3/29/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: The Edwin Hawkins Singers

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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The Edwin Hawkins Singers- Oh Happy Day with Shirley Miller and Ain’t It Like Him featuring Tramaine and Walter Hawkins. He is one of the originators of the urban contemporary gospel sound. Edwin Hawkins Singers is probably best known for his arrangement of Oh Happy Day (1968–69), which was included on the Songs of the Century list. Continue reading

3/21/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Yolanda Adams

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Yolanda Yvette Adams is a gospel singer, record producer, actress, and radio host on WBLS. Adams has won four Grammy Awards, sixteen Stellar Gospel Music Awards, four of the Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards, one American Music Award, seven NAACP Image Awards, one Soul Train Music Award, and five BET Awards. On December 11, 2009, Billboard Magazine named her the No. 1 Gospel Artist of the last decade. Continue reading

(Repost) 7/25/21 O&A NYC GOSPEL SUNDAY: Inez Andrews

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Inez Andrews sings Mary Don’t You Weep with fellow Caravan members Albertina Walker, Dorothy Norwood, Dolores Washington and Shirley Caesar. And rare footage of a live performance of Let The Church Roll On performed by Andrews and The Andrewettes. Continue reading

3/8/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Dottie Peoples

GOSPEL SUNDAY

Dottie Peoples has been a star in the gospel music industry for more than 30 years, since she was nine years old. Called the Songbird of the South by Atlanta WAOK radio announcer Brother Esmond Patterson, Peoples won the top four honors at the 1995 Stellar Awards with her album, On Time God.

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On Time God

 Peoples’s 1995 album, On Time God, would change her role in gospel music. At the Stellar Awards, she won Female Vocalist of the Year for traditional music, Choir of the Year for traditional music, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year for On Time God. That same year, Peoples would receive a Vision Award by Bobby Jones Gospel of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and Gospel Today Magazine. On Time God would also win the Atlanta Gospel Choice Award for Song of the Year.

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In 1999, God Can and God Will: Live In Atlanta became her ninth album. She sang songs from the new release to an audience of 4,500 at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia. An inspiring 225-member choir backed her performance.

Oh What A Time

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God Can

3/1/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Ledisi- Be Grateful, Tell The World I Love Them, Thank You Lord and Precious Lord

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Ledisi has shared her gift at Walter Hawkins Tribute Concert (Be Grateful), Andrea Crouch Final Funeral Service (Tell The World I Love Them) The Potter’s House (Thank You Lord) and Selma (Precious Lord).Ledisi has shared her gift at Walter Hawkins Tribute Concert (Be Grateful), Andrea Crouch Final Funeral Service (Tell The World I Love Them) The Potter’s House (Thank You Lord) and Selma (Precious Lord). This talented recording artist, songwriter and actress played Mahalia Jackson in the historical drama film, Selma. First name means “to bring forth” or “to come here” in Yoruba.   Continue reading

2/22/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: The Canton Spirituals

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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The Canton Spirituals are regarded as pioneers in the genre of traditional gospel music. Founded in Canton, Mississippi in 1943, the original Canton Spirituals were Reverend I.S. Watkins, Claude “Bubba” Nichols, Warren G. Ward, Isaac Bolton, Eddie Jackson, Theo Thompson, Roscoe Lucious and founder Harvey Watkins, Sr. (December 5, 1929 – November 16, 1994). The present group is fronted by Watkins’ son, Harvey Watkins Jr., and consists of Cornelius Dwayne Watkins, Billy Voss, David Curry, Merlin Lucious, Shannon Lee, and Rodrick Jones.

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2/15/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: BeBe and CeCe Winans

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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BeBe (Benjamin) and CeCe (Priscilla) Winans are the seventh and eighth of “Mom” and “Pop” Winans’ ten children, most of whom have had gospel music careers. Together, they have received several awards, including three Grammys. While BeBe and CeCe were in high school, four of their elder brothers formed the successful Gospel music group The Winans. Continue reading

(Repost) 2/25/16 O&A NYC DANCE: Mourner’s Bench- Talley Beatty Choreographer

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Talley Beatty choreographed and performed Mourner’s Bench in 1947. It represents the anguish and loss for former slaves, now free men, killed during the Reconstruction Era at the beginning of the rise of the Klu Klux Klan. Beatty explained to me, “People were murdered by the Klan and at daybreak their relatives would find their bodies in the fields still covered in the morning dew.”

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1/4/14 O&A Gospel Sunday: Donald Lawrence and The Tri-City Singers

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Donald Lawrence took on The Tri-City Singers after a friend vacated his position as musical director. They derived the name from the three cities that The Tri-City Singers come from are Spartanburg, SC, Gastonia, NC, and Charlotte, NC. In 1993 the group debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top Gospel Charts with A Songwriter’s Point Of View on a then-brand-new independent record label called GospoCentric Records. Continue reading

12/28/14 O&A Gospel Sunday: Richard Smallwood

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Richard Smallwood is the Black Brahms of Gospel music. His lush orchestrations and choral arrangements are the hallmarks of his signature sound. An accomplished pianist, composer, arranger, vocalist and choral conductor Smallwood graduated cum laude from Howard University with degrees in both vocal performance and piano, and  graduate work in the field of ethnomusicology. He finished his Masters degree in Divinity from Howard University in 2004 and was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2006. 
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