Various Artists Malaco 50th Celebration Malaco Music Group (release date: February 25, 2022) www.malaco.com By Robert M. Marovich The nearly two-hour Malaco 50th Celebration two CD set (and companion DVD) is one of the best releases thus far this year. Recorded live on July 12, 2018, at the record company’s golden anniversary gala at Thalia Mara Hall in Jackson, Mississippi, the package pairs current gospel stars with classic songs from Malaco’s gospel archives. Since the label owns the licensing rights to gospel music from such iconic labels as Apollo, Savoy, Atlanta International Records, Muscle Shoals Sound, GosPearl, and Onyx, it ...

By Robert M. Marovich On Saturday, November 13, 2021, the Grammy Award-winning Charles Fold Singers of Cincinnati celebrated their 50th Anniversary with a program at Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church, where Dr. Fold had been minister of music. Maryanne Zeleznik on Cincinnati Public Radio’s “Cincinnati Edition” conducted an interview with Charles Fold’s sister Christine Brown, one of only two living founding members of the group; Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church Director of Music and Gospel Music Workshop of America National Board Member Ron Logan, the other founding member of the group; Zion Global Ministries Pastor Freddie Piphus; and Cincinnati Pops ...

By Robert M. Marovich JGM learned that Sister Rosetta Davis, a longtime member and beloved soloist of the Charles Fold Singers of Cincinnati, Ohio, passed away during the 2020 Christmas holiday. A firebrand of a singer, Davis started her singing career at a young age. In the 1950s, she was billed as the Little Blind Girl on what may have been her first single, “There is a Fountain” / “I Know My Robe is Going to Fit Me Well,” on Hilltop Records. Davis’s work with the Charles Fold Singers was robust, including solo turns on the choir’s recordings and especially ...

“Nobody Can” Calvin Suggs feat. Paul Porter Alegacy Records (release date: October 30, 2020) By Robert M. Marovich I’m not certain who originated the line, “Can’t nobody can do me like Jesus,” as it appears to predate Andrae’ Crouch, who popularized it with the Disciples at Carnegie Hall in 1973, and the Reverend James Cleveland with the Charles Fold Singers in 1975. Nevertheless, Prophet Calvin Suggs and Paul Porter build “Nobody Can” around that same “can’t nobody” sentiment. They don’t mail in their emotions but shout like two preachers, their vocal repartee testifying to the Lord’s saving power and protection ...