(SILVER SPRING, Md.) – April 12, 2022 – TV One announced today that filming for its Marvin Sapp biopic is underway. Chaz Lamar Shepherd (“Marvel’s Luke Cage” “The Game”) will take on the lead role as Marvin Sapp. Joining Shepherd is Ambre Anderson (“Power Book II” “Manifest Evil”) who is cast as Sapp’s wife, MaLinda Prince Sapp. The film is scheduled for an August 21 release on TV One. “It is an honor to tell Marvin Sapp’s life story,” said TV One’s Executive Producer Jason Ryan. “His vast contributions to the gospel and American music are undeniable. We know this ...

Episode 147 Playlist: Bow down – Christina Bell Happy in Jesus – Exciting Holy Sons Never leave you alone – Supreme Angels Joy – Philip Mercer God’s power – Minister John Taylor Jr. Alright – Bishop Larry Trotter & Sweet Holy Spirit Choir Trust and believe – Mona Moore Hope – David Billingsley Psalm 33:2 – Instruments of Musick Carry us through – All Nations Music Lord forgive me – Mali Music Over and over – PJ Morton feat. Commissioned Rock my soul – Fisk Jubilee Singers feat. Fairfield Four

Isaac Carree No Risk No Reward Shanachie Entertainment Group (release date: March 20, 2020) www.shanachie.com By Bob Marovich Isaac Carree has bestowed upon his first solo album in seven years a very accurate title. And in so doing, he has scored his best solo recording to date. No Risk No Reward finds Carree, former member of the genre-bending Men of Standard, pushing the boundaries of what constitutes a gospel album. In fact, the CD is two albums in one. The first part comprises an extended quiet storm expression of love to Carree’s earthly love, wife Dietra. As with Kim Burrell’s ...

DAWKINS APPOINTS ERIC DAWKINS AS PRESIDENT OF A&R. LEGACY’S INITIAL ROSTER INCLUDES STELLAR GOSPEL GREATS FRED HAMMOND, TASHA (FORMALLY KNOWN AS TASHA PAGE-LOCKHART), DAWKINS & DAWKINS AND THE COMMISSIONED SOUNDTRACK, WITH MUCH MORE TO FOLLOW LOS ANGELES, CA (February 25, 2020) – Award-winning entertainment executive Jovan Dawkins is proud to announce the launch of his newly created inspirational record label, Legacy Music Group, which is deeply rooted from Dawkins’ ministerial background. Being raised in the church, Dawkins’ inspirational label launch is a natural progression as part of his life of service. In recent years, Dawkins has quietly led private in-studio ...

Derek Dunn I Will Sing In Season Music Group (release date: October 13, 2017) www.inseasonmusicgroup.com By Bob Marovich From the Tidewater area of Virginia comes Derek Dunn, whose latest CD, I Will Sing, is notable for offering more than the usual number of high-potential songs expected from an album of new compositions. Dunn’s muscular voice is reminiscent of Isaac Carree who, it turns out, is one of his influences. So is Fred Hammond, all of which explains why the single, “If It Had Not Been,” as well as “Got to Make It,” featuring Emory Diggs, bear more than passing resemblances to Commissioned and Men ...

From a press release: True aficionados of contemporary gospel will count among their favorites gospel greats like Marvin Sapp, Yolanda Adams, CeCe Winans, Fred Hammond, Martha Munizzi, Commissioned, Darwin Hobbs, The Mighty Clouds of Joy, etc. What some fans may fail to realize is that one of the greatest sonic architects of the genre was Tommie TommyGunn1965 Walker with more than 4 million in song sales to his credit. Sadly, Tommie passed away on February 3, 2017, at 51 years of age, surrounded by family. Tommie passed away after failing to emerge from a medically induced coma brought on by ...

By Bob Marovich From their genesis in the Vasser Family basement to their forthcoming debut as television actors, the men of Kinsmen demonstrate how a family that sings together stays together. Around 1985, Robert Vasser, a member of Rev. Dr. Clay Evans’ Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, gathered his sons Kevin and Keith and their first cousins, Van Moody and Reggie Tillman, to try their hand at gospel singing. The quartet of young men stood in the Vasser basement and worked on emulating one of Robert’s favorite groups, the Mighty Clouds of Joy. “We started singing around the record player,” ...

By Bob Marovich “I didn’t know I could sing until I was about fifteen,” Carrington Gaines told the Journal of Gospel Music, “which is pretty late for most gospel artists. Some of them have been singing since they were three!” But as a youngster, Gaines embraced R&B, not gospel, as his music of choice. He also spent a good part of his early life in a spiritual tug-of-war. During his late teens, he said, he could be found partying on Fridays and Saturdays and working in the church’s music department on Sundays. Today, Gaines has embraced ministry and gospel music. His ...

Derrick “Doc” Pearson No Greater Love IAM Music (2015) By Bob Marovich No Greater Love, a CD/DVD retrospective of the IAM Music Company of Clinton, Maryland, is a celebration of the company’s ten years of existence and a greatest hits package for IAM Music’s co-founder, Derrick “Doc” Pearson, who participates in one way or another on all of the Scripture-based music selections. A versatile bass player, singer, songwriter, and producer, Pearson (“Doc” stands for Disciple of Christ), cut his musical teeth on 1970s and 1980s soft soul and funk while working with the likes of the O’Jays and Whispers. The songs ...

Last week, Deitrick Haddon spoke with Bob Marovich of the Journal of Gospel Music about his new album, Masterpiece, which Entertainment One will release this Friday, November 6. JGM: Masterpiece, the album, is being described as sort of a musical maturation on your part. Is that a fair assumption? DH: Absolutely. It definitely reflects where I am in my life right now. That’s how I create records: I’m inspired by my life. What I have experienced in my life tends to show up in my music. JGM: On Preachers of LA and in performance, you come across as very real, ...