TBGB Pick of the Week: November 28, 2011

“The Blood”

Rev. Stefanie Minatee & Jubilation promise to take us to church, and they do on “The Blood,” the first single from their brand new CD, Just Like Sunday Mornin’.

It’s not Andrae Crouch’s composition but the congregational song, “I Know it was the Blood” that any deacon worth his name badge and special seat in the church knows how to lead. The double-time rhythm is appropriately traditional, with instrumental interstitials between verses and a quartet-like vamp and lead trading at the end.

Says Rev. Minatee about “The Blood” and the new CD: “Black music, especially sacred music, is DIFFERENT. The moans, groans, squalls, cries, hollers, call and response, and other elements associated with Black music, especially Gospel music, are ALWAYS authentic! These sounds are still heard in many of our Churches on Sunday morning, and MUST remain alive in our music.”

And the presentation of “The Blood” has plenty of provenance. Rev. Minatee is related to the late Rev. Lawrence Roberts, who directed the Angelic Choir of Nutley, NJ. Roberts is the reason for all those wonderful Savoy LPs back in the day, including the legendary 1963 session with James Cleveland that produced “Peace Be Still.”