[78-L] How a Newspaper Article Saved Thousands of Black Gospel Records From Obscurity

[Rodger J Holtin]

I thought some of you might enjoy this.  If you already knew about this
project, this article which appeared today would be an update for you.

 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/archive-saved-black-gospel-golden-age

 

//////////////////////

How a Newspaper Article Saved Thousands of Black Gospel Records From
Obscurity

 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/archive-saved-black-gospel-golden-age

 

How a Newspaper Article Saved Thousands of Black Gospel Records From
Obscurity

A professor in Texas collects and digitizes rare recordings from across the
country.

BY SANTI ELIJAH HOLLEY

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

 

 

FOR THE LAST DOZEN YEARS, in the basement of a university library in Waco,
Texas, a small team of audio engineers has been busy trying to save black
gospel music. On a typical day, after delicately removing a scuffed vinyl
record from its tattered sleeve, an engineer cleans the disc, places it onto
a specialized turntable, and drops the needle. A moment later, an
exhilarating music rises from the speakers, filling the small room with
voices not heard in half a century. Once the song has come to an end, the
audio file is loaded into a digital archive, and the record joins thousands
of LPs and 45s that are stacked wall-to-wall in a climate-controlled room at
Baylor University.

 

The current effort to preserve gospel recordings began in 2005, when Robert
Darden, a journalism professor at Baylor, published an op-ed in The New York
Times. He wrote that innumerable black gospel records, particularly from the
"Golden Age" of the mid-1940s to the mid-70s, were at risk of being lost,
whether because of damage or neglect. It was getting harder and harder to
track down LPs of popular artists like the Soul Stirrers (who at one time
featured a young Sam Cooke), to say nothing of 45s from largely obscure
groups like the Gospel Kings of Portsmouth, Virginia. "It would be more than
a cultural disaster to forever lose this music," Darden wrote. "It would be
a sin."

 

The Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, released this album of civil
rights music in 1962.

The Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, released this album of civil
rights music in 1962. ROBERT ROGERS/BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Soon after publishing the op-ed, Darden was contacted by an investment
banker named Charles Royce. Royce confessed he didn't know much about gospel
music, but the opinion piece had convinced him that preserving it was a
worthwhile endeavor. "You figure out how to save it," he said, according to
Darden. "Send me a plan, and I'll pay for it."

 

 

 

ADVERTISING

 

RELATED

The Underground Kitchen That Funded the Civil Rights Movement

Georgia Gilmore's cooking fueled the Montgomery bus boycott.

READ MORE

 

DARDEN FIRST BEGAN TO RECOGNIZE the crisis facing classic gospel music while
working on his book, People Get Ready!: A New History of Black Gospel Music.
He had previously worked as the gospel music editor for Billboard, and had
written extensively on the genre, yet he often struggled to find the music
he covered. "I'd been frustrated time and time again throughout the writing
of the book, when I would write about a very important gospel song that had
been influential in the history of gospel music, in some cases in popular
music, and I couldn't listen to it," Darden says. "I'd go to the used record
stores, and online, and everywhere I knew, and there just simply would not
be a copy available."

 

Darden and other record collectors estimated that around 75 percent of all
gospel vinyl released during the Golden Age was no longer available. The
records had been completely lost, or only a few remaining copies were known
to be in circulation. Darden was determined to know how many of these
records could be found, and how many were lost for good.

 

After Darden came up with a plan to find and preserve these records, Royce
provided a grant of $350,000. Darden got right to work, establishing the
Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, or BGMRP, in 2007. Inside a
sound-isolated room in the basement of Baylor's Moody Library, gospel LPs,
45s, and 78s are cleaned, archived, and digitized by audio engineers, using
state-of-the-art equipment. After each disc is processed, it becomes
available to stream for free online, alongside any available original
artwork and recording details.

 

 

 

One of the rare songs that Darden helped recover was "Old Ship of Zion,"
recorded on a self-pressed 45 in the early 1970s by the Mighty Wonders, a
group from Aquasco, Maryland. Darden recalls the first time he heard it:
"Our engineer played it for me in the studio, and we both broke into tears."
Found in a box of miscellaneous 45s purchased on the East Coast, Darden
spent the next five years trying to track down any information about it.
During a public radio interview in Baltimore, a child of one of the original
members of the group called in and introduced himself. Darden learned that
the group itself didn't even own a copy. Now one of the BGMRP's most
cherished finds, "Old Ship of Zion" is featured in the gospel section of the
National Museum of African American History & Culture.

 

Most of the music in the archive was loaned by collectors across the country
or purchased at record stores by Darden and his team, but some have come
from individual donations. Anyone is welcome to send music, either as a
permanent donation or a loan. Darden says that opening a new box of records
is "like Christmas." Many of the records now in Baylor's library, like the
"Old Ship of Zion" 45, are among the only known copies in existence, Darden
says. He estimates that he and his team have digitized around 14,000 items,
including songs, LP jackets, and photos.

 

Darden recognized the crisis facing classic gospel music while working on
his book, <em>People Get Ready!: A New History of Black Gospel Music</em>.

Darden recognized the crisis facing classic gospel music while working on
his book, People Get Ready!: A New History of Black Gospel Music. ROBERT
ROGERS/BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

In a 2007 interview, shortly after launching the project, Darden told the
public radio host Terry Gross, "We see it as kind of like those seed banks
up around the Arctic Circle that keep one copy of every kind of seed there
is in case there's another Dutch elm disease. I just want to make sure that
every gospel song, the music that all American music comes from, is saved."

 

Darden, who is white, doesn't come from a traditional church background.
With a father in the Air Force, he grew up moving with his family from base
to base. His parents owned a record of Mahalia Jackson singing Christmas
songs, but Darden remembers first hearing gospel music in the homes of his
black friends, whose parents were also in the Air Force. "That was the music
that their parents were playing and singing," he says. "I loved it from day
one."

 

Mahalia Jackson performs on stage in 1959.

Mahalia Jackson performs on stage in 1959. GILES PETARD/GETTY

The BGMRP focuses exclusively on music from gospel's Golden Age, the roughly
30-year period that saw gospel music surge in popularity, owing to the
musical innovations of artists such as Clara Ward, Mahalia Jackson, the Swan
Silvertones, and the Dixie Hummingbirds. Darden points out that gospel's
Golden Age is also significant because it "corresponds with the era of the
Civil Rights movement exactly, and it corresponds with the era of the
greatest impact of the African-American church on the African-American
community." He adds, "They're all intertwined. That's why gospel matters.
This was the music of the revolution."

 

Reverend Clay Evans, a Baptist pastor in Chicago who has worked as a civil
rights leader and gospel recording artist, has powerful memories of the
Golden Age. He was born in 1925 and recorded numerous albums in the 1970s
and 80s*, mostly with the record labels Jewel and Savoy. "Gospel music
motivated us," Evans says. "Music gave us hope. Hope that we needed to
continue to overcome. Hope that we were on the right trail to overcome the
racism that existed. Hope that God was with us in the struggle."

 

Reverend Clay Evans leads members into the new Fellowship Missionary Baptist
Church for opening day celebrations in 1973.

Reverend Clay Evans leads members into the new Fellowship Missionary Baptist
Church for opening day celebrations in 1973. CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY, SPECIAL
COLLECTIONS

These days, selections from Baylor's collection can be found in the National
Museum of African American History & Culture, in Washington, D.C., as part
of the museum's permanent collection. But to access the entire collection
in-person, visitors to Waco can drop by Lev's Gathering Place, at Baylor
University's Crouch Fine Arts Library. Sitting on a reclaimed church pew and
stained-glass windows, visitors can view photos and listen to thousands of
songs on iPad kiosks.

 

In recent years, Darden and the BGMRP have begun another undertaking:
archiving audio recordings of African-American preachers. Recorded sermons
were once popular and profitable, especially leading up to and during the
Civil Rights movement, but they too face the threat of being permanently
lost. "Even less of that has been preserved," Darden says. "From the Civil
Rights movement, for instance, with the exception of Dr. King, virtually
none of the sermons that changed America are preserved. Or, when they are
preserved, they're on somebody's cassette in somebody's warehouse in the
South Side of Chicago."

 

Visitors to Lev's Gathering Place, at Baylor University's Crouch Fine Arts
Library, can sit on a reclaimed church pew and listen to thousands of
classic gospel songs.

Visitors to Lev's Gathering Place, at Baylor University's Crouch Fine Arts
Library, can sit on a reclaimed church pew and listen to thousands of
classic gospel songs. ROBERT ROGERS/BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Upon learning of this project, Reverend Evans dug out several boxes of his
broadcast sermons, some decades old and long-neglected, from a derelict
storage space near his church in Chicago. Now 94 years old, Evans has
contributed over 900 tapes of his broadcast sermons to the archive. For him,
digitizing and archiving these records is about not only preserving a
fundamental part of American history, but also providing inspiration to
present and future generations.

 

"We face the same issues today, and we still need encouragement," Evans
says. He sees parallels between today's struggles for social justice and the
civil rights struggles of the past. "It's good for children to know what
we've been through. Then they can be encouraged to make it through, too."

 

*Correction: This article originally stated that Reverend Clay Evans
released his first musical project with Savoy Records in 1985. Evans
released albums with Jewel Records in the 1970s.

 

 

****************************

 

Rodger Holtin

78-L Member Since MCMXCVIII

 

For Best Results Use Victor Needles

 



-- 
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com