Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Down the years there have been many (I might even suggest too many) compilations of the tracks the Staples recorded for the great Chicago record company VeeJay between 1956 and 1961. But this piece of expert cherry picking showcases 27 choice cuts from the 40 odd they cut with the company and truly lives up to its 'Best Of' billing. If you're an old school soul fan who delights in the Staples' Memphis and Muscle Shoals classics for Stax Records, the raw, stripped down music offered here may take some getting used to. But what the legendary family group lose in sublime rhythm tracks and sassy horn sesctions they make up in gutsy, passionate and at times downright eery SOUL. This is the group in their pre-R&B years when backing was usually solely Pops' reverb-laced country blues guitar and when teenager Mavis growled and swooped and moaned with an intensity that has seldom been equalled in the whole history of recording. Classics abound on 'Come Up In Glory'. The group's doomy recasting of the Rev Edward W Clayborn's "Uncloudy Day" - the Staples' first hit; "Help Me Jesus" with Pops, Cleotha and Purvis chanting behind the socking rhythm of Al Duncan (the drummer on all those Reed and Hooker blues classics); Pops' eddying guitar transforming The Carter Family's "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" into smouldering blues gospel; and possibly their greatest cut of all "I'm Coming Home" where Mavis' dark, broody and stunningly soulful performance seems to have been wrenched from another dimension of intensity. The sleevenotes by Clive Anderson are useful and highly researched too though occasionally teetering into pretension (eg, "From its earliest days the church found ways of accommodating the prevailing cultures, making the Roman Saturnalia part of Christmas, using Carnival to blow away pre-Lenten excess and absorbing all of African belief during the time of slavery to the unbridled sensuality of gospel"). But let not such minor matter put you off. This is an album heartily recommended both to the gospel and soul cognoscente and to plain ol' music fans keen to hear Mavis - one of the GREAT voices of popular music history.

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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