accompanied, directed and taught choirs at the Gospel Music Workshop of America and the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. He directs the Foothill College Gospel Chorus in Los Altos Hills and regularly goes overseas to teach gospel choruses abroad.

So it’s no surprise that his CD Praze Party is chock full of choir sounds…an eight-person choir, mind you, but voices powerful enough to fill the recording studio with wall to wall harmony.

The album is bookended with celebratory somgs – praise party music, of course – most interestingly “I’ve Come to Praise the Lord,” an uptempo choir workout. The middle of the CD focuses on slower praise and worship songs, including a pastoral “My Soul Says Yes.”

Garner’s penchant for taking gospel global is evident in the fact that four of the thirteen tracks on Praze Party, including “God Is,” have some level of Caribbean flavor in the beat. Some will remember “God Is” from his performance of the song, as “God Is in the Sanctuary,” with the GMWA Mass Choir in Milwaukee (2005).

A roster of gospel artists lends its talent to Praze Party, including regular Garner collaborators John Tillery and Dr. Clarence Eggleston. Alfreda Lyons Campbell gives a nice soulful treatment to “Holy Is the Lamb.” Another female soloist, Nique Earnest is Garner’s latest “it” girl, with shades of Mary J. Blige in her sassy delivery. Earnest gives top performances on every song on which she is featured.

Garner’s sons (Joseph and Jeremy) are also part of the production, contributing the impressive holy hip hop title track. True to its sub-genre, “Praze Party” concentrates on born-again salvation from an unsavory lifestyle that is spiraling downward. It’s a message you most often hear from hip hop artists and quartets, and not as frequently anymore from other parts of the gospel spectrum.

Garner wrote or arranged all of the songs on Praze Party. His songwriting focuses on simple-to-remember melodies and uncomplicated praise lyrics, very likely the product of his experience teaching choirs world-wide. All in all, a very nice listening experience.

Three of Four Stars

P.S. TBGB is blogging this evening from lovely Evian-les-Bains, France.