The Supreme Angels - Drinking Of The Wine 1966

From Dr. Hepcat for our Sunday listening pleasure.

These guys are better known as Rev. Howard 'Slim' Hunt and the Supreme Angels. This is a lovely slice of their early work on the Nashboro label.

Nashboro Gospel - I Heard The Angels Singing

Okay - I know that church is late today, but I'm distracted - this one is for our favorite little old lady!

"Ernest L. Young learned the music business from the ground up, starting in the jukebox operating field, and soon became one of the largest suppliers in the Nashville area. He opened Ernie's Record Mart on Third Avenue North in Nashville as a means to move more records, and realizing the advantages in making his own product, he built a small studio in the back of the store, later expanding into a larger space on the third floor of his shipping department building, finally opening the pioneering gospel label Nashboro Records in 1951. Young launched a secular subsidiary label, the more famous Excello Records, four years later in 1955. Always hands-on, Young oversaw every phase of making records at his labels, and gospel artists responded by giving Young's Nashboro imprint one of the finest rosters of gospel in the genre's history, while his roster for the Excello blues and R&B subsidiary was pretty singular too -- but that's another story. This four-disc set, which comes complete in a gatefold LP-sized package, surveys Nashboro's gospel output chronologically from 1951 to 1983, and it's an eye-opening, explosive anthology of gritty, exuberant black gospel from a label that had as much to do with shaping the sound of pop music in the latter part of the 20th century as more famous labels like Sun and Chess Records did. The roots of soul and so much more are heard here, and with the way the set is assembled, one can hear the decades build forward through the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s into the full-band, funky and R&B-influenced tracks from the 1970s and 1980s. The whole anthology is a delight, and there are some familiar names here, like the Fairfield Four, for one, but there are just as many or more obscure artists here making powerful musical statements. A particular high point is the husband-and-wife duo the Consolers' 1957 version of "This May Be the Last Time," a song the Rolling Stones had a secular hit with in the mid-'60s (under the title "The Last Time"). In the Consolers' hands, the song seems so much brighter, jangly and more alive, and it speaks to deeper and wider concerns than the Stones' version does. It's just one example of the many powerful tracks collected in this set. Bravo to Tompkins Square for spotlighting the best little gospel label that ever was." AllMusic Guide

The Brooklyn All Stars - On Peacock and Nashboro

Happy Sunday, Chitlins' people!  Please allow me to make an offering today for your spiritual nourishment - vintage recordings of Hardie Clifton and the Brooklyn All Stars.  Hardie Clifton may not be a household name in the USA, but he most certainly had one of the great voices in gospel during the late 50s through the 80s.  He possessed a powerful, soaring falsetto that he could alternatively drench with Sam Cooke-esque sweet soul or break into rough scream.   I have packaged together here three dynamite singles that the Brooklyn All Stars waxed under their first recording track for Peacock, together with a collection on Nashboro that was briefly available on CD under the title "The Best of the Brooklyn All Stars."  

The first six tracks here come from Peacock, while the remaining 14 tracks comprise the disc pictured on the right.

The Brooklyn All Stars were formed by Charlie Storey in New York immediately after World War II.  He recruited the exceptional bass-baritone Thomas Spann, who took over the leadership of the group in the mid-50s when Storey left for other waters.  Thomas Spann continued to lead the Brooklyn All Stars well into the new millennium.  He is very much alive today, and just celebrated his 90th birthday last month.    

The Brooklyn All Stars rose to prominence after Spann recruited the teenage Hardie Clifton in the latter 1950s and trained him vocally.  This led to recording opportunities with Peacock and the the three precious singles included here.   They are all superb, with "Careless Soul" perhaps the greatest of all of them, a true masterpiece and showcase for Hardie Clifton.  "Singing for the Lord" is another stone masterpiece.

By the time that the Brooklyn All Stars signed with Nashboro in the 1960s, Jimmy Outler had briefly joined the group.  A dedicated disciple of Sam Cooke, Jimmy Outler had just succeeded remarkably well in the very challenging job of filling Johnnie Taylor's shoes, who had filled Sam Cooke's shoes as lead singer of the Soul Stirrers.  A run-in with the law soon forced Outler into hiding, however, and his work with the Brooklyn All Stars here was actually done under an assumed name. On the Nashboro sides included here, Clifton and Outler alternate leads.  There are many highlights among the Nashboro recordings.  I have a particular attachment to Hardie Clifton's delivery of "Nobody's Fault But Mine."


The Brooklyn All Stars went from Nashboro to Jewel in the 1970s, and released a number of high quality albums, many of them featuring Thomas Spann more prominently that had been the case in the past.  Hardie Clifton passed in 1990, but the Brooklyn All Stars kept going.

The Pilgrim Jubilee Singers - Homecoming

Happy Sunday!  I would like to share with you a favorite gospel disc of mine.

The Pilgrim Jubilee Singers have been one of the premium gospel quartets since the 1950s.  They made quite a number of fine records for Peacock and Nashboro in the 50s and 60s.  Most of these recordings have unfortunately become hard to find in the digital age. 

The Pigrim Jubilees were formed by three brothers, Cleve, Elgie, and Eddie Graham, who grew up singing in the choir of New Zion Baptist Church in Houston, Mississippi.  All three brothers are tenors and alternate leads.  They employ two other singers to sing baritone and bass.

This is by far my favorite item in the Pilgrim Jubilee discography, a dynamite live recording from 1979 recorded at Wendy Phillips High School in Chicago.   While there exist other fine examples of live gospel recordings from golden age quartets, this one has a special place in my heart, an extended example in great sound of a gospel quartet really working the crowd, beginning with a light simmer and gradually turning up the heat to complete frenzy.  Spiritual nourishment is guaranteed.