Robert Marovich grew up Catholic, and he didn’t encounter gospel music for the first time till he was in his early 20s. It was January 1984, and he was earning a degree in American studies at Notre Dame University. “I was flipping through the dial on the radio, and I happened upon a Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer radio broadcast on a Sunday evening,” he says. “It just blew me away.” That south-side Chicago church, founded in 1959 and still active today, has a famous choir called the Mighty Warriors. Marovich threw a blank tape into his cassette player to record the music, and he listened to it over and over. But though he’d soon develop a collector’s avid interest in classic soul, harmony singing, and the blues—all forms of music that share plenty of DNA with gospel—it would be ten years before he followed up on his radio discovery. “I literally made a decision in about 1994 to really learn more about gospel, because I knew nothing,” he says.
“Around March 2001, after I had begun to get back into the swing of things, I picked up where I left off,” Marovich says. “In some ways, starting the show was a tribute to Pat’s commitment to teaching African-American music history.” In May 2001 he launched Gospel Memories on Loyola University’s radio station, WLUW, and he’s been on the air ever since (his current slot is Saturday mornings at 10 AM). In 2003 he joined the Gospel Announcers Guild, the broadcast personalities’ subdivision of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, which legendary gospel singer James Cleveland had founded in 1968 to connect artists, fans, and advocates. Through the guild Marovich met singers, producers, pastors, and fellow DJs. And because BluesWeb had folded, in 2004 he satisfied his itch to write about the music by starting the Black Gospel blog (he changed its name last year to the Journal of Gospel Music). Though he’s the only regular contributor, he credits the blog with helping him forge a connection to the current gospel scene.
“I was in a position as a generalist to look at the different streams and try to make sense of them from my perspective as an outsider,” Marovich says. “But at the same time, an insider, in that I really took it from the perspective of the church. Sometimes books are written from the perspective of records or radio, or however the author came upon the music, but I knew that church was the primary area we needed to focus on. We needed to focus on the churches and how they developed choruses and how those choruses expanded out from Chicago, and how the African-American church drove the deal until it became a commercial property. That was something I had to work very hard at, not being a member of an African-American church. To learn who the pastors were, what the denominations were about, who believes what and why, and how it is manifested in the music.”
The 30th Chicago Gospel Music Festival has one of the event’s most inspired lineups in years. Local independent artists and national talent alike will gather in Millennium Park to celebrate the spirited, inspirational music that has influenced just about every popular genre today. The entire festival takes place in the park this year, with bookings at Pritzker Pavilion all three days and two additional stages Saturday and Sunday.
Scheduled national acts include Richard Smallwood & Vision, Israel Houghton & New Breed, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Canton Jones, Rance Allen, Donald Lawrence & Co., and Brian Courtney Wilson (an alumnus of Fenwick High School in Oak Park). Among the Windy City talents on the bill are the five artists below, all of whom perform at Pritzker Pavilion—with the exception of the Brown Sisters on Sunday afternoon, who’ll be on the Spirit Stage in the south tent. —Robert Marovich
Friday at 7:15 PMDexter Walker & Zion Movement
I knew Dexter Walker’s Zion Movement Chorale was headed for bigger and better the first time I saw them perform, at the Southside Neighborhood Gospel Festival in the mid-2000s. Indeed, the 90-voice choir’s powerful singing and acrobatic choreography earned them the top prize in Verizon’s 2012 How Sweet the Sound competition, which aimed to crown America’s best church choir. Their performances before national audiences drew accolades from all corners of the gospel community, and the Verizon award included a recording contract with eOne. The group is equally capable on stylized contemporary gospel and a barnstorming “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho.”
Friday at 8:45 PMRicky Dillard & New G
Ricky Dillard & New G leaped into the gospel consciousness with a track from their 1990 debut album, The Promise, called “More Abundantly.” The song’s pulse-quickening tempo and cascading choral sections quickly made it part of church-choir canon. But it was the group’s most recent album, last year’s Amazing (recorded in Dillard’s hometown of Chicago), that ended up dominating the Billboard charts and securing the widespread acclaim Dillard and New G have deserved for 25 years. Dillard’s genius is in giving the classic sound of a churchy, full-throated Chicago gospel choir a contemporary makeover, complete with high-octane rhythm section.
Saturday at 4:30 PMAnita Wilson
A Chicago transplant from East Saint Louis, Anita Wilson was part of Donald Lawrence & Co. before waxing her 2012 solo debut, Worship Soul, for EMI Gospel (now Motown Gospel). Recorded live at Chicago’s Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, Worship Soul includes a rendition of James Cleveland’s “Jesus Will” that’s as funky as last Friday but retains the churchiness of the original; the album climbed the Billboard charts and earned Grammy, Dove, and Stellar nominations (the Stellar is gospel’s Grammy). Her new record, Vintage Worship, is garnering equally positive reviews. Wilson performs with fellow Chicagoan Jonathan McReynolds, who’s making national waves with his soulful and elastic tenor voice.
Saturday at 6:20 PMThe Tommies Reunion
Organized by Reverend Milton Brunson on Chicago’s west side in 1948, the Grammy-winning Thompson Community Singers (known affectionately as “the Tommies”) are one of America’s first community gospel choirs. During the Brunson era (he died in 1997) the Tommies produced radio hits such as “I’ll Trade a Lifetime” and “Safe in His Arms.” The choir has spawned soloists such as James and Aldrea Lenox, Jessy Dixon, Loretta Oliver, Vernon Oliver Price, Kim McFarland, and Leanne Faine, and soul star Dee Clark is alleged to have been an early member. Tommies singer-songwriter Darius Brooks aims to bring together as many fellow alumni as possible for this rare performance.
Sunday at 2:25 PMThe Brown Sisters
The Brown Sisters—Vanessa, Lavette, Adrienne, and Andrea—are the sweethearts of Chicago gospel. Recognized not only stateside but overseas long before the release of their 2009 national debut, The Brown Sisters: Live in Chicago, the Browns have sung together since bobby socks. Their praise and worship anthem “Awesome God” was a gospel-radio favorite and Billboard hit, and their album earned a Stellar nomination. The second-oldest sibling, Phyllis, died last year, but the Brown Sisters press on, their warm, embraceable sound reminiscent of two other popular sister acts: the Clark Sisters and the Pointer Sisters. v
Chicago Gospel Music Festival Fri 5/29-Sun 5/31 Millennium Park 201 E. Randolph Fri 6:30 PM-9:30 PM, Sat-Sun 11 AM-9:30 PMcityofchicago.orgFree
