Miami | 08.31.09
I’ve been thinking a lot about gospel of late, the soulful music I loved listening to at my parent’s Pentecostal church years ago.
Far removed from the stiff original hymns, the best gospel music stirs the soul with rhythm and a sense of swing without losing its dignified essence. I’m talking about the gospel that predates the modern hip-hop influenced styles of Kirk Franklin and his contemporaries, which for my tastes goes too far.
An earlier era gospel reminded us that the music of praise inherently embodies the African-American struggle for freedom and equality, reflecting the slave’s chant, the blues with its reflections on the joy and pain of daily life and the foundations of jazz &mdash but in way that kept it sanctified. Indeed, the roots of America’s best music can be found in the black church with its spiritual yet earthy call to worship, singers like Mahalia Jackson shared inside and outside of the sanctuary.
I thought of these roots a few days ago during the televised wake for Sen. Edward Kennedy, when the Boston Community Chorus stepped up to remind the nation of the power and moral persuasion of gospel’s soulful sound with Just A Closer Walk With Thee. With the pianist expertly playing a bass line and the melody, the choir sings a bouncing chorus underneath the soloists. It was lively and moving spirituality that took me way back &mdash to Church.
Lord, let your great music live on. Amen. |♫|
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