Gospel Music Celebration Songs of Praise

# With the power of the Holy Spirit

# I will sing. #

Hello, and welcome to St John at Hackney

where we have foot-stomping, soul-stirring gospel music

to celebrate this Pentecost Sunday.

On the birthday of the church

we have hymns to swing your soul from our choir and congregation.

Our soloist Jeharna South

and special guests Kym Mazelle

and Avery Sunshine tell me what inspires their music.

St John's is an Anglican church

in the heart of the London Borough of Hackney.

People from all over the capital and beyond have gathered here

to celebrate the day the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus' followers.

The word "gospel" means "good news"

and what better way to celebrate the good news of the Holy Spirit

than with a medley of two great gospel songs?

# In the world

# I love so dear... #

I think the term "gospel music"

really came into usage in the 1930s

with Thomas A Dorsey in Chicago, Mahalia Jackson, people like that.

Up until then, it had really been a development of the spirituals

sung in a fairly formal style.

And so that came up really through the Baptist churches in America.

There was another style of singing before gospel music,

which was really kind of holiness singing,

Pentecostal singing, which was very fiery, almost jazz-influenced.

PENTECOSTAL CHOIR SINGS

And they were fused together, really, by Thomas A Dorsey in the 1930s

with his new style of songwriting

and with Mahalia Jackson as his featured vocalist,

this really began to have an impact.

# ..Came tumbling

# Down! #

# Oo-oo-oo-jah

# Hallelu-ujah

# Oo-oo-oo-jah. #

# If you're working every day

# Two jobs for barely no pay... #

Avery Sunshine is a worldwide star

who combines television and concert performances

with her work as choral director for two Atlanta churches.

# Open up your mind and all the sunshine is in you

# Ain't nothing gonna... #

And I'm delighted that Avery has flown in from the United States

especially to be with us.

Please give her a warm welcome.

APPLAUSE

Now, Avery, how has being so involved in church music

influenced the music that you make?

Oh, wow. It's a part of my being.

It's a part of my being. I've been playing in church since I was 13

and I'm...mmphmmh years old now.

Do you find that there's a conflict or sometimes people don't understand

why you are so heavily involved in making church music

and you made an album that isn't a gospel album?

Absolutely. I always find that out when I'm in a nightclub and singing.

I sing a love song and then I start singing about God

and ironically, you'd think people would be like, "I'm going to leave,"

but people, they have drinks in their hands, going, "Praise the Lord!"

Really, because we're human, that's the thing

and hopefully the music does show that.

What inspires you to write? Is it those kinds of experiences?

Oh, absolutely. And sometimes, I'm inspired to write

when I've waited to the last minute to write something.

Here I was asked to write a piece and arrange a piece for something

and I had 15 minutes to do so, and because I've been in church so long,

there are all kinds of songs in my mind and the first thing to come out,

I don't know if you remember the song...

# The Lord is blessing me

# Right now

# Right now. #

-Right?

-Yeah.

-So that's it, and I was sitting at the piano,

like, "Oh, God, I got to write this song, I got ten minutes.

"What am I going to do?" And this came out.

# The Lord

# Is blessing me

# Right now

# Oh, right now

# Yeah

# Oh, he's blessing me

# Right now

# Oh, right now. #

APPLAUSE

I love that. I love that.

Imagine what you would have done if you had 20 minutes.

-I don't know!

-That's incredible.

Tell us a bit about the song you'll sing with the choir.

The words are, "He keeps doing great things,"

and that's exactly what God keeps doing. Great things.

-OK.

-Over and over and over and over.

-You going to play it for us?

-I think I am.

-Come on.

-Can I do it?

# He keeps on

# Doing great things for me

# Hey!

# If I had

# Had 10,000 tongues, oh

# I'd praise him

# Praise him with every one

# Come on, y'all say it with me

# Say it, yeah, yeah

-CHOIR:

-# He keeps on

# Doing great things for me

# Over and over and over and over again

-# He keeps on

-(Hey!)

# Doing great things for me

# Say it again

# Say he keeps on, yeah

# He keeps on

# Doing great things for me

# Over and over, yeah, he keeps on

-# He keeps on

-(Hey!)

# Doing great things for me

# So I say something like this, I say

# Say right on

# Right on

# Right on

# Right on

# Right on

# Right on

# Oh, blessing me

# Blessing me

# So I say oh

# Thank you

# Cos he's been so good, I say oh

# Thank you

# Come on, say it with me, say

# Oh, thank you

# If he's been good, say it again

# Oh, thank you

# Oh

# Oh, thank you

# Everybody say oh

# Oh, thank you

# Come on and say oh

# Oh

-# Oh, thank you!

-Thank you

# Hey, thank you, Lord

-# Thank you

-For healing me

-# Thank you

-Loving me, yeah

# Thank you

# He keeps on

# Doing great things

# Doing great things for me. #

Yeah!

In the Bible, the Acts of the Apostles describes

how 50 days after Easter, the Holy Spirit

dramatically appeared to Jesus' frightened and demoralised followers

in the form of fire and wind.

Since that day, many people have called on the Holy Spirit

to renew and re-energise their faith,

a theme that's reflected in our next hymn.

BUS DRIVER: # For thou art with me

# Thy rod and thy staff... #

Gospel music isn't just heard in churches.

In fact, you might hear it any time of the day on a South London bus.

Belands Parchment has been singing

since he was a youngster in the Caribbean.

'We grew up in a situation where every Friday'

we have to have communal worship,

even if we don't do it the rest of the week.

In the house?

No, in the veranda. You could hear the singing from, half a mile around.

# Thou anointest my head

# With so much oil... #

How did you go from singing with the family

to singing while you're driving the bus?

When I became a Christian in 1993,

I started singing a different song

and that's where it all spiralled.

# Yea, though I walk, walk

# Through the valley of death... #

So, gospel music on the bus, how does it go down with the passengers?

I have had people sitting on the bus for extra time.

-What, miss their stop?

-"Oh, driver,

"I should have come off down the road but I had to come down here."

# Forever and ever... #

'A young lady came to my church'

and she had just got baptised

and she came up to me and she said to me, "You know something?

"One day, you were driving the bus

"and you were singing on that bus and I was being truant from school

"and the song touched me so much,

-"I got off the bus and went back to school."

-Wow.

That really, really touches me.

# A-a-men. #

And now, the Adventist Vocal Ensemble

are going to sing one of my favourite gospel songs.

It's called Total Praise

and it's based on the inspiring poetry of Psalm 121.

# A-a-amen

# A-a-a-amen

# A-a-amen

# A-a-a-amen

# A-a-amen

# A-a-a

# Amen. #

# What's the sense in sharing this one and only life? #

Kym Mazelle made her name

as the first lady of house music in the 1990s.

# You count up the years and they will be filled with tears. #

'It was 24/7, you know what I'm saying? It was party 24/7.

'You do the meet-and-greet, have dinner before the concert.

'Then you have the concert, then you have the after party.

'You have the after-after party.

But I guess all the partying never filled me up.

It never filled that space of emptiness. It never...

It wasn't the pinnacle of success,

of what the media and what the masses

and what the enemy tells us is what you should search for.

# Young hearts run free

# Never be hung up. #

So then to now, how has life changed?

Well, you know, by the grace of God, I have to give God all the glory

because it was probably a couple of years of coming all

crashed down on me, but I heard a voice, I heard a still, small voice

of the Lord just saying, "Come out from among them."

The Lord was like, "Come out now or come out later

"and it won't be so pretty."

So, you had the dream, you lived the dream,

you walked away from the dream.

How can you be happier now than you were then?

I understand who I am

and it's not about the cars,

it's not about the private jets, it's not about cocaine,

it's not about alcohol, it's not about men.

It's about knowing Christ and making Christ known across the airwaves

at any opportunity that I get.

Yeah, I know my identity, I know who I am in Christ,

cos I wrestled with the Devil.

You know, I wrestled with him and he still comes after me saying,

"Oh, Kym, look at this trinket."

I'm like, "No, baby. You can't fool me. You fooled me for a long time.

"You not fool me no more!"

# I shall go there to dwell in that city

# Since Jesus, he came in my heart

# And I'm so happy, I'll tell you, since I've been saved

# I'm so happy. #

-# In my heart. Hallelujah!

-#

The contemporary choir movement really got going in the '60s and '70s

with people like Reverend James Cleveland and Mattie Moss Clark

who really built up the idea of

a gospel choir almost in every church in America.

So it became a proving ground

and it became a university really

for young singers to learn their craft

and it produced a whole generation of extraordinary voices.

# While combing my hair now

# Wondering which dress... #

And during the past decade, gospel has even influenced rap music.

# Might snatch your necklace

# And next these might jack your Lexus

# Somebody tell these who Kanye West is

# I walk through the valley of the shadow where death is

# Top floor the view alone will leave you breathless

# Try to catch it it's kinda hard. #

The way influences flow between gospel and other musical styles

is shown in a song written by Curtis Mayfield.

# You don't need no ticket

# You just thank the Lord. #

It was a pop hit in 1965

and is performed now by Jeharna South and Tessera.

# People get ready

# There's a train coming

# You don't need no baggage

# You just get on board

# All you need is faith

# To hear the diesels humming

# You don't need no ticket

# You just thank the Lord

# People get ready

# People get ready

# There's a train to Jordan

# Ooh, ooh

# Picking up passengers coast to coast

# Faith is the key

# Open the doors and board them

# There's hope for all among

# Those loved the most

# I believe

# Ooh

# I believe

# I believe

# I believe

# People get ready

# There's a train that's coming

# You don't need no baggage

# You just get on board

# All you need is faith to hear the diesels humming

# You don't need no ticket

# You just thank the Lord

# People get ready

# You don't need no ticket

# You just thank the Lord

# People get ready

# You don't need no ticket

# You just thank...

# The Lord. #

Let us pray.

May the Holy Spirit outpoured at Pentecost come upon you now,

teach you to love, teach you to pray

and liberate you from those things that bind you and weigh you down.

And the blessing of God Almighty,

the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit rest upon you

and remain with you this Pentecost and always.

-Amen.

-Amen.

There really has been a sweet, sweet spirit in this place.

Our final hymn is a traditional spiritual, which was the first

gospel song to be number one in the US Singles Chart back in 1958.

Kym Mazelle joins the choir and the congregation as we sing

He's Got The Whole World In His Hands.

# He's got the whole world in his hands

# He's got the whole world in his hands

# He's got the moon and the stars in his hands

# He's got the whole world in his hands

# He's got the wind and the rain in his hands

# He's got the whole world in his hands

# He's got the whole world in his hands

# He's got the whole world in his hands

# He's got the little children in his hands

# He's got the whole world in his hands

# He's got the whole world in his hands. #

# He's got the whole world in his hands

# He's got the whole world

# In his hands. #

Next week, we'll be celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

in traditional style

with classic hymns from the Old Royal College Naval Chapel in Greenwich,

as well as performances by Laura Wright and operatic quartet Amore.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd