James Cleveland with the World's Greatest Choirs (20th and 25th Anniversary editions)

A powerhouse pair of Savoy collections showcasing the Reverand James Cleveland with some of the greatest choirs on the planet. These are very dynamic recordings made in churches around the land, please, please, please TURN IT UP!! Learn the true meaning of 'raisin' the roof' as only a large choir can do! The power of Cleveland's voice in front is astounding....once more - turn it up and back away from the speakers, let's see what your stereo can do!

Rev. James Cleveland - Peace Be Still

Prepare thy selves to receive a miracle brothers and sisters! 

One of the greatest Gospel albums of all time! This 1962 roof-raiser puts goose bumps on my arms and electricity at the back of my neck from the moment Cleveland sings the first line. If you turn it up loud enough, you will get a pretty convincing experience of the choir too. This landmark album introduces Cleveland's new thing in Gospel. In it's own way it is equivalent to  'Kind Of Blue' or 'The Shape Of Jazz To Come', it is the opening statement of a ground shift that is rarely equaled by what followed.

The mike placements were well thought out to capture the electric call and response in the church that night, the balance between the soloists and the choir is as well done as you will find anywhere. If you were to have only one Gospel album to your name, THIS would be a strong candidate. Certainly a top ten selection.

You WILL be moved. The power captured here is undeniable. Please don't cheat yourself, TURN IT UP! Raise the roof, Shake the walls and you WILL be moved!

Shirley Caesar & Rev. James Cleveland - The King & Queen of Gospel, Vol. 1

"Shirley Ann Caesar-Williams, known professionally as Shirley Caesar (born October 13, 1938, Durham, North Carolina) is an American Gospel music singer, songwriter and recording artist whose career has spanned over six decades. A multi-award winning artist, with eleven Grammy Awards and seven Dove Awards to her credit, she was known as "First Lady of gospel music"and now the "Queen of Gospel Music" now since the death of the late Queen Albertina Walker.

Caesar first began singing and performing for family and friends. They loved her and knew she was going to be great. She first began recording in 1949, at age 11. Her professional adult 'career' began when she was 18, when she approached Albertina Walker about joining The Caravans, one of the most popular gospel groups at that time.

She sang with the legendary late Queen of Gospel Dr. Albertina Walker, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Delores Washington and James Cleveland while in the Caravans. She recorded and performed with The Caravans from 1958 until 1966, then she began pursuing a solo career and making a name for herself in the gospel music circuit. Caesar credits Albertina Walker as her mentor and "Queen of Gospel Music". After singing with the Caravans, she started her solo career, making guest appearances on the Bobby Jones gospel show and other popular television shows.

Between 1981 and 1995, she received seven Dove Awards for Black Gospel Album of the Year for Live at the G.M.W.A., Celebration, Christmasing, Sailin‘, Live ... In Chicago, Go and Rejoice. She received two Black Gospel Song of the Year Awards for "He's Working It Out for You" and "Hold My Mule". She has performed with such performers as Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, Dorothy Norwood, Faith Evans, Dottie Peoples, Arnold Houston, Kim Burrell, John P. Kee, Kirk Franklin and Tonex, Tye Tribbett among others. Shirley Caesar is also an actress. She acted in Fighting Temptations with Beyonce Knowles and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Caesar was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010."

Rev. James Cleveland - The King Of Gospel

Good Morning to all on this fine Sunday morning. In hindsight, it is really quite remarkable that we have managed some 80 Gospel posts so far yet this is the first of the Reverend James Cleveland!

"The Reverend Dr. James Cleveland (December 5, 1931 - February 9, 1991) was a gospel singer, arranger, composer and, most significantly, the driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound, bringing the stylistic daring of hard gospel and jazz and pop music influences to arrangements for mass choirs. He is known as the King of Gospel music.

Born in Chicago, he began singing as a boy soprano at Pilgrim Baptist Church, where Thomas A. Dorsey was minister of music and Roberta Martin was pianist for the choir. He strained his vocal cords as a teenager while part of a local gospel group, leaving the distinctive gravelly voice that was his hallmark in his later years. The change in his voice led him to focus on his skills as a pianist and later as a composer and arranger. For his pioneering accomplishments and contributions, he is regarded by many to be one of the greatest gospel singers that ever lived.

The style he pioneered — large disciplined organizations who used complex arrangements and unusual time signatures to turn their massive vocal power to achieve the propulsive rhythms, intricate harmonies and individual virtuosity of the greatest groups of gospel's Golden Age — was still the wellspring for the mass choirs of that era.

Cleveland died on February 9, 1991 in Culver City, California. According to his foster son, Christopher Harris Cleveland, Cleveland had contracted AIDS through homosexual liaisons, and died of AIDS.  Cleveland is interred at the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California."

Subsequent stories have alleged that his relationship with his foster son was a sexual one and that homosexual child abuse ran rampant at his gospel camps and in his choirs. Both Cleveland and Edwin Hawkins stand accused by many in the black church of creating a haven for homosexuals in the church and more particularly within the Gospel Music industry. You can find links to such discussions of Cleveland's legacy here and another here. 

I personally am at a loss to say which I find more troubling, the tales of Cleveland's predatory behavior, or the subsequent judgements expressed in these articles and others like them. I seem to recall that Jesus was quite clear in the bible on more than one occasion that the right to judgement was His and His alone! One thing that IS quite clear to me is that Cleveland was blessed with true and giant genius and at the end of the day I'll choose to focus on that.