JAMES CLEVELAND

The King of Gospel

The Early Years 1951-1962

JAMES CLEVELAND 1951-1962

by Jean Buzelin

DOWNLOAD THE BOOKLET 

The rise of a King

James Edward Cleveland was born in Chicago on 5 December 1931. His parents were too young to raise him (Rosie Lee Brooks gave birth to him when his father Ben L. Cleveland was only thirteen) and they entrusted his care to his grandmother, a member of the Pilgrim Baptist Church choir led by Thomas A. Dorsey, the father of modern gospel. James soon joined this young people’s choir, and while he was still a child he sang All I Need Is Jesus as a soloist, backed by the whole congregation. The boy immersed himself in Chicago’s gospel community, and then quit school. According to Robert Marovich, “As a young man, James adored Roberta Martin, and really wanted to play piano like she did. The idea of being a singer only came later.” Even so, he was fascinated by the voice of Mahalia Jackson, who lived nearby, and also by Eugene Smith, a baritone in the Roberta Martin Singers who made a great impression on him.

While still a teenager in the mid-forties, he joined the Thorne Gospel Crusaders, a choir of fifty youngsters. When his own voice broke abruptly, James changed into what he later called a “foghorn” baritone. He perfected his piano playing and started accompanying a young girl singer of his own age named Imogene Greene, who sang soprano and came to people’s attention later in some of the greatest female gospel groups.

James Cleveland was 16 when he proposed his first composition Grace Is Sufficient to Roberta Martin herself; she published it through her own company, “The Roberta Martin Studio of Music.” The song became a major highlight of the annual National Baptist Convention held in September 1958, when it was performed at the Chicago Coliseum by The Roberta Martin Singers (Delois Barrett Campbell was the soloist) with a choir of one thousand singers. Meanwhile, James Cleveland continued to add to Roberta’s catalogue with numerous works for which she paid him 25 dollars apiece.

In the mid-forties, Cleveland and Imogene Greene became part of the Lux Singers, a mixed ensemble from the South Side of Chicago led by Beatrice Lux. Unlike the Roberta and Sallie Martin Singers, whose performances closely followed written arrangements, appearances by the Lux group were much less restrained, singing as if they were in Christ’s Sanctified Holy Church. Cleveland would learn a lot from that practice. His first trip out of town with the Lux singers ought to have taken him to Detroit, but their visit was cancelled; it was an annoyance but Reverend James Lofton would make up for it by inviting them to his own church... where James made the acquaintance of the music director of the Spiritual Church of Our Prayer, a certain Charles Ashley Craig, about whom later.

James returned to Detroit at the end of the decade and stayed awhile with the family of one Reverend C.L. Franklin, who offered him the post of musical director at his New Bethel Baptist Church. James was just eighteen, and he began giving piano lessons to the Reverend Franklin’s daughter, a girl named Aretha... Other young pupils came to the house, and Aretha would remember James showing them “the good chords”; she also liked his “earthy” singing. James would help her set up a girl-group with her sister Emma and two others, and they appeared in local churches for eight months.

When he returned to Chicago, James the pianist-singer was 19. He was also an ambitious, determined young man, even if he still lived at home. He set up his own group, the first James Cleveland Singers, and above all he “poached” two of Roberta Martin’s Singers, contralto Bessie Folk and tenor Norsallus McKissick. They formed the trio The Gospelaires. Roberta went along with it because, after all, she was still publishing the compositions. The Gospelaires secured two recording sessions in New York for Apollo, which was Roberta’s record label. The second session marked the first time Cleveland had been heard as a soloist («Oh What a Time”). The trio’s adventure stopped, however, after only a few appearances and three records. James continued to enrich the material sung by the Roberta Martin Singers, and he was often present at sessions (but not as a singer) when he would replace Roberta at the piano. His playing was so like her own that it is very difficulté to tell them apart on sessions organised between 1952 and 1955¹.

In parallel, James returned to Détroit in 1952 to join The Meditation Singers, a group founded in 1947 by Ernestine Rundless; he became their pianist (and their only male soloist.) Trips between Chicago and Detroit continued, and it was in 1954, in the Windy City, that Cleveland joined The Caravans in 1954. This group had been created in 1947 by a childhood friend, singer Albertina Walker, as a backing chorus for Robert Anderson (a former singer with Roberta’s group) and The Caravans went their own way to become one of the country’s most popular female groups. James Cleveland was hired as the group’s pianist & arranger, and he sang a few tunes as a soloist, including “What Kind of Man Is This” and “The Solid Rock”, which adapted an old 19^th century hymn. Both titles were extremely well received by radio jockeys.

On 22 July 1955, the Caravans were booked to appear at an extraordinary concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, the highlight event of a successful tour. They shared the bill with the most famous gospel singers and groups of the period, among them Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, the Pilgrim Travelers, Dorothy Love Coates & the Original Gospel Harmonettes.² James left them in 1956.

At that time there was a new female trio in New York, The Gospel All Stars with notably Ella Mitchell singing contralto, alongside the two sopranos Dorothy Crookshank and Rose Hines. James Cleveland heard them when he was invited to lead the choir at the Reverend A. A. Child’s Faith Temple Church of God in Christ. And with them James made a record: That’s Why I Love him So, inspired by Ray Charles’s Hallelujah I Love her So. Imogene Greene had joined the group, and they went on tour with a package that included notably C. L. Franklin and his daughter Aretha, plus singer Little Sammy Bryant.

In autumn 1956, James set up a mixed group, The Gospel Chimes, whose object was to accompany him. At the time he was leading the choir of the Reverend B. F. Paxton’s True Light Baptist Church located in the South Side of Chicago, where most of the black population lived; it shows how James had collaborations irrespective of religion or faith, working with his own Baptist Church as well as the Sanctified Holy Church.

It was in this period that Charles Ashley Craig come back into the story (James had met him on his first visit to Detroit.) On August 4^th 1958, Craig founded the Prayer Tabernacle Spiritual Church and offered Cleveland a post as musical director of his Voices of Tabernacle, a large choir that had 50 members in its early days before it more than doubled in size to include 125 singers, both men and women. Incorporating elements of jazz, pop and classical music, the Voices choir became a national phenomenon. In a way, Craig was the “father” of this big family, and James was showing them who the boss was! One rehearsal after another, they worked hard together and put finishing touches to the complex forms and unusual chords of gospel songs. People began calling Cleveland “The Gospel Ray Charles,” and not only because of his throaty singing, which was less fluid, less dramatic than the voice of “The Genius.”

On the recently created HOB label (for “House Of Beauty”) the Voices of Tabernacle recorded enough titles for a first LP. Two were released on a 45rpm single, and one of these was The Love of God, a Cleveland arrangement of a 1958 Soul Stirrers hit, and it became a considerable hit. In Billboard magazine one could read, “One of the greatest religious choirs heard to date.” This large formation was the first to rival with the male quartets, girl groups and solo singers who made up the church music industry. Taken up many times by the singer, it would remain one of his greatest hits.

In parallel with his many activities, James Cleveland rejoined The Meditation Singers but only one single was issued before he left. Not that our singer-pianist-arranger was inactive in the studios. In 1959/60 he recorded again with the Gospel All Stars (Meetin’ Tonight), often composing spontaneously in the studio according to Ella Mitchell, who sometimes lent a hand.³ A new album from the Voices of Tabernacle appeared in stores (“Today”) and it was soon followed by two LPs, “The Great JC.” and “Give Glory to God,” on which his Gospel Chimes appeared on disc for the first time (“Good Enough for Me”). They were a remarkable mixed ensemble that included notably Jessy Dixon, his “disciple” who was also destined to enjoy a fine career (cf. his solo in “Yes Lord”.) His friend Imogene Greene also participated, and there are two superb performances from the pioneering Sally Martin. As for her namesake Roberta, she took advantage of James’s growing visibility to publish a songbook entitled “Roberta Martin Sings from the pen of James Cleveland”.

In 1960 Cleveland began his irresistible rise: the Voices of Tabernacle made three successive albums—“Yes, God is Real”, “He’s so Divine” and “Sing Glories of Gospel”—and they appeared at New York’s Madison Square Garden. James himself was booked to sing at the Apollo in Harlem at the same time as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and he signed a  contract with Savoy, one of the most important record labels in the gospel domain. A first single was recorded in May 1960 by the Gospel All Stars (“Oh Lord, I’m Satisfied”) and a second session in February 1961 would complete the album “Out on a Hill”. The Gospel Chimes took over in September ’61 and January ’62. “He’s Sweeter than the Day Before”, based on a composition written in 1936, was especially appreciated, as was the single “What a Mighty God,” which had the favours of the Afro-American community; and they were booked several times to appear at the Apollo Theater, a temple for black music. Cleveland and his Gospel Chimes toured the cities of the South where segregation was still at its most basic: they went to Jackson (Mississippi), Memphis (Tennessee), Mobile (Alabama), Atlanta (Georgia), plus Kentucky and the Carolinas... Jessy Dixon took over as their leader when James Cleveland was busy elsewhere. The group remained active until the end of the sixties.

Sometime in January 1962 Cleveland left Detroit for Los Angeles. He would give his reasons for the surprise move: “I was in the middle of all the gospel giants, Mahalia, Roberta... I had my own group plus the All Stars, but to me that that didn’t seem satisfying enough. So I moved to California with the idea to find professional opportunities, and join a church where I could work.”³ He found it through Annette May Thomas (the daughter of the great singer Brother Joe May) who was music director, pianist and accompanist for the Rev. T.M. Chambers Jr’s New Greater Harvest Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Annette immediately offered James an executive post. The young prodigy Billy Preston (then aged 16) was the church’s organist. As for Savoy, they hoped Cleveland would work the same magic for a Californian audience as the Voices of Tabernacle, if given a chance to make a record with a choir (but obviously there was no question of bringing the whole group from New York to Los Angeles, and they were recording for HOB anyway.)

So James approached the Reverend Lawrence C. Roberts, the recently appointed A&R director at Savoy, to ask if he might borrow his choir, The Angelic Choir, which constituted the music department of the First Baptist Church of Nutley (New Jersey). It was a choir with 70 years of experience, but it was now struggling to get by with only a dozen members. Lawrence Roberts, who’d taken over in 1960, reinforced the existing choir with that of his own community, the Voices of Faith of Newark, which was a much younger group. A few months later, a rejuvenated Angelic Choir released its first album for Savoy. The only condition imposed on Cleveland was that he record the album in front of the congregation at the First Baptist Church, since the members of the new choir, unlike the Voices, were not professional enough to record in a studio. James hesitated but finally accepted the offer and went back to the East Coast. On July 1, 1962, the choir and the soloist were in tune. The choir was led by Lawrence Roberts and Thurston Frazier4, a Californian colleague of Cleveland, with a trio of Alfred White (piano), Billy Preston (organ), and drummer Joe Marshall.

The resulting album, “Sunday – In Person,” trans­ports listeners into the vibrant, impassioned atmos­phere inside a black church, and the recording was sufficiently appreciated for the experiment to be repeated: a few months later they recorded a second volume. The strong presence and preaching gifts of James Cleveland addressing a conquered audience made both these records exceptional events.

The singer brought the year to an end in quite different circumstances. Accompanying himself on piano, he chose to narrate a series of hymns and popular pieces with arrangements that were sometimes a little slushy... But fortunately Billy Preston was there to enliven the meditative atmosphere with the rumbling sounds of the organ. The record “The Soul of JC” closed the first chapter of the musical and vocal career of James Cleveland. At the age of 31 he had reached full maturity.⁵

A thirty-year reign... in a nutshell

Towards the end of 1962, “The King of Gospel” made his first television appearance. The show was TV Gospel Time, the first to present Afro-American artists alone. In May 1963, The Cleveland Singers, a mixed quintet, made its first record with James. It wasn’t released until after the following album entitled “Peace Be Still,” which would catapult James Cleveland to the top of the sales charts. Recorded with the Angelic Choir in September ‘63, it contained the song that gave the album its name, Peace Be Still, whose origins dated back to 1874. It was also released as a single, and it went to N°1 in Billboard’s Hot Spiritual Singles in 1965. The 33rpm album would sell 800,000 copies by 1970, and that made it the greatest hit in the history of gospel music, until it lost its crown in 1972 to Aretha Franklin’s “Amazing Grace,” which Cleveland supervised.

The career of the singer-pianist-composer-arranger & musical director would from then on contain nothing but hits. In the course of the sixties, he continued to record of course—26 albums!—with The Angelic Choir, the Gospel Chimes, the JC Singers and the Gospel Girls, a girl quartet that featured Annette May. In 1966, with his own Singers, he made his only visit to Paris with the “Young America” package that was billed for two weeks at The Olympia Theatre, beginning on 15 June. He recorded a single in June 1968 (“Martin Luther King Memorial,” shortly after the assassination of the great black leader). That same year, following Thomas Dorsey’s example, he founded the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA). Annual conventions held in different cities and reserved for the great gospel choirs drew thousands of participants and delegations. The following year, James himself organised a GMWA Mass Choir that gathered 250 singers, men and women. He founded his own church, the Cornerstone Institutional Baptist Church, and became the Reverend James Cleveland. He set up the Voices of Cornerstone and, above all, in 1969, The Southern California Community Choir, a mixed group with singers who were modest in number but chosen from among the most talented. It was this choir that accompanied Aretha Franklin to record “Amazing Grace”.

In 1971, Savoy gave James carte blanche for a series of records entitled “James Cleveland Presents” that featured singers, groups and choirs that he selected; he would produce forty of them. The record devoted to Harold Smith & The Majestics sold enough copies to reach N°1 in the Billboard Top Gospel LP chart. Nor did he forget the Voices of Tabernacle, who were voted N°2 in the Ebony Music Poll.

In 1976, together with his groups, he appeared on a double album by Elton John, and in 1977 he collaborated with Quincy Jones on the soundtrack for the television series “Roots”. The above are just a few examples from three decades of hits in every domain, interspersed with 25 new albums that bore his name. He received four Grammy Awards (1974-77-80-90) and when he was named Gospel Artist of the Year in 1981, he became the first artist in the genre to have his star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. But after his final record in May 1990, this hard-working entrepreneur saw his health decline.  An immense figure in music, the inventor of contemporary gospel and tireless promoter of mass choirs rejoined the stars of heaven. James Cleveland died on 9 June 1991 in Culver City in Los Angeles County.

Adapted by Martin Davies
from the French text by Jean Buzelin

Jean Buzelin is the author of Negro Spirituals et Gospel Songs, Chants d’espoir et de liberté (Ed. du Layeur/Notre Histoire, Paris 1998); he contributed to Gospel Discography by Cedric J. Hayes & Robert Laughton (notably the sections devoted to Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Golden Gate Quartet, etc.).

Notes :

1 Cf. The Roberta Martin Singers (FA 5737)

2 The Caravans do not appear in the souvenir recording of the concert but are included in the CD issued in 1993.

3 In Robert M. Marovich, The King of Gospel Music (Malaco Press, 2021).

4 Cf. Complete Mahalia Jackson Vol. 18 & 19 (FA 1328-1329) for an introduction to Thurston Frazier.

5 The laws concerning works in the public domain works do not permit the exploitation of recordings made after 1962.

© 2024 Frémeaux & Associés

DISCOGRAPHIE
JAMES CLEVELAND
1951-1962

CD1 - 1951-1960

 1 OH WHAT A TIME (John Springer)      Apollo 242

 2 WE’RE MARCHING TO ZION (Alex Bradford)        De Luxe 6012

 3 TROUBLE IN MAY WAY (James Cleveland)   Apollo 305

 4 WHAT KIND OF MAN IS THIS (Roberta Martin)      Gospel 3001

 5 THE SOLID ROCK (Edward Mote - William B. Bradbury - H.E. Singley)    Gospel 1044

 6 LORD REMEMBER ME (Myrtle Jackson)      Apollo 312

 7 THAT’S WHY I LOVE HIM SO (James Cleveland)   Apollo 312

 8 THE LOVE OF GOD (Leroy Crume)    Hob /113LP 233

 9 CALVARY (Traditional)   Hob LP 233

10 I KNOW IT WAS THE BLOOD (Traditional)  Hob LP 233

11 MEETIN’ TONIGHT (James Cleveland)          Holy Hour 714

12 MY SOUL LOOKS BACK AND WONDERS (James Cleveland)      Specialty 919

13 IN HIS ARMS (Clara Ward)        Hob LP 235

14 GOD CAN DO ANYTHING BUT FAIL (Ira F. Stanphill)       Hob 119/LP 235

15 GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME (James Cleveland)           Hob 115/LP 237

16 TRY JESUS (Roberta Martin)     Hob LP 237

17 YES LORD (Traditional)  Hob LP 237

18 HE’S GOT HIS EYES ON YOU (Traditional)  Hob LP 237

19 ONE STEP AT A TIME (Sallie Martin) Hob LP 237

20 I WON’T LET NOTHING TURN ME AROUND (Sallie Martin)     Hob LP 237

21 DEEP RIVER (Traditional - arr. Cleveland)       Hob LP 239

22 ONE MORE TIME (Traditional - arr. Cleveland)         Hob 117/LP 239

23 SOON I WILL BE DONE (Traditional - arr. Cleveland)          Hob 117/LP 239

24 JUST WHEN I NEED HIM MOST (William C. Poole - Charles H. Gabriel)            Hob LP 239

25 COME LORD JESUS (James Cleveland)         Hob LP 239

(1) Gospelaires: James Cleveland (lead vo, p), Bessie Folk (contralto vo), Norsallus McKissick (tenor vo); prob. Lucy Smith (org). New York City, January 1951.

(2) The Meditation Singers: Ernestine Rundless, Della Reese (soprano vo), Marie Walters (contralto vo), Herbert S. Carson (baritone vo), James Cleveland (lead vo, p). Detroit, MI, ?late 1952.

(3) Roberta Martin Singers: Delois Barrett (soprano vo), Roberta Martin, Bessie Folk (contralto vo), Norsalus McKissick (tenor & lead vo), Eugene Smith, Willie Webb (baritone vo); Roberta Martin or poss. James Cleveland (p), Willie Webb (org). NYC?, ca. mid-1955.

(4-5) Caravans: Albertina Walker, Cassietta George, Iris Humble, Gloria Griffin, Johneron Davis (vo), James Cleveland (lead vo, p); unk. (org). Chicago, Ill., October 5, 1954, & January 18, 1955.

(6-7) Gospel All Stars: James Cleveland (lead vo, p), Ella Mitchell (contralto vo), Imogene Greene (vo, 2^nd lead on 6), Rose Hines, Dorothy Bates/Crookshank? (soprano vo); Herman Stevens (org). NYC, 1956/57.

(8-10) Voices of Tabernacle: From 50 to 125 voice Choir from Faith Tabernacle Church, Detroit. Incl. Rev. Charles Ashley Craig, Cleavant Derricks, Naiomi Browne, Louise McCord, Richard Roquemore (vo), James Cleveland (lead vo), Hulah Gene Dunklin Hurley (soprano vo, 2^nd lead on 9); Herbert “Pee Wee” Pickard (p), Alfred Bolden (org). Chicago, 1958 or 1959.

(11) Gospel All Stars with James Cleveland: Same or similar vocal group with Ella Mitchell (contralto vo), James Cleveland (lead vo, p); unk (org)(dm). ca. late 1950’s.

(12) The Meditation Singers: Ernestine Rundless (2^nd lead vo), Lorraine Vincent (soprano vo), Laura Lee Rundless, Marie Walters (contralto vo), James Cleveland (lead vo, p); unk (org). Chicago, July 8, 1959.

(13-14) Voices of Tabernacle: Choir incl. Rev. Charles Ashley Craig, James Cleveland (lead vo), Hulah Gene Dunklin Hurley, Richard Roquemore (2^nd lead on 13), Naiomi Browne, Louise McCord (vo); Herbert Pickard (p, cel), Alfred Bolden (org). Chicago, 1959/60.

(15-18) James Cleveland & The Original Chimes: James Cleveland (lead vo, p?), Jessy Dixon (vo, 2^nd lead on 17), Dorothy Norwood, Imogene Greene (vo); unk. (p?), Alfred Bolden (org). Detroit, 1960.

(19-20) Sally Martin & The Gospel Chimes: Sally Martin (lead vo), same or similar group (vo); poss. James Cleveland (p), unk. or poss. Alfred Bolden (org). Detroit, 1960.

(21-25) James Cleveland & The Gospel Chimes: James Cleveland (lead vo, poss. p), Jessy Dixon (vo, 2^nd lead on 23), Imogene Greene, Claude O. Timmons, Lee Charles Neeley (vo); unk. (org), add. celesta (on 25). 1960.

DISCOGRAPHIE
JAMES CLEVELAND
1951-1962

CD2 - 1960-1962

 1 I’M A SOLDIER IN THE ARMY OF THE LORD (Robert Earl Arnold)     Hob LP 240

 2 THERE IS NO GREATER LOVE (Isham Jones - Marty Symes)       Hob LP 240

 3 SOMETHING GOT A HOLD ON ME (James Cleveland)     Hob 139/LP 242

 4 GREATER DAY (James Cleveland)       Hob 139/LP 242

 5 HE’LL SEE YOU THROUGH (Jessy Dixon)  Hob LP 242

 6 I’M SATISFIED WITH JESUS (B.B. McKinney)       Hob LP 245

 7 IT IS WELL (H.G. Spafford - P.P. Bliss)            Hob LP 245

 8 OH LORD I’M SATISFIED (James Cleveland)           Savoy 4154

 9 THERE’S A BRIGHTER DAY SOMEWHERE (James Cleveland)  Savoy 4154

10 HE’S ALL RIGHT WITH ME (James Cleveland)       Savoy 4141/LP 14045

11 JUST TO BEHOLD HIS FACE (Lucy E. Campbell)   Savoy 4146/LP 14045

12 OUT ON A HILL (James Cleveland)     Savoy LP 14045

13 DRIVE THE DEVIL AWAY (James Cleveland)            Savoy LP 14045

14 DEEP DOWN IN MY HEART (James Cleveland)       Savoy 4166

15 WHAT A MIGHTY GOD (Roberta Martin)      Savoy 4166

16 WALKING WITH THE KING (Traditional)    Savoy LP 14052

17 HE’S SWEETER THAN THE DAY BEFORE (James Cleveland)    Savoy LP 14052

18 SIT DOWN SERVANT (Traditional)      Savoy 4176/LP 14052

19 HE’S SO GOOD (James Cleveland)       Savoy LP 41059

20 I WON’T TAKE IT BACK (James Cleveland) Savoy LP 41059

21 I’M HIS, HE’S MINE (James Cleveland)         Savoy LP 14063

22 REDEEMED (Fanny Crosby - William Kirkpatrick)     Savoy LP 41063

23 YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE (Richard Rogers - Oscar Hammerstein II)           SavoyLP 41068

24 OLD SHIP OF ZION (Thomas A. Dorsey)        Savoy LP 41068

(1-2) Voices of Tabernacle & James Cleveland: Choir incl. Rev. Charles Ashley Craig, James Cleveland (lead vo), Richard Roquemore, Louise McCord (2^nd lead on 2), Hulah Gene Dunklin Hurley, Caroline Hurley, Albert Moorman, C. Allen Chierley (vo); Herbert Pickard (p, cel), Alfred Bolden (org), add. tambourine (on 1). Detroit, 1960.

(3-5) Voices of Tabernacle: Choir led by Rev. Charles Ashley Craig (2^nd lead on 3), James Cleveland (lead vo), Richard Roquemore, Louise McCord (2^nd lead on 5), Hulah Gene Dunklin Hurley (vo); Herbert Pickard (p, cel), Alfred Bolden (org), add. tamb (on 4). Detroit, 1960.

(6-7) Voices of Tabernacle: Choir led by Rev. Charles Ashley Craig (2^nd lead on 7), James Cleveland (lead vo), Louise McCord (2^nd lead on 7), same or similar to last; add. tamb. Detroit, ca. 1960.

(8-11) James Cleveland with The Gospel All Stars: James Cleveland (lead vo, p?), Ella Mitchell (contralto vo), Dorothy Crookshank, Rose Hines (soprano vo); unk. (p?)(org)(dm). May 27, 1960.

(12-13) Same. February 1^st, 1961.

(14-15) James Cleveland & The Gospel Chimes: James Cleveland (lead vo, poss. p), Jessy Dixon, Dorothy Norwood (2^nd lead vo), Imogene Greene, Claude O. Timmons, Lee Charles Neely (vo); unk. (p?)(org)(dm). September 18, 1961.

(16-18) Same; unk. (g) added. January 6, 1962.

(19-20) James Cleveland & The Angelic Choir: Rev. James Cleveland (lead vo & speech), with large mixed voices dir. Rev. Lawrence Roberts & Thurston Frazier (choir lead); Alfred White (p), Billy Preston (org), Joe Marshall (dm). First Baptist Church of Nutley, Newark, NJ, July 1^st, 1962.

(21-22) James Cleveland & The Angelic Choir: Rev. James Cleveland (lead vo & speech), with large mixed voices dir. Rev. Lawrence Roberts; acc. same or similar. Newark, December 9, 1962.

(23-24) James Cleveland (narration, p); Billy Preston (org), Barney Richmond (b), Joe Marshall (dm). December 12, 1962.

Disques des collections/Records from collections : Jean Buzelin, Julien Crué, Robert Marovich, Friedrich Mühlöcker, Per Notini, Étienne Peltier, Robert Sacré que nous remercions chaleureusement.

Sources consultées/Works consulted :

Robert M. Marovich, The King of Gospel Music, (Malaco Press, Jackson, MS, 2021)

Robert M. Marovich, Peace Be Still (University of Illinois Press, 2021)

Julien Crué, Interview de Robert Marovich (2021)

Photos & collections : Jean Buzelin, Julien Crué, Robert Marovich, X (D.R.)

Remerciements/Thanks: Joël Dufour, Monique Pouget

Nous dédions ce coffret à la mémoire de notre ami Robert Sacré qui avait mis à notre disposition, comme toujours, les disques rares de sa collection.