Black Gospel music

Black Gospel music is the subject of a new exhibition at Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, the Netherlands, introduced in this blog by Willem Driebergen.

Early on a Sunday morning in December 2012, my wife and I got into our rental car and headed out from Little Rock, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis is the city of Elvis and his Graceland, of blues, soul and rock'n'roll, of the mighty Mississippi, and also of 'The Full Gospel Tabernacle': the church of soul legend and Reverend Al Green!

Once we arrived at the small church, in the middle of the greenery, we walked in together with the locals, all in their most beautiful Sunday clothes. We sat down in the back row somewhat timidly and, before we knew it, he was there: the Reverend Al Green.

What followed was an unforgettable gospel experience and the highlight of our musical tour through the southern United States. Now, ten years later, I am proud that as a music lover and collector, I can help Museum Catharijneconvent with the search for and implementation of gospel video, audio and photo material for the exhibition Gospel, a musical journey of spirit and hope.

Research

A subject such as gospel naturally lends itself well to a rich multimedia visitor experience with beautiful striking images and inspiring music. This is a new kind of experience for Museum Catharijneconvent, which is the national Dutch museum for the art, culture and history of Christianity, and a different way to collect material.

Although there is a lot of material on YouTube, it is often difficult to determine who the rightful owners of these images are. This makes the platform useful as a research starting point, but for better material we have to look further.

A handy source of information is delpher.nl, the digital platform with millions of digitised texts from Dutch newspapers, books and magazines, all of which can be searched online. Here I soon came across a number of early gospel concerts in the Netherlands that were also broadcast on Dutch television or radio. With this information I went to the archives of Beeld & Geluid (the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision), the Dutch national institute for media culture in the Netherlands and one of the largest audiovisual collections in Europe. The majority of the video material in our exhibition comes from these archives.

Through Europeana, I came across Institut national de l'audiovisuel (or INA.fr).

Over the years, French television has recorded many jazz festivals. The archive of INA is therefore a great source for our exhibition. We have also received material from, among others, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and museums and archives in the United States, including the archives of Fisk University in Nashville, home of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who are so important to the history of gospel.

Highlights

The exhibition is packed with gospel gems but I would like to share a short personal top 3 from the exhibition:

Mahalia Jackson at Palaver'64

The queen of gospel, Mahalia Jackson first came to the Netherlands in April 1961 for a legendary performance in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. In 1964, she came back to the Netherlands to perform at Palaver'64.

This youth manifestation, held on Ascension Day 1964 in the Irenehal in Utrecht, was held on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Dutch Bible Society. Under the motto 'een miljoen voor Kameroen' ('one million for Cameroon'), money was raised to send bibles to Cameroon.

23,000 young people were present, welcoming Mahalia with a standing ovation and breathless listening alternated with enthusiastic clapping hands for an hour.

During the performance, the police officers in the hall found it increasingly difficult to restrain the young people, who wanted to get as close to the stage as possible. When Mahalia played Oh When the Saints towards the end, there was no stopping it. In front of the stage, next to the stage and soon also on stage, the young people crowded together. Seven police officers struggled to save a small space for Mahalia Jackson. Even the officers clapped enthusiastically along with the crowd from time to time. A fragment of this special performance in Utrecht can be seen in our exhibition.

Amazing Grace by Aretha Franklin

In January 1972, Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, recorded the double LP Amazing Grace at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, accompanied by her musical mentor Reverend James Cleveland and his Southern California Community Choir.

For this record, Aretha received a Grammy Award for Best Soul Gospel Performance in 1973. It is Aretha's best selling album and also the best-selling live gospel album of all time.

Although the recordings were also filmed at the time, due to technical difficulties, it was not until 2018 that 'Amazing Grace' was also released as a film. We are delighted and proud that we can show, hear and above all experience the complete 11-minute performance of the song 'Amazing Grace' from the film in the exhibition.

Rosetta Tharpe backstage at the Jazz à Juan Festival

Singer and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe is also known as the Godmother of rock and roll. Rosetta began touring churches in the southern states of America with her mother in 1921 at the age of six, billed as a 'singing and guitar playing miracle'.

Sister Rosetta brought gospel from churches to concert venues and nightclubs.

Her music influenced rock'n'roll musicians such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley. In particular, her tour of the United Kingdom with Muddy Waters in 1964 has been identified by English blues guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Keith Richards as a milestone for the blues in England.

In the Institut national de l'audiovisuel, I found a beautiful video of Rosetta, backstage at the Jazz à Juan Festival in Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, France.

During an interview, Rosetta can't help but play little licks on her guitar and when the interview ends she plays the gospel classic His Eye Is On The Sparrow accompanying herself on her guitar. This intimate performance feels as if she is playing it especially for you and you can experience it yourself in the exhibition.

You can explore the history of gospel in visual and song until 10 April 2023 at the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht. If you can't wait or cannot visit, here's a playlist with a small selection of my favourite gospel songs.

Willem Driebergen is a research assistant and audio video advisor at Museum Catharijneconvent.