Give me Gospel

VA [2014] Say Amen!: Gospel Funk From Jewel Records

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8myCJYBznc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtayhqPjz5Y

I need to see what Youtube videos have been added for The Original Soul Invaders, of Industry, Texas, since I raved about them upthread in 2008

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/the-richard-smallwood-you-know-4-doves-10-stellars-8-grammy-noms/2015/07/22/553d5cfc-0a28-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html

His song "Total Praise" that has been covered by Destiny's Child, other gospel singers, and synagogue choirs as well, continues to get covered. The article focusses on his rebound from depression.

Still, he has watched RCA Inspiration’s younger artists, such as Donnie McClurkin and Fred Hammond, register platinum sales, while he has yet to have a single album sell more than 500,000 copies to reach gold status. Smallwood says that before his diagnosis, he felt his depression was brought on by comparing his success to others’. “I have always been very insecure about my gift,” he says.

But longtime gospel publicist Bil Carpenter says: “Richard is not for the masses. He’s for a more sophisticated, smaller group of people. He’s a thinking man’s gospel. It’s the chitlin’ circuit versus the Kennedy Center. Richard is the Kennedy Center.”

...

Some gospel artists, such as multiplatinum Kirk Franklin, have achieved wider commercial success by mixing in hip-hop. But Smallwood has remained with his classical sound.

Jacquie Gales Webb, who for more than 20 years has hosted a popular gospel segment on Washington’s WHUR radio, says Smallwood’s songs are distinctive because of the importance of the piano — not electric piano or keyboard playing, but a grand-piano style.

“No matter what genre he’s playing, in his music the piano is the prominent feature,” Webb says. “That’s how you know it’s a Richard Smallwood song.”

Valerie Simpson, who helped create the Motown sound as part of the husband-and-wife songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson, likens Smallwood to Stevie Wonder, because his lyrics, she says, “transcend a moment” and capture a sound of a generation that lasts for decades.

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0002/782/MI0002782133.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
This Mahalia comp from '91 has some awesome songs on it, fuck me - such a voice.

Saw a 10 act classic gospel marathon show Saturday. Blind Boys of Mississippi and Swanee Quintet were great. Spencer Taylor and the Highway QCs were good, as were many of the other acts.

This 2017 Film doc “How I Got Over” about pioneering gospel acts including Highway QCs and others looks good.

https://vimeo.com/231140998

https://thedcline.org/2019/02/14/still-testifying-90-year-old-spencer-taylor-jr-and-the-highway-qcs-gospel-group-stay-busy-live-and-in-the-studio/

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9476603/rance-allen-dead-obit

Gospel star Rance Allen, whose Rance Allen Group drew upon contemporary sounds for such 1970s hits as “Ain’t No Need of Crying” and “I Belong To You” and anticipated such crossover gospel artists as The Winans and Amy Grant, has died at age 71.

Allen’s wife, Ellen Allen, and manager Toby Jackson announced in a joint statement that Allen died early Saturday (Oct. 31) while recovering from a “medical procedure” at Heartland ProMedica in Sylvania, Ohio. Allen was a longtime Toledo, Ohio resident and most recently bishop for Church of God in Christ for the Michigan Northwestern Harvest Jurisdiction.

I need to post some of the videos I saw on twitter. What a voice and range-- from deep lows to falsetto highs.

I popped into the gospel tent to see him when I went to Jazzfest last year, he was raising the roof. Glad now that I did, RIP.

https://youtu.be/YJNIhA4-Ga4

His performance in Wattstax is so great. I assumed for years he was a Memphis/southern guy, didn’t discover until years later he was from Michigan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCuvhbPbbty

various recent live gospel videos

Oops, well subscribe to the right Christopher Klug youtube and you will find gospel

I've started getting into the Pilgrim Travelers lately, just impeccable, electrifying music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhDsaOSCGZo

that’s really cool. I’ve been getting into some Golden Gate Quartet, around the same time I think. the interplay of their voices is not infrequently astounding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4NRX2O7O8

yeah it looks like that's 1939 and the tune I posted is 1947. Def some stylistic similarities. And you can really hear a lot of boogie and pre-rock and roll in the rhythm

RIP falsetto singer Paul Beasley who was in Mighty Clouds of Joy and other groups

Oops I think it was just the anniversary of his death recently