Reviewed by Tony Cummings

As has been remarked on before in Cross Rhythms, the Church is profoundly ignorant about the riches within its culture or at least its more contemporary manifestations. The study of black gospel music has been left almost entirely in the hands of enthusiasts of blues and jazz. These white record collectors and academics, though having only the haziest perception of the spiritual dynamic which fuels the African American church, have demonstrated a deep reverence for the aesthetic quality of gospel, both in its earliest manifestations and in the first two decades after the war, the 'golden age' of gospel. This reverence has resulted in a flood of gospel album reissues, a book or two, and now, most spectacularly of all, a huge tome of original research, this discography meticulously annotating every gospel record recorded between 1943 and 1969. It is a work of epic proportions. Messrs Hayes and Laughton, who together with Ray Funk and Doug Seroff are the leading gospel researchers in the world today, have compiled comprehensive listings of all recordings made by singers, groups and choirs working in the gospel field. This huge task includes religious titles made by blues singers, gospel instrumentals, titles made by gospel singers with jazz bands etc, and gospel sides recorded by R&B artists. Thousands upon thousands of records, many of them awesomely obscure were recorded in the post war years for hundreds of hole in the wall gospel independents. Amazingly, through literally decades of research, Hayes and Laughton have tracked down information on the bulk of them. The sheer size of gospel's output is staggering. And it's all laid out in neat discographic columns here. There are enough facts in these two volumes for you to play gospel trivia for years, eg, did you know Candi Staton (as Canzietta Staton) recorded her first gospel as a child with the Jewell Gospel Singers? Or that Harpo Marx was once an accompanist on a Mahalia Jackson session? But more important that the fun such a fact source book will give to every record collecting nut, is the foundation it gives to the appreciation and understanding of some of the most thrilling music ever recorded and the contribution it made to the spiritual life of the Church. The cost of these huge volumes is far from cheap. But I'd like to think there are individual Christians, and indeed para-church organisations, committed to working in the arts, prepared to make the investment

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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