The gospel controversy; are the new songs too jazzy and too worldly?

Ebony, March, 1992 by Karima A. Haynes

GOSPEL music. The words alone conjure the sounds Of Sunday morning worship: a sonorous organ, rhythmic handclaps and soul-stirring shouts. The phrase speaks of a message of inspiration and salvation set to a rising and falling melody. From Mahalia Jackson's lullaby-like hymns to James Cleveland's roof-raising refrains, gospel music, like the church, anchors Black America.

But traditional gospel artists who write and sing the music that has sustained Blacks for generations are making way for a new wave of studio-savvy, contemporary gospel singers, who use high-tech wizardry and sensual, spiritually ambiguous lyrics to catch the ear of the "New Jack" generation. Crossover acts BeBe and CeCe Winans The Winans, Take 6, and Tramaine Hawkins have changed the face of gospel music with their overwhelming success in the lucrative R&B market. These contemporary gospel artists have left traditional performers, industry insiders and fans to wonder whether the new songs are becoming too jazzy and too worldly to even be called gospel.

Contemporary artists argue that their fresh sound and message reach people who may never set foot in a church. They say if young people are going to listen to hip-hop jams, they should have the gospel message.

Traditionalists say funky bass lines and slammin' synthesizers are nothing but tricks of the devil. They say God doesn't need suggestive lyrics, drum machines and electronic fingerpops to get folks saved.

There's a certain sound" to traditional gospel music, says Frank Williams, leader of the Mississippi Mass Choir. "If you heard B.B. King, people wouldn't have to tell you it's the blues. If you heard Elvis Presley, it's rock'n roll. Gospel music should be the same way: When people hear it they should know it,s gospel music."

Williams and other traditional artists maintain that "real" gospel music never fades away. "You can sing Precious Lord,'`Amazing Grace,'and`How Great Thou Art' every Sunday; they always sounded good and they sound good now," he says.

Another problem, gospel legend Albertina Walker says, is that contemporary artists focus more on the music than the message. "Contemporary music is good music," she says. "It's well-produced, but I need traditional music to get down into my soul."

Shirley Caesar, one of the reigning queens of traditional gospel music, makes a similar point, saying her gospel music style tells a more profound story than contemporary music. It's somewhat closer to our roots. "

The Grammy-winning singer says contemporary music and its financial rewards are not her thing. "I would rather stay with traditional gospel music and make less because I will not compromise my convictions for economic reasons, Caesar says.

Like Caesar, promoters tempted Mahalia Jackson to sing in nightclubs with promises of $25,000-a-night gigs in Las Vegas. She turned them down saying, she'd "rather sing about ole man jesus than about some old man some woman lost."

The Rev. Milton Brunson, inspirational leader of the Thompson Community Singers of Chicago, agrees. "I don't feel I need R&B sounds to try to capture people to come to church. The contemporary sound is a ballroom beat, when you're sifting there listening to it you never get any spiritual feeling. When you sing the songs like Mahalia Jackson and james Cleveland used to sing ... Oh, ifs a whole different thing."

Contemporary artists, on the other hand, argue that Jackson, Cleveland, Sallie Martin and Thomas A. Dorsey, "the father of gospel music," were influenced by the jazz and blues music of their day and brought those styles into the church.

"They criticized Thomas Dorsey," says Fred Hammond, leader of Commissioned, the power-funk gospel band from Detroit. "He was too contemporary, too jazzy. And they criticized Mahalia jackson. They called her bluesy. It's the same ol'thing that's been handed down through the ages. "

Margaret Douroux, executive director of Heritage Music Foundation, a gospel music preservation organization in Los Angeles, says the controversy exists because gospel music is an evolving art form.

"The Thomas Dorseys and Sallie Martins of the 1940s era were considered to be contemporary musicians," she says. "They struggled with their innovative approach to sacred music. Many churches would not allow them to sing what they were writing and creating during that era because they were too contemporary."

Similarly, contemporary artists argue, breakthrough works such as Edwin Hawkins' "Oh Happy Day " and Andrae Crouch's "Through It All" reflected the soul music of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Significantly and interestingly, a number of new gospel songs have been major hits on both the gospel and R&B charts. And a handful of songs have held the No.1 spot on both charts.

BeBe and CeCe Winans, whose Different Lifestyles album reached No. 1 on Billboard's R&B and gospel charts, faced a barrage of criticism from traditional gospel devotees for the slick production and spiritually neutral lyrics in some songs on that album.

On the song "Depend On You," the brother-sister duo sings: "I never thought that I could ever need someone/ The way that I have come to need you/ Never dreamed I'd love someone/The way I've fallen in love with you."