{"id":56,"date":"2007-10-29T16:12:49","date_gmt":"2007-10-29T20:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/2007\/10\/confession_deaf_to_gospel\/"},"modified":"2011-04-28T16:35:05","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T20:35:05","slug":"confession_deaf_to_gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2007\/10\/confession_deaf_to_gospel.html","title":{"rendered":"Confession: Deaf to Gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"

I may burn at the stake for political incorrectness, but it’s the truth: I have an intense aversion to gospel music. My distaste dates to a haunting childhood vision in which an overwhelming Mahalia Jackson<\/a> is routed by a malevolent clown.<\/p>\n


\nAs George Bernard Shaw<\/a> wrote in 1894 (brought to my attention by colleague Francis Davis<\/a>) “It is one of the inevitable evils of my profession [he was then reviewing music for a London daily] that I am asked to go to all manner of places; but hitherto I have drawn the line at going to church. Among the pious I am a scoffer: among the musical I am religious.”
\nMy own story on the separation of church and taste, delving into a deep-seated suspicion of music used in the evangelical projection of religious faith and my embrace of the spirit of Pan via a 1959 Kraft Music Hall tv show of transcendent\/subversive Harpo Marx<\/a> is related in the “Epiphanies” column, the last-page of The Wire — Adventures in Modern Music<\/i><\/a>(London) #285, November 2007.
\nAlso in the issue: reports on Addis Ababa’s “Ethio-jazz” innovator Maluta Astatke, an interview with aging hardcore free-jazz saxophonist Sonny Simmons, and reviews of many sound sources and considerations — The Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru<\/i>, “Persian Electronic Music,” A Manifest For Silence: Confronting The Politics And Culture Of Noise<\/i> — unlikely to get much notice elsewhere. On international newstands everywhere?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I may burn at the stake for political incorrectness, but it’s the truth: I have an intense aversion to gospel music. My distaste dates to a haunting childhood vision in which an overwhelming Mahalia Jackson is routed by a malevolent clown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-56","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2077,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2016\/08\/gospel-not-my-usual-bag-keyboards-revelations.html","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":0},"title":"Gospel (not my usual bag) keyboards revelations","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll never be an avid fan, much less an aficionado, of gospel music -- but Lift Me Up, Chicago Gospel Keyboard Masters,\u00c2\u00a0new from\u00c2\u00a0The Sirens, a local independent label, is clearly full of joy and\u00c2\u00a0inspiration. It also is notable for documenting a seldom spot-lit but obviously thriving American roots music scene.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"imgres-3","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/imgres-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":159,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/02\/al_green_and_sonny_rollins_now.html","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":1},"title":"Al Green and Sonny Rollins, now and then","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Al Green, age 62, won two Grammy awards last week \u00c2\u00a0-- Best R&B Performance by a Duo for \"Stay with Me (By the Sea)\"\u00c2\u00a0and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for \"You've Got The Love I Need\" -- and of course out-classed Justin Timberlake on the televised award program singing his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"Picture of: Road Shows, Vol. 1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bbc.co.uk\/music\/jazz\/release\/images\/jp_sonny_roadshows_140.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":326,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/07\/more_on_tuli_kupferberg_harvey.html","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":2},"title":"More on Tuli Kupferberg & Harvey Pekar","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"July 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Tuli Kupferberg, the wispy hipster comic social critic of ol' boho downtown NYC who died at age 86 on Monday, will be buried with a public service Saturday 7\/17 at St. Mark's Church in the East Village. According to his family, \"There will be no religious element . . Fugs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1133,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/12\/2012-top-jazz-beyond-jazz-recordings.html","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":3},"title":"2012 Top Jazz Beyond Jazz recordings","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"December 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Checking out new recordings is the motivation of much jazz journalism, though at top-10 time having so much new stuff can be a bedevilment, if not a curse. Here's a baker's dozen of my favorites from among the 11-some-hundred sent by record labels, publicists and, increasingly, the artists themselves.\u00c2\u00a0They reward\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"cds","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/cds.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":85,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/04\/wyntons_abyssinian_mass_by_gue.html","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":4},"title":"Wynton’s Abyssinian Mass by guest blogger","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's jazz-beyond-jazz, alright, when Wynton Marsalis composes a work for gospel choir and\u00c2\u00a0the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. But I must admit that I am neither drawn to hear such work nor qualified to comment on it. Having\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/04\/wyntons_abyssinian_mass_by_gue.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2594,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2019\/06\/black-chicago-music-fest-producers-the-costs-of-free.html","url_meta":{"origin":56,"position":5},"title":"Black Chicago music fest producers: The costs of “free”","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"June 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Chicago offers, surprisingly enough, many opportunities to catch exciting, accomplished and emerging music across genres, with oodles of concerts free of charge, meaning they have to funded by others than attendees. Our extraordinary summer events season launched last weekend with the city-sponsored, all-free 34th Annual Chicago Gospel Festival in Millennium\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}