Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Professor Hines was one of the giants of post-war gospel yet this compilation, released in 2002 by Sweden's Gospel Friends Records, is the only release you'll find on CD. The St Paul Baptist Church Choir of Los Angeles led by Hines was the most influential gospel choir on the West Coast in the late '40s and it made its conductor and sometime soloist Prof James Earle Hines a star. The 17 recordings here with the famed choir were made between 1947 and 1948, and the four with the small group The Goodwill Singers in the '50s. There are some timeless tracks here: "Yield Not To Temptation", an old Baptist hymn penned by Horatio R Palmer features the choir with a church-wrecking soloist Ruth Black-Castille and is the epitome of worshipful passion; "I'm So Glad Jesus Lifted Me" features lead from Hines whose style a gospel historian once described as "a combination of a recitalist's intonation with the fervour of a down-home preacher" and is surely one of the most exhilarating live performances on record; while "Look For Me In Heaven" which Hines and His Goodwill Singers recorded for Sacred Records is with its tempo changes and powerful lead quite mesmerising. All in all, this is a compilation of timeless gospel from a creative giant still to be fully acknowledged for his contribution to gospel's development.