Reverend Floyd Flake Presents The Worship Experience
RCA Inspiration (2013)
By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog
Released to stores March 19, 2013, Reverend Floyd Flake Presents The Worship Experience represents truth in advertising. It is what it purports to be: a live worship service at Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral, where Reverend Floyd Flake and his wife, Elayne, are co-pastors.
The album features an assortment of confident vocal leaders, a full-throated choir, a team of fully revved musicians and, most importantly, a fine mix of song compositions. Among the prominent vocalists is Michael Pugh, who is featured on the opening song and hit single, “Greater.” Part prayer, part affirmation, “Greater” has an optimistic feel to match Pugh’s discovery of the greater in everything around him.
Three of the album’s up-tempo songs—“Psalm 63,” “Jesus,” and “All the Glory”—possess an Afro-Caribbean rhythm that is more common in gospel music today than one might realize. On the other hand, the spirited “Your Grace” is an old-fashioned hand-clapper, led effectively by Katrice “Binky” Walker and Carl Robinson, with a quartet-style vamp at the conclusion.
With the exception of “Your Grace,” the album’s most memorable selections are the softer, more meditative ones, which is in keeping with the A.M.E. music tradition. This includes Stanley Brown’s fine “Fill This Place,” a praise anthem rendered deftly by Bryant Dayce that is gospel music at its best: just vocal and piano. The company’s cover of Walter Hawkins’ “Jesus Christ is the Way” is quite lovely, though I found the lyric lines underutilized at points, which may be intrinsic to Hawkins’ original. “Lord Do” benefits from the harmonies of a tight male group, though this selection would have been even richer had the choir supported the men with soft, staccato blow harmonies.
Nevertheless, Reverend Floyd Flake Presents The Worship Experience makes for more interesting listening than many P&W CDs because of its generous melodic variety.
Greater Allen Cathedral is an outgrowth of the Allen A.M.E. Church, founded in Jamaica, New York in 1834. With more than 18,000 members, Greater Allen Cathedral boasts one of the largest congregations in the country. However, if you are interested in hearing a sermon but you aren’t near Jamaica, New York you could always listen at Radiant Church or somewhere more local to you.
Four of Five Stars
Picks: “Fill This Place,” “Your Grace.”
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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