Sunday, April 20, 2014

*** PRAISE THE LORD ***





*** Eastern And For All Time Gospel Music ***

*** Mississippi Mass Choir ***
Gospel - Praise The Lord 1





Gospel - Praise The Lord 2




"Gospel Forever! Lifting me higher
I´m longing to share this feeling
Ev´rywhere, ev´rywhere!
Gospel Forever! Glory and power
Heaven will be filled with praises e-ver
Gospel Forever!"




Gospel - Praise The Lord 3





The History of Gospel Music


The Gospel Music experience cannot be told in a short story, or even in a melody of songs, for it is far too rich, far too harmonious and deliberately stimulating.  It is a living experience, always changing, always giving, and always becoming the foundation that gave moral, physical and spiritual support to a great and powerful people.
 

Gospel Music is a shining beacon of hope, a fantastic journey of joy divine, and a triumphant victory in God that comes from deep down in the souls of God’s Chosen People. The greatest melodies and the most stimulating songs have been given to this Nation and the World through the African American experience.

 

There has been no other event in history that has been more compelling, convincing, or persuasive than Gospel Music.   Some of the most beautiful music of all times was born out of intense grief and suffering, and Gospel Music is no exception.

 

It is the Alpha and Omega of God’s spiritual principle that plays upon the keyboard of mans integrity.   It is a resonance, an echoing sound throughout the ages that has surrendered the wonders of God’s Almighty creations.

 

After thousands of years, the sound of Gospel Music is still enthralling and captivating because it stands against the social background as a shadow of today’s community problems and dilemmas.  From the 1930’s to the 1960’s desperate circumstances controlled our lives; despair and hope, life and death; but Gospel Music mirrored our predicaments as a collective group of people, it reflected upon our social status, and eventually reverberated in our made up minds that God was indeed on our sides.

 

Theprologue of Gospel Music owes its grandeur and its sense of veracity to Thomas Andrew Dorsey who is called the “Father of Gospel Music.”
 Thomas Andrew Dorsey

  He combined Christian praise with the rhythms of jazz and blues.  Mr. Dorsey wrote many songs, two of his greatest were “Precious Lord” and “Peace in The Valley.”  Both of these songs were written after the tragic death of his wife and newborn son.  These songs have become community owned songs, as singers and listeners throughout the world relate to the words of assurance that are delivered and adopted in the messages.


 Thomas Andrew Dorsey

 

Thomas Andrew Dorsey 
 Thomas Andrew Dorsey was known as "the father of black gospel music" and was at one time so closely associated with the field that songs written in the new style were sometimes known as "dorseys."Earlier in his life he was a leading blues pianist known as Georgia Tom.
As formulated by Dorsey, gospel music combines Christian praise with the rhythms of jazz and the blues. His conception also deviates from what had been, to that time, standard hymnal practice by referring explicitly to the self, and the self's relation to faith and God, rather than the individual subsumed into the group via belief.

Dorsey, who was born in Villa Rica, Georgia, was the music director at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago from 1932 until the late 1970s. His best-known composition, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", was performed by Mahalia Jackson and was a favorite of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.. Another composition, "Peace in the Valley", was a hit for Red Foley in 1951 and has been performed by dozens of other artists, including Queen of Gospel Albertina Walker, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Dorsey died in Chicago, aged 93.

In 2002, the Library of Congress honored his album Precious Lord: New Recordings of the Great Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey (1973), by adding it to the United States National Recording Registry.

Life and career

 

Dorsey's father was a minister and his mother a piano teacher. He learned to play blues piano as a young man. After studying music formally in Chicago, he became an agent for Paramount Records. He put together a band for Ma Rainey called the "Wild Cats Jazz Band" in 1924.
He started out playing at rent parties with the names Barrelhouse Tom and Texas Tommy, but he was most famous as Georgia Tom. As Georgia Tom, he teamed up with Tampa Red (Hudson Whittaker) with whom he recorded the raunchy 1928 hit record "Tight Like That", a sensation, eventually selling seven million copies. In all, he is credited with more than 400 blues and jazz songs.
Dorsey began recording gospel music alongside blues in the mid-1920s. This led to his performing at the National Baptist Convention in 1930, and becoming the bandleader of two churches in the early 1930s.
His first wife, Nettie, who had been Rainey's wardrobe mistress, died in childbirth in 1932. Two days later the child, a son, also died. In his grief, he wrote his most famous song, one of the most famous of all gospel songs, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand".
Unhappy with the treatment received at the hands of established publishers, Dorsey opened the first black gospel music publishing company, Dorsey House of Music. He also founded his own gospel choir and was a founder and first president of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses.
His influence was not limited to African American music, as white musicians also followed his lead. "Precious Lord" has been recorded by Albertina Walker, Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Clara Ward, Dorothy Norwood, Jim Reeves, Roy Rogers, and Tennessee Ernie Ford, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash among hundreds of others. It was a favorite gospel song of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and was sung at the rally the night before his assassination, and, per his request, at his funeral by Mahalia Jackson. It was also a favorite of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who requested it to be sung at his funeral. Dorsey was also a great influence on other Chicago-based gospel artists such as Albertina Walker and The Caravans and Little Joey McClork.
Dorsey wrote "Peace in the Valley" for Mahalia Jackson in 1937, which also became a gospel standard. He was the first African American elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and also the first in the Gospel Music Association's Living Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was inducted as a charter member of the Gennett Records Walk of Fame in Richmond, Indiana. His papers are preserved at Fisk University, along with those of W.C. Handy, George Gershwin, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
Dorsey's works have proliferated beyond performance, into the hymnals of virtually all American churches and of English-speaking churches worldwide.
Thomas was a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
He died in Chicago, Illinois, and was interred there in the Oak Woods Cemetery.

Thomas Andrew Dorsey 

 (July 1, 1899 – January 23, 1993)

R.I.P...We Will Never Forget You!!!

  

The influence of Mahalia Jackson is evident in her style and references to the storms of life and of the good that is produced through overcoming adversity.

 



 

Her melodious voice stirred listeners as they “Moved On Up A Little Bit Higher” and invited them to participate in her songs.  She developed a flair for composing songs that moved the heart and regenerated the soul of a people who looked to the hills from whence cometh their help.  The songs were so exciting and popular that congregations automatically joined in the singing and shouting as they lifted up the name of Jesus.

Religious freedoms stood in the forefront of a people who knew that God was the beginning and the end.  The methodical beats of and the syncopation rhythms of Mrs. Albertina Walker and the Caravan gave birth to a brand new gospel experience. With her words representing patience, endurance, survival, and staying power, her voice rekindled the awesome power of God as she told Him in song “Lord Keep Me Day by Day.”  Her dominant presence in religious song has been formulated, devised, developed, and shared among all generations.   The Caravan along with Mrs. Walker presented a wholesome type of devotion that rekindled a loyalty, which inspired the people to rise up and become God fearing.  Mrs. Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois and began singing in the youth choir at the West Point Baptist Church at an early age, and joined several Gospel groups thereafter, including The Pete Williams Singers and the Robert Anderson Singers. Albertina was greatly influenced by Mahalia Jackson her friend andconfidante. Mahalia Jackson took her on the road when she was just a teenager. “Mahalia used to kid me. She’d say, ‘Girl, you need to go sing by yourself.” Albertina Walker did just that. In 1951, she formed the group called The Caravans. She was given the title “Queen of Gospel Music” initially by such notables as the late Reverend James Cleveland and Jessy Jackson for her outstanding achievements within the genre after the death of Mahalia Jackson in 1972.

 Mahalia Jackson
“Queen of Gospel Music”


Mahalia Jackson was an American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel". Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist. She was described by entertainer Harry Belafonte as "the single most powerful black woman in the United States". She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen "golds"—million-sellers.
"I sing God's music because it makes me feel free," Jackson once said about her choice of gospel, adding, "It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues."


Early life

 
Born as Mahala Jackson and nicknamed "Halie", Jackson grew up in the Black Pearl section of the Carrollton neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. The three-room dwelling on Pitt Street housed thirteen people and a dog. This included Little Mahala (named after her aunt, Mahala Clark-Paul whom the family called Aunt Duke); her brother Roosevelt Hunter, whom they called Peter; and her mother Charity Clark, who worked as both a maid and a laundress. Several aunts and cousins lived in the house as well. Aunt Mahala was given the nickname "Duke" after proving herself the undisputed "boss" of the family. The extended family (the Clarks) consisted of her mother's siblings: Isabell, Mahala, Boston, Porterfield, Hannah, Alice, Rhoda, Bessie, their children, grandchildren, and patriarch Rev. Paul Clark, a former slave. Mahalia's father, John A. Jackson, Sr. 

 was a stevedore (dockworker) and a barber who later became a Baptist minister. He fathered four other children besides Mahalia: Wilmon (older) and then Yvonne, Pearl, and Johnny, Jr. (by his marriage shortly after Halie's birth). Her father's sister, Jeanette Jackson-Burnett, and husband, Josie, were vaudeville entertainers.
At birth, Jackson suffered from genu varum, or "bowed legs". The doctors wanted to perform surgery by breaking her legs, but one of the resident aunts opposed it. Jackson's mother would rub her legs down with greasy dishwater. The condition never stopped young Jackson from performing her dance steps for the white woman for whom her mother and Aunt Bell cleaned house.
Jackson was five when her mother Charity died, leaving her family to decide who would raise Halie and her brother. Aunt Duke assumed this responsibility, and the children were forced to work from sunup to sundown. Aunt Duke would always inspect the house using the "white glove" method. If the house was not cleaned properly, Jackson was beaten. If one of the other relatives could not do their chores or clean at their job, Jackson or one of her cousins was expected to perform that particular task. School was hardly an option. Jackson loved to sing and church is where she loved to sing the most. Her Aunt Bell told her one day she would sing in front of royalty, a prediction that would eventually come true. Jackson began her singing career at the local Mount Mariah Baptist Church. She was baptized in Mississippi by Mt. Mariah's pastor, the Rev. E.D. Lawrence, then went back to the church to "receive the right hand of fellowship".

Career

 


Mahalia Jackson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1962.

1920s–1940s

 
In 1927, at the age of sixteen, Jackson moved from the south to Chicago, Illinois, in the midst of the Great Migration. After her first Sunday church service, where she had given an impromptu performance of her favorite song, "Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet, Gabriel", she was invited to join the Greater Salem Baptist Church Choir. She began touring the city's churches and surrounding areas with the Johnson Gospel Singers, one of the earliest professional gospel groups. In 1929, Jackson met the composer Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the Father of Gospel Music. He gave her musical advice, and in the mid-1930s they began a 14-year association of touring, with Jackson singing Dorsey's songs in church programs and at conventions. His "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" became her signature song.
In 1936, Jackson married Isaac Lanes Grey Hockenhull ("Ike"), a graduate of Fisk University and Tuskegee Institute who was 10 years her senior. She refused to sing secular music, a pledge she would keep throughout her professional life.She was frequently offered money to do so and she divorced Isaac in 1941 because of his unrelenting pressure on her to sing secular music and his addiction to gambling on racehorses.
In 1931, Jackson recorded "You Better Run, Run, Run". Not much is known about this recording and no publicly known copies exist. Biographer Laurraine Goreau cites that it was also around this time she added 'i' to her name, changing it from Mahala to Mahalia, pronounced. At age 26, Mahalia's second set of records was recorded on May 21, 1937, under the Decca Coral label, accompanied by Estelle Allen (piano), in order: "God's Gonna Separate The Wheat From The Tares", "My Lord", "Keep Me Everyday" and "God Shall Wipe All Tears Away". Financially, these were not successful, and Decca let her go.


In 1947, she signed up with the Apollo label, and in 1948, recorded the William Herbert Brewster song "Move On Up a Little Higher", a recording so popular stores could not stock enough copies to meet demand, selling an astonishing eight million copies. (The song was later honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998.) The success of this record rocketed Jackson to fame in the U.S., and soon after, in Europe. During this time she toured as a concert artist, appearing more frequently in concert halls and less often in churches. As a consequence of this change in her venues, her arrangements expanded from piano and organ to orchestral accompaniments.


Other recordings received wide praise, including "Let the Power of the Holy Ghost Fall on Me" (1949), which won the French Academy's Grand Prix du Disque; and "Silent Night, Holy Night", which became one of the best-selling singles in the history of Norway. When Jackson sang "Silent Night" on Denmark's national radio, more than twenty thousand requests for copies poured in. Other recordings on the Apollo label included "He Knows My Heart" (1946), "Amazing Grace" (1947), "Tired" (1947), "I Can Put My Trust in Jesus" (1949), "Walk with Me" (1949), "Let the Power of the Holy Ghost Fall on Me" (1949), "Go Tell It on the Mountain" (1950), "The Lord's Prayer" (1950), "How I Got Over" (1951), "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" (1951), "I Believe" (1953), "Didn't It Rain" (1953), "Hands of God" (1953) and "Nobody Knows" (1954).

 

1950s–1970s

 


In 1950, Jackson became the first gospel singer to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall when Joe Bostic produced the Negro Gospel and Religious Music Festival.She started touring Europe in 1952 and was hailed by critics as the "world's greatest gospel singer". In Paris she was called the Angel of Peace, and throughout the continent she sang to capacity audiences. The tour, however, had to be cut short due to exhaustion. Jackson began a radio series on CBS and signed to Columbia Records in 1954. A writer for Down Beat music magazine stated on November 17, 1954: "It is generally agreed that the greatest spiritual singer now alive is Mahalia Jackson." Her debut album for Columbia was The World's Greatest Gospel Singer, recorded in 1954, followed by a Christmas album called Sweet Little Jesus Boy and Bless This House in 1956.

With her mainstream success, Jackson was criticized by some gospel purists who complained about her hand-clapping and foot-stomping and about her bringing "jazz into the church".


Jackson had many notable accomplishments during this period, including her performance of many songs in the 1958 film St. Louis Blues and singing "Trouble of the World" in 1959's Imitation of Life, recording with Percy Faith. When Mahalia Jackson recorded The Power and the Glory with Faith, the orchestra arched their bows to honor her in solemn recognition of her great voice. She was the main attraction in the first gospel music showcase at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1957, which was organized by Joe Bostic and recorded by the Voice of America and performed again in 1958 (Newport 1958). She was also present at the opening night of Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music in December 1957. In 1961, she sang at U.S. President John F. Kennedy's inaugural ball. She recorded her second Christmas album Silent Night (Songs for Christmas) in 1962. By this time, she had also become a familiar face to British television viewers as a result of short films of her performing that were occasionally shown.


At the March on Washington in 1963, she sang in front of 250,000 people "How I Got Over" and "I Been 'Buked and I Been Scorned". Martin Luther King, Jr. made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech there. She also sang "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at his funeral after he was assassinated in 1968.

Jackson sang to crowds at the 1964 New York World's Fair and was accompanied by "wonderboy preacher" Al Sharpton. She toured Europe again in 1961 (Recorded Live in Europe 1961), 1963–1964, 1967, 1968 and 1969. In 1970, she performed for Liberian President William Tubman.

Jackson's last album was What The World Needs Now (1969). The next year, in 1970, Jackson and Louis Armstrong performed "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" and "When the Saints Go Marching In" together. She ended her career in 1971 with a concert in Germany, and when she returned to the U.S., made one of her final television appearances on The Flip Wilson Show. Jackson devoted much of her time and energy to helping others. She established the Mahalia Jackson Scholarship Foundation for young people who wanted to attend college. For her efforts in helping international understanding, she received the Silver Dove Award. Chicago remained her home until the end. She opened a beauty parlor and a florist shop with her earnings, while also investing in real estate ($100,000 a year at her peak).

Civil rights movement

 


Jackson was known to have played an important role during the civil rights movement. In August 1956, she met Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, Jr. at the National Baptist Convention. A few months later, both King and Abernathy contacted her about coming to Montgomery, Alabama, to sing at a rally to raise money for the bus boycott. They also hoped she would inspire the people who were getting discouraged with the boycott.

Despite death threats, Mahalia Jackson agreed to sing in Montgomery. Her concert was on December 6, 1956. By then, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in Browder v. Gayle that bus segregation was unconstitutional. In Montgomery, the ruling was not yet put into effect, so the bus boycott continued. 

At this concert she sang "I've Heard of a City called Heaven", "Move On Up a Little Higher" and "Silent Night". There was a good turnout at the concert and they were happy with the amount of money raised. However, when she returned to the Abernathy's home, it had been bombed. The boycott finally ended on December 21, 1956, when federal injunctions were served, forcing Montgomery to comply with the court ruling.

Although she was internationally known and had moved up to the northern states, she still encountered racial prejudice. One account of this was when she tried to buy a house in Chicago. Everywhere she went, the white owners and real estate agents would turn her away, claiming the house had already been sold or they changed their minds about selling. When she finally found a house, the neighbors were not happy. Shots were fired at her windows and she had to contact the police for protection. White families started moving out and black families started moving in. Everything remained the same in her neighborhood except for the skin color of the residents.


King and Abernathy continued to protest segregation. In 1957, they founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The first major event sponsored by the SCLC was the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, D.C., on May 17, 1957, the third anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. From this point forward, she appeared often with King, singing before his speeches and for SCLC fundraisers. In a 1962 SCLC press release, King wrote Jackson had "appeared on numerous programs that helped the struggle in the South, but now she has indicated that she wants to be involved on a regular basis". Jesse Jackson said when King called on her, she never refused, traveling with him to the deepest parts of the segregated south.


Jackson performed "I Been 'Buked and I Been Scorned" before Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his I Have A Dream speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Toward the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme "I have a dream", prompted by Jackson's cry: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!"

Jackson said she hoped her music could "break down some of the hate and fear that divide the white and black people in this country". She also contributed financially to the movement.

Death

 


Jackson died in Chicago on January 27, 1972, of heart failure and diabetes complications. Two cities paid tribute: Chicago and New Orleans. Beginning in Chicago, outside the Greater Salem Baptist Church, 50,000 people filed silently past her mahogany, glass-topped coffin in final tribute to the queen of gospel song. The next day, as many people who could—6,000 or more—filled every seat and stood along the walls of the city's public concert hall, the Arie Crown Theater of McCormick Place, for a two-hour funeral service. Mahalia's pastor, the Rev. Leon Jenkins, Mayor Richard J. Daley, and Mrs. Coretta Scott King eulogized Mahalia during the Chicago funeral as "a friend – proud, black and beautiful". Sammy Davis, Jr., and Ella Fitzgerald paid their respects. Dr. Joseph H. Jackson, president of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., delivered the eulogy at the Chicago funeral. Aretha Franklin closed the Chicago rites with a moving rendition of "Precious Lord, Take My Hand".


Three days later, a thousand miles away, the scene repeated itself: again the long lines, again the silent tribute, again the thousands filling the great hall of the Rivergate Convention Center in downtown New Orleans this time. Mayor Moon Landrieu and Louisiana Governor John J. McKeithen joined gospel singer Bessie Griffin. Dick Gregory praised Mahalia's "moral force" as the main reason for her success. Lou Rawls sang "Just a Closer Walk With Thee". The funeral cortège of 24 limousines drove slowly past her childhood place of worship, Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, where her recordings played through loudspeakers. The procession made its way to Providence Memorial Park in Metairie, Louisiana, where Jackson was entombed. Despite the inscription of Jackson's birth year on her headstone as 1912, she was actually born in 1911. Among Mahalia's surviving relatives is her great-nephew, the Los Angeles Clippers forward Danny Granger.


Jackson's estate was reported at more than four million dollars. Some reporters estimated record royalties, television and movie residuals, and various investments made it worth more. The bulk of the estate was left to a number of relatives, many of whom cared for Mahalia during her early years. Among principal heirs were relatives including her half-brother, John Jackson, and aunt, Hannah Robinson. Neither of her ex-husbands, Isaac Hockenhull (1936–1941) and Sigmund Galloway (1964–1967), were mentioned in her will.

Legacy and honors

 


Mahalia Jackson's music was played widely on gospel and Christian radio stations, such as Family Radio. Her good friend Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "A voice like this one comes not once in a century, but once in a millennium." She was a close friend of Doris Akers, one of the most prolific gospel composers of the 20th century. In 1958, they co-wrote the hit "Lord, Don't Move the Mountain". Mahalia also sang many of Akers' own compositions such as "God Is So Good to Me", "God Spoke to Me One Day", "Trouble", "Lead On, Lord Jesus" and "He's a Light Unto My Pathway", helping Akers to secure her position as the leading female Gospel composer of that time. 

In addition to sharing her singing talent with the world, she mentored the extraordinarily gifted Aretha Franklin. Mahalia was also good friends with Dorothy Norwood and fellow Chicago-based gospel singer Albertina Walker. She also discovered a young Della Reese. On the twentieth anniversary of her death, Smithsonian Folkways Recording commemorated Jackson with the album I Sing Because I'm Happy, which includes interviews about her childhood conducted by Jules Scherwin.

American Idol winner and Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Fantasia Barrino has been cast to play Mahalia Jackson in a biographical film about her life. The movie will be based on the 1993 book Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel. The film is said to be directed by Euzhan Palcy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences created the Gospel Music or Other Religious Recording category for Jackson, making her the first gospel music artist to win the prestigious Grammy Award.

In December 2008, she was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

A prominent namesake in her native New Orleans is the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts, which was remodeled and reopened on January 17, 2009, with a gala ceremony featuring Plácido Domingo, Patricia Clarkson and the New Orleans Opera directed by Robert Lyall.

 Mahalia Jackson

(October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) 

 R.I.P...We Will Never Forget You!!!

 

More than that.  The great struggle of the 1960’s until 1980 was a struggle of the common man.  It was a battle for rights against privileges, the long, slow, and awkward striving for government, this syncopation consisted of the people, by the people, and for the people- the struggles which were identical in Blacks, Whites, Brown, and Others.

 

In outward form there is difference and variety, but at the heart of each individual there is equality.  James Cleveland expresses this in song “Lord Do It.”  Elvis Presley who sung and won a Grammy for “ He Touched Me” written by Andrea Crouch and a song by Walter Hawkins “God Is” gave stamina and determination to sing the Lord’s song even in a strange land of struggling.

 

And in this common struggle of man / woman we have found that no one member can win or can lose alone.  For we are all in this struggle of lifetogether, look around; the musical chord of brotherhood joins us—unified together. Against the most revered and arrogant institution of entrenched Segregation that this Nation has ever experienced, Black people came to believe that we were Somebody and that We do count in the great scheme of things.

 

It is impossible for us to understand the development of Gospel Music without some knowledge of the temptations that have crossed our faith.

 

In analyzing those factors that have entered into our moral and spiritual lives, we find that the part that slavery has played in the drama of African Americans life that was experienced in this new land.

 

The Gospel’s of this era had a measure of strength, might and potency.  It revealed humanity in times of severe, brutal, and relentless hardships.  But throughout this ordeal, Gospel Music wasa place of inspiration.  It was a comfort that provided a renewed hope, a renewed joy, renewed peace, and a renewed passion for life.  The music is a deep well cast down into a refreshing stream of life encompassing notes.

 

As the curtains of 1980 through the 1990’s drew opened, there was a soothing melody found in Contemporary Gospel.  This new Gospel gave us peace of mind.  A peace of mind that continues to be the foundation of real happiness and that peace is the fruit of our love perfectly fulfilled in song / music.  It provided great comfort in knowing that we will one day see Jesus.  Artists such as V. Michael McKay “All In His Hand,” The Winans, “Tomorrow,” Vanessa Bell Armstrong, “Peace Be Still,” and Thomas Witfield,” Precious Jesus” reassures us in our daily walk with God.  In declaring that God knows each of us by name, and that His love for us was affirmed by His death on the Cross-, continue to give us hope in a dark, sin filled world.

 

We found that nothing lofty, nothing beautiful, nothing good, or nothing too proud is done without love.  We have continued to believe through song that “We can give without Loving, but we cannot Love without Giving.”  This music must be judged in part by the messages it portrays, not merely by its’ rhythms and beats, but by the ideals and the measure in which mankind realize these ideals.  It has produced the cultivation and improvement of the Spiritual principle in man.  We are composed of two elements; the one, a little dust caught up from the earth, to which we shall soon return; the other, a spark of that divine intelligence, in which and through which we bear theimage of the great Creator.  By respect, our voices shout as Blessings go up and Praises come down.

 

Contemporary Gospel is a development of our faculties and powers through a relationship with God.  It reinforced the belief that God is the Master of our Faith and the Captain of our soul. And we need, incidentally, to know enough to know whose we are and what we are here for.  This new music had it’s crossover into theworld of entertainment through such stars as Ray Charles, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, The Edwin Hawkins Singers (O Happy Day), Andrea Crouch; (The Blood Will Never Lose its Power), which was composed by him when he was only thirteen years of age.

 

During the 1990’s until 2000 and beyond singers such as Yolanda Adams, “The Battle is The Lord,” written by V. Michael McKay, “Perfect Praise,” written by Brenda Joyce Moore and lead by Lecresia Campbell with Walt Whitman and the Soul Children of Chicago, and we can never forget Kirk Franklin, “Why We Sing,” these timely artists have made impressions of international clefs on Gospelmusic.  These singers have carried the beats and measures as they have made an everlasting impact on the American culture and beyond.  The songs that they sing are statements of faith that has kept our hearts and minds stayed on Jesus as we enjoy today and look forward to better tomorrows.

 

The past has revealed to us that all its secrets, and the future hangs over us like the mist of the morning, but the present is as clear and distinct as a mid-day sun. The songs that came from the emancipated people gave them courage through their difficulties and disappointments.  It carried them through the Reconstruction Period, through the Black Codes, the promise of forty acres and a mule, through the migration North, through being considered second-class citizens, through Brown vs. Board of Education, even through the Civil Rights era. This Contemporary Music is the heart and soul of today’s gospel music.   The music represents that God is our hope, our purpose, and our way out of no-way.

 

So from 2000 until 2010, the free-flowing music styles of Kirk Carr, “ In The Sanctuary” William Murphy, “Praise Is What I Do,” “Good News,” by Vanessa Bell Armstrong,” Hezekiah Walker, “God Favored Me,” and Israel Houghton, “You Are Good,” are unique to the African American Church History.

 

Gospel Music is a romance of going to a favorite spot, a favorite tree, and a hallowed spot, just to talk with God.  So from the very beginning the African American has believed that God would hear an earnest and sincere prayer or song.  This very spirit meant that God could bless whom He would as well as curse anyone according to His Will.  From these songs we have been able to tell God exactly what we want, even in a Strange Land.

 

There has never been a time when Gospel Music has not been a part of the African American Experience.  When we consider the tragic, dreadful, and catastrophic experiences which occur to so many in our society- and when wetend to feel and believe that there is no way out, Gospel Music is there to“Take our Hands and Lead us On.”

 

Gospel Music is not a mere form of entertainment to be had when desired; it is a form of character, obedience, and spirit. It follows upon the long discipline, which gives a people self-possession, self-mastery, a habit of order and peace and common counsel and reverences for God’s will that directs our lives.

 

Finally, this sincere admiration of Gospel Music, this admiration and reverence is now felt throbbing in every corner of the globe, and are the Musical Chords that bind the Nations of the world together while yet leaving unimpaired that love of country in the individual citizen which in the present stage of the world’s progress is essential to the world’s well-being.
 

We must Lift our Voices and Sing! Sing! Sing!
 
Gospel - Praise The Lord 4

 


This Is For All The

Geat People And

Fantastic Singers Who Have Gone From Us 

In This Repot.

R.I.P...We Will Never Forget You!!!


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*** Eastern And For All Time Gospel Music ***

 

 The Mississippi Mass Choir - Praise the Lord

 By Papa Funk

 

 

http://www43.zippyshare.com/v/50483609/file.html

 

The Mississippi Mass Choir

 

 

The Mississippi Mass Choir


Is an American gospel choir based in Jackson, Mississippi.


Musical Career



Serving God Through Song" is the motto and the mission of The Mississippi Mass Choir. Although striving to succeed in the gospel music industry, the choir's purpose is to help establish the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Since its formation in 1988, the choir has won numerous honors and awards for its contributions to gospel music. The group has traveled throughout the United States, toured Japan and appeared in Nassau, the Bahamas.


After wrestling with the idea of forming a mass choir, Frank Williams, a member of The Jackson Southernaires and an executive in the gospel music division of Malaco Records, decided to form The Mississippi Mass Choir. First, he got the record company's support. Then he began calling on Mississippi talents like David R. Curry Jr., who became the choir's music director. Having the foundation laid, open auditions were held and more than 100 voices from across the state came together to form The Mississippi Mass Choir. After months of rehearsals, the choir recorded their first album and video The Mississippi Mass Choir Live on October 29, 1988.


In the spring of 1989, five weeks after their debut album was released, Billboard magazine certified it as the Number 1 Spiritual album in the country. The album stayed on the Billboard charts for a consecutive 45 weeks, setting a new record for gospel recordings. At the 9th annual James Cleveland GMWA Awards, the Mississippi Mass won the Choir of the Year-Contemporary, and Best New Artist of the Year-Traditional. They also walked away with four Stellar Awards in 1989 and nominated in several categories for the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards and Dove Awards.


The choir's next project God Gets The Glory, in 1990, debuted on the Billboard chart in the Number 16 position, reaching Number 1 position two weeks later. Awards followed with the release of the album. One of the most treasured albums released by the choir was the one on January 1993; It Remains To Be Seen. It maintained the Number 1 position for twelve months. The special part of the album is that it contains the last recorded performance of the choir's founder, Frank Williams, who died on March 22, 1993.


Three albums were released since Williams' passing, I'll See You in Rapture, Praise the Lord, and Emmanuel (God With Us). Jerry Mannery, Executive Director of the choir, states, “We are all about our Father’s business.  We are not entertainers, we are ministers for Christ. Our mission remains constant; to serve the Lord and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”


In preparation for their ninth recording, the choir held their first new member audition in over five years. One hundred new voices from throughout Mississippi were added to the roster to increase the membership to 250. According to Minister of Music Jerry Smith, “New members are the lifeblood of a choir.”


The choir has ministered in song in over 40 states within the USA, including Alaska. They have traveled to Japan, Italy, Spain, Bahamas, and Greece; becoming the first gospel group to perform at the Acropolis. While attending the Umbria Jazz Gospel and Soul Easter Festival in Terni, Italy, the 
choir was invited to sing for Pope John Paul II at his summer residence.


The Mississippi Mass Choir is now featured in the popular Mississippi, Believe It! campaign.

The Mississippi Mass Choir recorded their 9th album and live recording for their 20th Anniversary in June 19, 2009 before 4500 people at the First Baptist Church Jackson

The Mississippi Mass Choir released their 9th Live album "Then Sings My Soul" on February 1, 2011.


In 2009 The Mississippi Mass Choir celebrated its 20th year anniversary with the release of "The First Twenty Year" a compilation DVD and CD of songs recorded over the years, and interviews with choir members.

In 2010 at the 25th year anniversary of The Stellar Gospel Music Awards The Mississippi Mass Choir was honored with the Thomas Dorsey Notable Achievement Award.

On December 8–26, 2010 the choir made a fourteen city tour of Spain and the Canary Islands. 

 According to concert promoter Luis Manjarres, “Since their first Spanish tour, Mississippi Mass Choir has become a classic of the European and the Spanish Christmas. They will showcase their talent in the main venues of Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Pamplona, Gijon, and Vigo. This tour of fourteen concerts will culminate on Christmas night, in the wonderful city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife at the Canary Islands, in a very special event with the 92 piece Tenerife Symphonic Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Lu Jia. Mississippi Mass Choir will be the first African American choir to perform with a European Symphonic Orchestra before an audience of 20,000. It is the time for Mississippi Mass Choir…It is the time for Classic Gospel.”


In October of 2013 The Mississippi Mass Choir commemorate their 25th year 
Anniversary by recording their 10th "LIVE" album in front of a sold out 
crown in Jackson, MS. On April 11th the choir released their new single 
"God's On Your Side" featuring Sunday Best Winner Le Andria Johnson and Stan Jones.
 The album will be coming our late May. The choir the begin a 10 city tour and 13 
cities Spain tour.


In October of 2013 The Mississippi Mass Choir commemorate their 25th year Anniversary by recording their 10th "LIVE" album in front of a sold out crown in Jackson, MS. On April 11th the choir released their new single "God's On Your Side" featuring Sunday Best Winner Le Andria Johnson and Stan Jones. The album will be coming our late May. The choir the begin a 10 city tour and 13 cities Spain tour.

The Mississippi Mass Choir - God Gets the Glory By Papa Funk



Awards

  • 2010 Stellar Award "Thomas Dorsey Most Notable Achievement Award
  •  
  • January, 2000 Mississippi Music Museum Hall of Fame
  •  
  • 1999 Grammy Award Grammy Nomination
  • 9th Annual James Cleveland Gospel Music Workshop of America Excellence Awards. Choir of The Year, Contemporary. Best New Artist of the Year
  • 1997 Grammy Award. Best Gospel Album by a Choir or Chorus, "I'll See You in the Rapture"
  • 1997 Stellar Awards. Choir of the Year, " I'll See You in the Rapture". Traditional Choir of the Year, "I'll See You in the Rapture"
  • 1994 National Association of Record Merchandiser (NARM). Best Sellers Award
  • 1994 Stellar Awards,Traditional Choir of the Year,Traditional Album of the Year
  • 1994 Dove Award Nomination. Contemporary Black Gospel Recorded Song of the Year, "Your Grace and Mercy" from It Remains to be Seen
  • 1994 Soul Train Music Award,Best Gospel Artist
  • 1994 Billboard Magazine,Gospel Artist of the Year
  • 1994 3M Corporation, Innovation Award
  • 1994 Indie Award. Best Selling Gospel Album, "It Remains to be Seen"
  • 1994 Indie Award,Best Selling Gospel Album, "God Gets the Glory"
  • 1993 National Association of Record Merchandisers (NARM). Best Sellers Award
  • 1992 Billboard Magazine, Gospel Artist of the Year
  • 1992 Billboard Magazine. Gospel Record of the Year, "God Gets the Glory"
  • 1992 3M Corporation, Innovation Award
  • 1992 Stellar Awards, Traditional Choir of the Year. Choir of the Year
  • 1992 Stellar Nominations, Album of the Year. Video of the Year
  • 1991 Billboard, Album of the Year. "Rev.James Moore, Live with the Mississippi Mass Choir"
  • 1991 National Association of Record Merchandisers (NARM)
  • 1991 Best Sellers Award
  • 1991 Indie Award. Best Selling Gospel Album, "The Mississippi Mass Choir, Live!"
  • 1990 Billboard Special Achievement Award. Recognizing debut album at #1, 45 consecutive weeks.
  • 1990 Billboard Magazine. Gospel Record of the Year, "The Mississippi Mass Choir Live!"
  • 1990 Stellar Award. Album of the Year, "I'm Yours Lord"
  • 1990 Billboard Magazine Gospel Artist of the Year
  •  
  • 1989 Stellar Awards Choir of the Year. Album of the Year. Best New Artist. Best Gospel Video
  •  
  • 1989 Stellar Nomination Song of the Year, "Near the Cross"

 

Impact


The Mississippi Mass Choir has opened doors for fellow Mississippi choirs, groups, and soloist including Larissa Tate & Romans VIII, Ben Cone III & Worship, The Voices of Hope, Dathan Thigpen & Holy Nation, and The Anderson Sanctuary Choir.



 "Oh Lord We Thank You"

For The

The Mississippi Mass Choir

And All Gospel Singers

Of The World.

 

Gospel - Praise The Lord 12

 

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I Would Like To Thank All Who Visit My Blog And All Others For The Help.

 

 "THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL"

By Papa Funk

 

 

 

 

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