Gospel Music

Andrae Crouch shared a reminiscence. Stevie Wonder sang one of his songs. Politicians heaped him with praise. And about 4,000 other friends and admirers danced and swayed in the aisles as the voices of 500 choir members resounded across the ornate auditorium. For the Rev. James Cleveland, the acclaimed king of gospel music, it was a fitting final tribute. Cleveland, 59, the first gospel singer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, died Feb.

“The Wendy Williams Show” 11 a.m. Thursday, Fox: Broadway: actress Audra McDonald. “Open Call” 9 p.m. Thursday, KCET: Live at the Ford-Grandeza Mexicana: Hosted by mezzo-soprano opera singer Suzanna Guzman, Open Call features a wide variety of productions from profiles of artists. “Gospel Music Presents: Great Performances” 10 a.m. Saturday, CBS: Shirley Murdock performs with guests Regina Belle, Beverly Crawford and Kelly Price. From Fort Mill, S.C. “Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theatre” 10 p.m. Saturday, FX: “Great Performances at the Met” 1 a.m. Saturday, KVCR: "Madama Butterfly": Patrick Summers conducts Puccini's tale of a Japanese geisha betrayed by an American lover.

It has long been assumed that Sun Records founder Sam Phillips didn't like gospel music because he discouraged his greatest discoveries, including Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, from recording spiritual music for his Memphis label in the 1950s. But it turns out Phillips loved gospel music -- he just didn't think he could successfully market it in the mid-1950s when his rock and country records were exploding onto the charts.

If you don't know gospel music, really know it, you are missing out on a lot, but don't lose faith. "Rejoice and Shout," a vibrant and comprehensive new documentary will take you there in style. Directed by Don McGlynn, who had access to producer Joe Lauro's huge 10,000-hour collection of American music on film and video, "Rejoice" provides both a melodic education and a once-in-a-lifetime concert in one soul-stirring package. "Rejoice and Shout" not only has the music, it has strong interviews with top gospel authorities such as Anthony Heilbut, Bill Carpenter and Jacquie Gales Webb, plus incisive comments by headliner gospel singers like Mavis Staples of the breakout Staple Singers and Ira Tucker, who joined the Dixie Hummingbirds in 1938 at age 13 and stayed for 70 years.

“The Wendy Williams Show” 11 a.m. Thursday, Fox: Broadway: actress Audra McDonald. “Open Call” 9 p.m. Thursday, KCET: Live at the Ford-Grandeza Mexicana: Hosted by mezzo-soprano opera singer Suzanna Guzman, Open Call features a wide variety of productions from profiles of artists. “Gospel Music Presents: Great Performances” 10 a.m. Saturday, CBS: Shirley Murdock performs with guests Regina Belle, Beverly Crawford and Kelly Price. From Fort Mill, S.C. “Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theatre” 10 p.m. Saturday, FX: “Great Performances at the Met” 1 a.m. Saturday, KVCR: "Madama Butterfly": Patrick Summers conducts Puccini's tale of a Japanese geisha betrayed by an American lover.

Gospel music broadcasters and others with careers in the field will gather for a three-day conference beginning Thursday at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in North Hollywood. The conference, sponsored by the Southern California Assn. of the Gospel Announcers Guild, will include seminars on such topics as "How to Produce Shows for Television," "Interacting With Record Companies and Record Stores" and "Publishing, Licensing and Royalties."

"Gospel music is a part of Americana that's most in danger of being lost," says the RevC. Gordon, chairman of the American Gospel Arts Fund. "It's true American heritage, born when the African and European cultures were fused together under pressure, much as a diamond comes forth from coal. . . . Gospel music is neither African nor European, but it is completely American. "The problem today is that we run the risk of forgetting the platform contemporary gospel was built on."

Singer-songwriter Michael W. Smith was named artist of the year for the second consecutive year and walked off with five other honors at the Gospel Music Assn.'s 34th annual Dove Awards. But the biggest haul at Thursday night's ceremony in Nashville was by Nichole Nordeman, who won six awards, including female vocalist of the year and songwriter of the year. Her song "Holy," from her "Woven & Spun" album, was named song of the year.

A high note in Southern gospel music was hit this weekend when a museum devoted to that tradition opened at Dolly Parton's Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. The Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum showcases 41 performers in the church-music genre, which dates to the early years of this century and initially featured mostly white male quartets singing in multipart harmony. It has since expanded to include women, people of color and other formats, such as soloists and trios.

In the '60s, the music of protest against the Vietnam War was that of Bob Dylan and his fellow folk-rock singer-songwriters. In contrast, the defining musical cry for justice in the civil-rights movement was "We Shall Overcome," a gospel song.

Brooke Shields' character was supposed to be falling apart. Shields — limping around with a cast on her hand — was trying not to. Several days before the new musical "Leap of Faith" held its first preview at the Ahmanson Theatre, Shields had hit a critical crossroads in the show's rehearsals. Loosely adapted from the 1992 Steve Martin movie about a fraudulent faith healer, the musical drops evangelist Jonas Nightingale (Raúl Esparza) into a drought-stricken Kansas town whose population includes Marva McGowan (Shields)

Looking out at thousands of people clapping and swaying to gospel music in the middle of a city street, Pastor Wayne Chaney Jr. smiled as he recalled that the Long Beach Gospel Fest and Downtown Worship Experience began a year ago as a modest grassroots show for local congregations. By contrast, this year's celebration of the Gospel Fest was a sprawling, daylong outdoor event based on the snappy rhythmic swirls of a repertoire that rings strong in the heart of black culture. Bouquets of white roses decorated the stage on the corner of Pine Ave. and Broadway, where choir members from more than 35 churches belted out visceral solos and dazzling collaborations that spread the message of Jesus.

Marie Knight, a gospel singer who came to fame singing duets with gospel-music star Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the late 1940s and made a noteworthy late-in-life comeback as a solo artist, has died. She was 84. Knight died Sunday of complications from pneumonia at a nursing home in Harlem, said her manager, record producer Mark Carpentieri. With a voice that one recent reviewer described as "a natural wonder, an unadorned, powerful instrument," Knight began her career touring the national gospel circuit with evangelist Frances Robinson as a young woman in the mid-1940s.

It has long been assumed that Sun Records founder Sam Phillips didn't like gospel music because he discouraged his greatest discoveries, including Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, from recording spiritual music for his Memphis label in the 1950s. But it turns out Phillips loved gospel music -- he just didn't think he could successfully market it in the mid-1950s when his rock and country records were exploding onto the charts.

David "Pop" Winans Sr., the Grammy-nominated patriarch of the award-winning gospel music family, died Wednesday. He was 74. A statement from his family said he died at a Nashville hospice, where he had been since January after suffering a heart attack and stroke in October. In 1999, Winans was nominated for a Grammy Award for his solo CD "Uncensored." He and his wife, Delores, known as Mom Winans, were nominated for their CD "Mom & Pop Winans" in 1989.

OAKLAND -- The members of the McCoy Memorial Baptist Church choir in Los Angeles have been working very hard lately. The 40-member ensemble normally meets once a week at its East 46th Street home. But since reaching the L.A. regional semifinals of the "How Sweet the Sound" nationwide gospel choir competition, it has held extra rehearsals and a weekend "boot camp" to lick into shape its version of the gospel standard "Pass Me Not."

"I'm not worried about the undertaker!" exclaimed buoyant Shirley Caesar at a tribute concert for the Rev. James Cleveland, the extraordinarily influential gospel figure, last October. "I'm thankful for the Upper-taker!" Cleveland, his friends and fans would bittersweetly agree, has finally fallen into the hands of both.

If Walter Robinson's new gospel musical, "Look What a Wonder," teaches its audience anything at this point, it should be the power of persistence. The artist-in-residence at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard, Robinson has been toiling over this score for the last nine years and his efforts are finally bearing some fruit this spring.

TobyMac won artist of the year and Casting Crowns singer Mark Hall collected four trophies at the 39th annual Dove Awards, which celebrate the best in gospel music. Besides artist of the year, TobyMac, whose real name is Toby McKeehan, took home Dove Awards on Wednesday night for rock/contemporary album for "Portable Sounds" and short-form video for his hit "Boomin'." Hall's wins included song of the year and pop/contemporary recorded song of the year for "East to West," which he co-wrote with Bernie Herms.

NEW YORK -- Only a few thousand families in Tennessee were able to see the Gospel Music Channel when it began less than four years ago. Now it's television's fastest-growing cable network -- available in some 40 million homes, more than a third of the nation. It reaches a milestone Wednesday when it carries live coverage of the annual Dove Awards for gospel music.