::ALBUM REVIEW::

There are a number of metropolitan cities that come to mind when reflecting on large and important contributions to gospel music’s evolution - like Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Dallas. But other countries, such as Canada, are making even bigger strides in the gospel market and are causing a shift to take place in directing our attention in their direction. Toronto has a bourgeoning gospel community that includes the likes of Londa Larmond, Toronto Mass Choir, Pastor Richard Brown, University of Toronto Gospel Choir and Sharon Riley. Add Cheryl James & Voices of Worship to the list. Not to be confused with Cheryl "Salt" James of pioneering rap duo Salt-N-Pepa, James emerges on the scene with her small ensemble of ten on her debut, Live, to continue the Ricky Dillard/Hezekiah Walker contemporary choir sound, while putting a strikingly strong presence of sophisticated jazz into heavy beats. Melvin Crispell, known for his big compositions for James Hall and Hezekiah Walker, sits in the producer’s seat and walks the group through a beefy twelve-track set of worship-tinged choral gospel.

After a careful introduction from Carlton Griffiths, the band works their way into a cool contemporary sounding “Made It;” penned by Rhowan James. It rings with the zeal of robustious New Jack Swing groove set to Germaine Dwyer’s organ and Jonathan Kerr’s drum work. Even if the lyrics are a tad bit wordy for the charming groove, the energy from the rhythm and cool chords are never watered out. After a couple of listens, all worries are desisted. The mid-tempo ballad “Jesus You Are” leans on tingling smooth musical textures and features inviting ad-libs from Tunesha Crispell. Tunesha, an established session singer on James Hall records, offers another performance using more jazzy spins on the piquant ballad “Hallowed In This Place.” It’s flavored in Melvin Crispell’s traditional gospel-jazz batter and resumes the artistic authenticity of such compositions of “He Took My Place” and “Nobody Like Him” from his James Hall catalog. “Thy Name Oh Lord Is High," another Crispell composition, is intensely beautified with overtones of traditional jazz. Moody chord changes and stylistic choral phrasing from the Voices of Worship, alongside Crispell’s magical organ skills, bring new vibrant dimensions to the album. Songs like “It Is Well," "Let Him In" and “He’s Just That Good” reenforces the relaxed contemporary gospel nature of the album.

The biggest setback, even though it’s not unforgivable, is the abundant pasting of unbelievable audience feedback into the tracks. The mix of the audience’s response and hand claps in the many places on the album comes across as being too unreal and certainly hurts the logistics of the overall production. The lengthiness of “More Of You,” hyphened by Pastor Orim Meikle’s opening remarks, an unneeded reprise and the unexpected chorus insert of “I Need Thee,” pushes a few buttons of patience. While the track provides a good share of good listening, it does drain the song’s replay value. Because much of the album strays away from reproducing conventional gospel radio formulas and finds itself too comfortable in mixing worship sounds with sophisticated jazz, not much here will expediently rush into radio rotations. But that doesn’t mean Live is a hard cookie to chew. The production is clear and clean - polished with intense choral overdubs and Crispell’s monitoring - aside from the irritating hand clap injections. Voices of Worship sounds very good - as well as the aforementioned juicy material. It also elevates Crispell as a producer and continues his ongoing popularity as a seasoned songwriter and musical director. James is heading in the right direction as a new artist with her affiliations with Crispell, even though her presence on the album is reduced to a couple of worship leader exhortations and her locked down position as choir director. Let’s hope and pray that audiences don’t draw confusion from her baring the same name as Cheryl “Salt” James.