West Coast Black Gospel 1940-1973: Don't Have to Cry No More
West Coast Black Gospel 1940-1973: Don't Have to Cry No More
The story of African American post-World War II migration to California has doubtless been told in other formats with other media. But West Coast Black Gospel 1949-1973: Don't Have to Cry No More provides a generous, though not chronologically ordered, sample of the commercial sacred music produced in the wake of that exodus to the Golden State.
One focal point of the triple-CD collection comes with the Edwin Hawkins Singers' late '60s fluke pop crossover (a bit less of an outlier on soul radio), “Oh Happy Day.” That surging slice of joy from a Southern California choir was a game-changer for urban church music for years following its chart peak. But preceding it were many refinements of the traditional gospel and many variations on Hawkins' innovations would follow.
The act most prominently featured in the collection, with 10 selections among its 75 tracks, is The Mighty Clouds of Joy. Their contributions to West Coast comprise a brief best-of album from the male quartet's first eight years (the bulk of the 1960s). Lead singer Joe Ligon was a shouting, hard gospel powerhouse nonpareil, though he was equally capable of tender recitations and slower hymnody where a lighter touch best served the text. Clouds’ tracks included here lean in a more traditional vein, though some numbers point thematically to the same terrain the group broached with less spiritually explicit, uptempo R&B and disco through much of the '70s (before returning to their roots). Milwaukee was fortunate to host them on their occasional stops in the city along the gospel touring highway.
As might be expected, the Clouds had plenty of competition on their home turf. The five cuts by The Melody Kings show them particularly adept at refashioning others' material in their own godly, rocking image. What they do with a well-known public domain spiritual is fantastic, as is one of the few tunes here with a sociopolitical undergirding: a cover of a Woody Guthrie number dedicated to the then recently-assassinated Martin Luther King. Jr.
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Along a similar line, one Cali choir offers one of the earliest recordings of what would be later known as the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Several male and female soloists make the cut as well. Most intriguing among the latter may be Sondra “Blinky” Williams, later a Motown Records signee. Among the gents, the most imposing impression is made by Louis H. Narcisse, a ferocious wailer who was also a controversial bishop given to wearing a crown and deeming himself a king.
As for hope of post-“Happy Day” crossover, the chordal sophistication and wide instrumental pallet of Andrae Crouch and The Disciples offered a possibility. The doo-wop parallels in the vocal arrangements of Houston transplants The Pilgrim Travelers offer probable appeal to worldly ears in a manner popular prior to Hawkins' innovations.
Whatever one's spiritual path, the gospel collected here is easily appreciated for its sheer artistry.
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