The members of the McCoy Memorial Baptist Church choir in Los Angeles have been working very hard lately. The 40-member ensemble normally meets once a week at its East 46th Street home. But since reaching the L.A. regional semifinals of the \u201cHow Sweet the Sound\u201d nationwide gospel choir competition, it has held extra rehearsals and a weekend \u201cboot camp\u201d to lick into shape its version of the gospel standard \u201cPass Me Not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re taking an old, familiar tune and making it contemporary, using a beat and careful dynamics,\u201d says choir director Rebecca Sherrill, who like many church choir directors in this country teaches the singers their parts by ear. \u201cWritten music is constrained to the notes on the page. We want to make the song our own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tonight, before an audience of thousands and a panel of gospel industry heavyweights, McCoy Memorial\u2019s choir will compete alongside seven other Southland ensembles for $10,000 in prize money and the chance to go on to the national finals in Atlanta on Nov. 8. That\u2019s when winning choirs from 11 regional heats will vie for a $25,000 grand prize and the title of \u201cBest Gospel Choir in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
If standards at tonight\u2019s \u201csing-off\u201d at the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena are as high as at the Oakland semifinals, McCoy Memorial\u2019s choir will be up against some formidable vocal talent. Intense energy, swooping harmonies, clarity of diction and bombastic theatricality characterized the Bay Area event, held Friday at the Oracle Arena (home of the NBA\u2019s Golden State Warriors). About 10,000 people turned up to see six choirs perform such hits as \u201cIn the Sanctuary\u201d and \u201cAwesome God.\u201d<\/p>\n
A panel of gospel music aficionados — including artists Marvin Sapp and Hezekiah Walker and Bay Area gospel radio personality Marshalen Martin — adjudicated the contest. Renowned gospel music producer and songwriter Donald Lawrence served as the evening\u2019s emcee. (Aundrae Russell, host and producer of the gospel music radio show \u201cSpread the Word\u201d on KJLH-FM [102.3] will join Lawrence, Sapp and Walker in L.A.)<\/p>\n
The judges made brief remarks after each performance, commenting on everything from one ensemble\u2019s \u201cstrength of belief\u201d to another\u2019s \u201cgreat dancing.\u201d The panel even praised two choirs for their racial diversity. \u201cI love seeing all these ethnicities singing together,\u201d said Lawrence. \u201cIt looks just like heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
The audience was equally vocal in its response to the performances. When the emerald-robe-and-white-glove-clad choir from Richmond\u2019s Independent Holiness Church sang the refrain \u201cRaise up! Sing the praise up!\u201d with perfectly synchronized arm gestures, hundreds of people started swaying and joining in. By the time the final act of the evening, the enormous Jubilee Christian Center choir of San Jose (which the judges ultimately selected as overall regional winner), got around to the line \u201cWe lift our hands up!,\u201d the entire stadium was on its feet, singing along with arms in the air.<\/p>\n
The competition\u2019s sponsor, Verizon Wireless, initially piloted \u201cHow Sweet the Sound\u201d in 2007. But after the success of that one-off event in Memphis, Tenn., Verizon decided to take the contest nationwide this year. The competition was conceived to capitalize on the company\u2019s V Cast wireless music service. At each of the regional rounds, Verizon customers have been able to use their cellphones to vote for their favorite choirs and send text messages to friends via massive screens flanking the sides of the stage.<\/p>\n
With its deepest roots in the African American churches of the early 20th century, gospel music, at its best, has the power to move both devout and secular listeners. As James Baldwin ardently put it in his 1963 novel \u201cThe Fire Next Time,\u201d \u201cthere is no music like that music, no drama like the drama of the saints rejoicing, the sinners moaning, the tambourines racing, and all those voices coming together and crying holy unto the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet the genre represents a relatively small amount of total music consumption today, having accounted for 6.6% of all album sales in 2007, according to Gospel Music Assn. statistics.<\/p>\n
However, interest in gospel, broadly defined by association President John Styll as \u201cpopular music with a faith-based message regardless of style,\u201d seems to be increasing. Gospel digital album sales grew more than 66% in 2007, while sales of digital tracks increased by more than 36%.<\/p>\n
Styll attributes the growth in gospel\u2019s popularity to higher production values, better marketing and the crossover appeal of such artists as Yolanda Adams and Sapp. \u201cYou used to have to go to a specialist record store or Christian bookstore to find gospel music,\u201d he says. \u201cBut now gospel albums are available at Wal-Mart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over at McCoy Memorial, pastor Robert A. Williams Jr. is dumbfounded by his choir\u2019s success. \u201cI\u2019m surprised we got chosen,\u201d he says, exploding into incredulous giggles over the phone. \u201cWe\u2019re a hodgepodge of people with no professional singing experience. One singer even came up to me the other day and said, \u2018I never thought I\u2019d get into the choir because I don\u2019t sing so well.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Like many such groups, McCoy Memorial\u2019s ensemble is composed of keen amateurs rather than professionals — director Sherrill makes her living as an electrical engineer — so their having made it to the semifinals of \u201cHow Sweet the Sound\u201d is cause for both trepidation and pride.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing what God can do when ordinary people come together,\u201d says Williams. \u201cThat\u2019s the real story here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow Sweet the Sound\u201d Los Angeles semifinals. L.A. Memorial Sports Arena, 3911 S. Figueroa St., L.A. [7:30]<\/span> tonight (doors at 6). $5-$7. (213) 480- 3232 or www.ticketmaster.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The members of the McCoy Memorial Baptist Church choir in Los Angeles have been working very hard lately. The 40-member ensemble normally meets once a week at its East 46th Street home. But since reaching the L.A. regional semifinals of the \u201cHow Sweet the Sound\u201d nationwide gospel choir competition, it has held extra rehearsals and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n