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58 DOWNBEAT NOVEMBER 2010
beyond | By fRAnK-John hADLEy
heavenly Voices
Trust Tony Heilbut, put your faith
in one of gospel’s great natural resources.
If you’re to read only one
book about African-American sacred
music, make it his The Gospel
sound: Good news and Bad Times.
It’s still a compelling read four decades
after publication. As a record
producer, Heilbut has offered up a
bunch of valuable albums, among
them collections of historic religious
music like Kings of The Gospel
highway (Shanachie) and The Gospel
sound of spirit feel (Spirit Feel,
his own label). They’re treasurable
either as introductions to gospel
or as reaffirmations for committed
fans of the music. Heilbut’s newest
compilation, how sweet It Was:
the sights and sounds of Gospel’s
Golden age (Shanachie 6901; CD
76:00/DVD 70:00; ★★★★) may be
his crowning achievement, with 26
songs (nine never issued before)
primarily from the 1940s and ’50s,
and 26 song performances filmed
in the early 1960s. Also part of the
set: his 32-page booklet with detailed
notes about the famous or forgotten
who surrendered to His will through falsetto
wails, multi-register exhortations and deepvoiced
liturgies. Gospel is forever epitomized
by the high miracle of Mahalia Jackson’s
contralto, which excitingly sanctifies
the formerly unreleased “These Are They”
and a medley (although she’s not on the
DVD). Marion Williams blazes to the spiritual
core of material with her faith and shows
even more inventiveness than Jackson; she
lights up both discs. Lesser mortals knocking
spiritedly on heaven’s door are Clara
Ward, Ira Tucker and the Dixie Hummingbirds,
the Soul Stirrers, Clarence Fountain
& The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, Brother
Joe May, the little-known but sensational
Consolers, over-represented Sister Rosetta
Tharpe and almost three dozen more. Some
testifiers reveal a conflict between soul and
flesh, using blues song forms and tones.
There’s much to treasure here, but expect
a transgression or two, like Dorothy Love
Coates’ shrieking. The exciting b&w film
clips match faces to the lung power.
ordering info: shanachie.com
Mahalia Jackson is in magnificent voice
on the two-disc DVD a Gospel Calling:
Mahalia Jackson sings (Infinity 2207;
3:36:00; ★★★½), performing 58 spirituals
on her network television show in 1961.
Exchanging the pews and pulpits for an
austerely decorated television studio stage,
she has a dignified presence that must
have wowed the large white audience that
championed her at the time. Accompanied
mostly by a keyboardist, Jackson’s in keeping
with black Baptist church worship rather
than that of fundamentalists, and the set is
recommended to her enthusiasts.
ordering info: infinity-entertainmentgroup.com
The CD debut of Pastor T. L. Barrett &
The Youth For Christ Choir’s Like a ship
(Without a sail) (Light in the Attic 056;
36:21; ★★★), originally on vinyl in 1971,
merits a few hearty hallelujahs. On a merger
of the sacred and secular, the Chicagobased
vocalists look heavenward with their
“joyful noise” as the r&b musicians, including
guitarist Philip Upchurch and bassist
Richard Evans, are content to stay in the
material world without submission to the
Creator. Also available as an LP reissue,
with a bonus 45.
ordering info: lightintheattic.net
Reverend Jasper Williams Jr. leads
the Salem Bible Church Mass Choir at his
church in Atlanta on Landmark (Church
Door 0824; CD 77:33/DVD 107:11; ★★★½).
At this exciting gala, he’s “going back to the
old-time way” of the gospel he experienced
as a young minister in Memphis in the ’50s.
The uplifting effect of all the passionate
singing is dampened only when the gospelcum-blues
band shifts into glossy, empty
pop-r&b. The DVD has three more songs
than the audio disc. DB
ordering info: churchdoorrecords.com
Marion Williams:
inventive and
blazing
sHanaCHie ReCoRds