Carried away with January enthusiasm, I bounced happily from the gym to a library, where I splashed on annual membership and went directly to a place with 10 000 language courses - just to decided this is all too confusing and I am perfectly fine with one book I already got. But hey, since I am already in the library, let's look around & check what do they have here. So called OBA (the Amsterdam Public Library) is a spectacularly beautiful, huge, modern building that to my eyes serves more as a community centre than as a library - its literary people everywhere working on computers, writing something or having all sorts of meetings, everything but the library and I might be the only person actually looking at the shelves. On the other hand, as a centre of knowledge and information it makes perfect sense, its just that this new, modern concept of communal space has really nothing to do with old-fashioned library where mousy, bespectacled lady would shush you down if you were too loud. Anyway, since I was already there, I browsed the books & the floors excitedly, although why exactly I can't say since my own virtual library already has more titles than I can ever read in one lifetime - since I love reading about music, I went straight for this nice, illustrated encyclopedia of Gospel music, expecting that I would find something previously unknown.
Yes and no - its easy to read, nicely illustrated and occasionally even written with nice insight, sweeping trough the decades from slavery days until present time. So far, so good. But to be honest, there is nothing here that I didn't know before or could not find on Wikipedia. Out of curiosity, I occasionally dipped my toes in Gospel music and sometimes even discovered sensational artists - we are talking about Afro-American tradition, apparently there is also another side of medal which I still have to discover and I am just vaguely familiar trough some country gospel albums - this time, this particular book pointed me in direction of Andraé Crouch whom I never encountered before and enjoyed instantly. Actually, if you ask me about Gospel music I would probably rattle of the earliest names like The Fisk Jubilee Singers, Arizona Dranes, Marian Anderson and Paul Robinson, than finishing with Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson (and Staples Singers) - this is definitely more than any of my acquaintances would know, but still shows that I am stuck in early era and had no idea what was happening afterwards. That is why this book was helpful because it pointed at some names previously unknown to me. Allegedly the link between commercial soul, gospel and funk, Andraé Crouch instantly appealed to me and I thought he was brilliant - so much that I am listening his complete discography for days now. So far I have heard all the albums he created with his backing group The Disciples and it kind of sounds like combination between 1970s Stevie Wonder and The Fifth Dimension, with added Gospel lyrics which is completely fine by me as I always welcome any variation instead of tired old moon/June cliche. I must say that music recorded by Crouch and his guys really works for me big time - I just love that sound and vocal harmonies are spectacular - naturally I went on with other artists, mainly focused on 1950s recording company Savoy but so far nothing really moved me as much as Andraé Crouch. Mind you, I am at this point still in 1970s so I still have to hear artists who came later. Good introduction!
Small gripes: I love Ma Rainey but she don't belong on the book cover here. And when talking about black gospel singers who moved to UK and made a career there, author confuses some names and claims Madeline Bell sung "Gimme Shelter" for The Rolling Stones. No, it was completely another person, Merry Clayton who screamed "Rape, murder!" - otherwise finely written and researched book, but this makes one wonder how true the other facts are.
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