Move
Dexter Walker & Zion Movement
Found Sound Music 2007
www.zionmovement.org
I first heard the Zion Movement Chorale two years ago, at Chicago’s Southside Neighborhood Gospel Festival. Even though the program was filled to the brim with national and local talent, Zion Movement outshined, outsang, and outperformed everyone else.
Dexter Walker’s Zion Movement combines that quintessentially Chicago full-throttle choir sound – open-throated and in your face – with clever choreography. At a recent performance for the Chicago Area Gospel Announcers Guild, Zion Movement sang while toppling like dominoes with ballet-like athleticism and precision. If you think it’s easy to sing — and sing well — while writhing downward, think again.
With Move, the world can now experience the sound of Dexter Walker & Zion Movement. The CD begins with the traditional “Open My Mouth,” sung a cappella and at maximum volume, like a highly-caffeinated Wings over Jordan, with vocal pyrotechnics reminiscent of vintage O’landa Draper. The group’s vocal dexterity is showcased elsewhere throughout Move, such as on “Victory” and “Work.”
Top-shelf gospel artist Vashawn Mitchell helps out on “Lift Him Up,” and the undervalued but always soul-shaking La Varnga Hubbard channels the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer Warriors’ Dianne Williams on “The Blood” (which makes more sense than one might think: Hubbard recently starred in a stageplay inspired by Williams’ extemp vamp on Cosmo’s “Jesus Can Work it Out”). In-demand session musician Joey Woolfalk on guitar rounds out the CD’s all-star Windy City cast.
The “Chicago Bump” – a relatively new term for the keyboard-led frenetic gospel instrumental that erupts after a communally-felt presence of the Holy Ghost – takes hold of the participants after Minister Tim White delivers the bluesy “No Goodness” and tags on an energetic sermonette called “The Picture Story.”
I said it two years ago and will repeat it now: Dexter Walker & Zion Movement is deserving of national attention. They could well be the next best choir out of Chicago, the city that invented the gospel chorus.
Three and a Half of Four Stars
2 Comments
Leave A Comment
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.
Visit Today : 623
This Month : 10481
Hello! I found your site while doing a search for any info/recordings of Rev. Brewster and the Brewsteraires.
I found Bless my Bones: Memphis Gospel Radio, The Fifties’ which seems to list several recording but it is not clear to me if this is actually available to buy on CD or any format really! Any advice much appreciated.
Thanks!
Hi — Bless My Bones may have been removed from active catalog, but you can find it every so often on eBay. Meanwhile, go to http://www.pewburner.com, as #549 is a Brewsteraires collection on CD. Also, the Sun Gospel collection includes tracks by the Brewsteraires. Happy Hunting!