I recently attended the Gospel Revisited concert at the Town Hall.  I loved the concert and the fantastic atmosphere it created.  There were a number of features of the concert that really impressed me.

It brought home to me that gospel music has a huge following; it may be largely a kind of underground following that exists in the churches and is little recognised in the arts world and its venues, but it is massive.  There was a large crowd which had come from across the West Midlands with a number of people coming up from London for the event.  This audience clearly knows the music and its history, and showed their very strong appreciation of the concert as a whole, and, more particularly, of the specific iconic artists celebrated in the concert, and the artists performing their songs.  There were a number of standing ovations throughout the evening, and the atmosphere in the room was very warm and enthusiastic.

Ray and Claudia Prince, who organised the concert with support from the Programming Team at BMusic and the Arts Council, are concerned that the legacy of gospel music, both in the USA and in the UK, is recognised and documented.  In this concert they achieved that aim by celebrating some of great women gospel singers from the USA: Mahalia Jackson, Shirley Caesar, Dannibelle Hall, Tramaine Hawkins, Albertina Walker, Lynette Hawkins Stephens, Sandra Crouch.  Interestingly, the only name in that list that I am familiar with is Mahalia Jackson, so it was excellent to get to know the music of so many other singers.

It was also clear that the performers were well known to the majority of the audience.  Every one gave a stirring and convincing performance; I particularly enjoyed songs by Claudia Prince, Sarah Brooks and The Matthew Sisters.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the concert was that all the songs had been arranged by Ray Prince and Jonathan Silk for a big band and the vocalists.   This really added a lot of energy and excitement to the performances, and the band played the arrangements with great verve.  Gospel and jazz clearly have features in common as music of black origin, and jazz has often incorporated elements of gospel music into its compositions; Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert and Wynton Marsalis’ Abyssinian Mass are examples, as is the use of the Hammond Organ in soul jazz.      

Finally, the compere, Clive Palmer, added a lot of humour to the occasion which greatly added to the warm atmosphere in the room.

The Gospel Revisited project continues; they are at Warwick Arts Centre on Saturday 12th November, and back at The Town Hall on Saturday 3rd December.

Tony Dudley Evans

Jazz Adviser to B:Music.