Tag: Passings

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

GMF was saddened to learn of the passing of Bishop Donnie Graves, who died December 29, 2019.  He was 65 years old. 

Formally trained in organ and sacred music, Bishop Ralph Donnell Graves is widely recognized as a masterful musician, composer, arranger, and choir director whose albums include I’m Saved, Count Your Blessings, I Am Determined, So Far I Have Weathered the Storm, Back With A Vengeance, and Sounds from Heaven.  Among his notable compositions are “Count Your Blessings” and “When All God’s Children Get Together.”

Bishop Graves was the presiding prelate of Deliverance Temple Restoration Ministries, Inc. and pastor of The Gathering Place in Raleigh, NC.  He also established and pastored Refreshing Springs Restoration Center and Greater Metropolitan Restoration Center in Rocky Mount and Greensboro, respectively.

GMF offers heartfelt condolences to Bishop’s daughters, grandchildren, and the entire Graves family as well as his church family, friends, colleagues, and protégés. 

Homegoing information has been published as follows:

Wake
Friday, January 3, 2020
7 PM
The Gathering Place
3500 Woodmeadow Pkwy
Raleigh, NC  

Visitation
Saturday, January 4, 2020
9-10 AM
Mount Calvary Word of Faith Holy Church
3100 Sanderford Rd
Raleigh, NC

Homegoing Service
10 AM
Mount Calvary Word of Faith Holy Church

Libra Boyd

Libra Nicole Boyd, PhD is a musician, award-winning author, gospel music aficionado, and the founder and editor of Gospel Music Fever™. Her commitment to journalistic integrity includes bringing you reliable gospel music content that uplifts and advances the art form. Libra is presently working on several scholarly projects about gospel music in the media as well as gospel music in social movements.

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

Evangelist Jacky Clark Chisholm of The Clark Sisters solicits prayers after announcing on Instagram this afternoon (Nov. 28) that her husband of 46 years, Glynn T. Chisholm, has passed on.  He was 70 years old.  

Chisholm was a published author whose books include The Revival and Why Did God Make Us Creatures of the Flesh?

GMF offers its deepest condolences to Evangelist Chisholm, their children Mike, Aaron, and Angel, and the entire Chisholm and Clark family. 

Visitation
Sunday, December 8, 2019
3-8 PM (EST)
Clora Funeral Home – Detroit West
18957 W. Warren Ave
Detroit, MI  48228

Family Hour
Monday, December 9, 2019
10 AM (EST)
Greater Emmanuel Institutional COGIC
19190 Schaefer Hwy
Detroit, MI  48235

Homegoing Service
11 AM (EST)
Greater Emmanuel Institutional COGIC

Libra Boyd

Libra Nicole Boyd, PhD is a musician, award-winning author, gospel music aficionado, and the founder and editor of Gospel Music Fever™. Her commitment to journalistic integrity includes bringing you reliable gospel music content that uplifts and advances the art form. Libra is presently working on several scholarly projects about gospel music in the media as well as gospel music in social movements.

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

Rev. Ricky McDuffie, lead singer of Ricky McDuffie and The Family, passed Sunday, August 18, 2019, finishing a courageous battle with cancer.  He was 31. 

Unfortunately, news of McDuffie’s death began circulating on social media Sunday before his immediate family made an official announcement.  (Please read this article about thinking before you post R.I.P. on social media.)  Condolences have continued to pour in from fans, friends, and contemporaries in the hours since the family’s official post. 

Ricky McDuffie became the lead singer of the family group consisting of his siblings and cousins, then called The Mighty Golden Stars, at the age of 10.  Shortly after their grandfather Melvin Teal allowed the group to record two songs for his own quartet group’s CD in the late 90s, the grands began traveling as Lil’ Ricky and the Mighty Golden Stars and eventually released their debut CD in 2005, titled, I’m On My Way to Heaven.  In 2013, the group underwent another name change to Ricky McDuffie and The Family.  Their most recent release is He Changed Me Live (2017). 

Despite declining health, McDuffie pressed on to perform with his family as recently as three weeks ago in late July.  In addition to being a singer, McDuffie was scheduled to celebrate nine years of preaching this past Sunday.

Update (8/23/19):  A Celebration of Life service has been announced for Sunday, August 25, 2019, at 3 PM at Berea Baptist Convention Center in Bennettsville, SC.  A musical tribute will take place Saturday, August 24, at 5 PM at Marlboro Civic Center, 106 Clyde Street in Bennettsville.  (Please note the venue for the musical has been changed from Spears Church to Marlboro Civic Center due to the expected attendance.)

GMF extends deepest condolences to McDuffie’s wife Valarie, his children, and the entire family throughout this most difficult time of adjustment.

Libra Boyd

Libra Nicole Boyd, PhD is a musician, award-winning author, gospel music aficionado, and the founder and editor of Gospel Music Fever™. Her commitment to journalistic integrity includes bringing you reliable gospel music content that uplifts and advances the art form. Libra is presently working on several scholarly projects about gospel music in the media as well as gospel music in social movements.

Family, friends, and the gospel community are preparing to bid Tessie Hill farewell this week. The gospel great died Sunday night, July 28, 2019.

“What could I say about the late great Tessie Hill, better known to many others as ‘Mama Tessie’? Well, I can tell you that I met her many years ago when I was singing with the Caravans. [She was] one of the ‘singingest’ women that you’d ever want to hear. Late last year, 2018, she came to our church in Raleigh, NC…and when that woman started singing in our morning worship, I had to sit my little self down. That woman had such a powerful and an anointed voice! And I want you to know that we will forever be thankful and grateful that God blessed her to come and to be such a wonderful blessing to all mankind. Those that knew her, those that sat under her singing ministry, we will forever remember Tessie Hill.”  

Arrangements for Tessie Hill are as follows:

Libra Boyd

Libra Nicole Boyd, PhD is a musician, award-winning author, gospel music aficionado, and the founder and editor of Gospel Music Fever™. Her commitment to journalistic integrity includes bringing you reliable gospel music content that uplifts and advances the art form. Libra is presently working on several scholarly projects about gospel music in the media as well as gospel music in social movements.

GMF is sad to report the passing of Bishop Andrew J. Ford, II.  Ford died Friday, July 19, in New Jersey.

Bishop Ford was the presiding prelate of Next Generation Fellowship Ministries, Inc. and pastor of Philadelphia’s Ford Memorial Temple Baptist Church, the latter founded (as Highway Christian Church of Christ) and pastored by his father Bishop Andrew J. Ford, Sr. until his death in 1993.  Bishop Ford was also a gospel music industry notable who is credited with propelling several artists’ careers.  His social media bio reads in part:

[Bishop Ford] is also the founder and executive producer of Sweet Rain Record Company, where he discovered, launched the careers of, and produced some of America’s gospel notable artists such as Pastor Hezekiah Walker and the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir, The Reverend Ernest Davis, Jr. and Wilmington Chester Mass Choir featuring Rev. Daryl Coley, Southeast Inspirational Choir of Houston, introducing Yolanda Adams, and many others. During his tenure in the recording industry, he was considered ‘The Renaissance Man’ of gospel music, because of his unique ability in recording live choir recordings. His production company was affectionately known as ‘The Choir Boys.’ He has also trained and produced his ‘How Sweet the Sound’ and ‘TV One / Sony Choir Competition’ award-winning church choir, The Anointed Voices of Ford Memorial Temple.

GMF extends condolences and prayers to Bishop Ford’s immediate and extended family, church family, and host of friends.

Libra Boyd

Libra Nicole Boyd, PhD is a musician, award-winning author, gospel music aficionado, and the founder and editor of Gospel Music Fever™. Her commitment to journalistic integrity includes bringing you reliable gospel music content that uplifts and advances the art form. Libra is presently working on several scholarly projects about gospel music in the media as well as gospel music in social movements.

Source | Malaco Records

GMF recently learned of the passing of Luther Jennings, original member of the Jackson Southernaires.  We extend our sympathy and prayers to Jennings’ family and friends.

Read more from Malaco Music Group here.

Libra Boyd

Libra Nicole Boyd, PhD is a musician, award-winning author, gospel music aficionado, and the founder and editor of Gospel Music Fever™. Her commitment to journalistic integrity includes bringing you reliable gospel music content that uplifts and advances the art form. Libra is presently working on several scholarly projects about gospel music in the media as well as gospel music in social movements.

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

Aretha Franklin died today at the age of 76, after a bout with pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer. The sadness I feel is indescribable. 

I find it impossible to overstate the Queen of Soul’s influence in the world of music.  Lady Aretha performed both the sacred and secular with unparalleled vocality and mastery. Rolling Stone declared her to be the greatest singer of all time. Millions around the globe and I completely agree. In fact, my absolute favorite performances will always the ones during which she accompanied herself at the piano. Her musicianship was virtuosic; however, it was often overshadowed by her other-worldly vocal talent. You’d best believe that both were God-given gifts.  Although Lady Aretha was accepted to the Juilliard School to study classical piano in 1997, she had exhibited prodigious piano-playing abilities that enlivened even her earliest recordings and live performances as a youth.

I last attended an Aretha Franklin concert just over two years ago.  The sold-out show was simply amazing.  The queen held court for two hours, serving one hit classic after another.  From her gospel catalog, she pulled “Precious Memories,” inviting gospel greats Melvin and Doug Williams to join her onstage.  The arrangement was from her 1972 album Amazing Grace, the biggest-selling album of her entire six-decade career.  As the words, “Precious memories, how they linger  / How they ever flood my soul” wafted through the Durham Performing Arts Center auditorium, I wondered if this might be my final live experience with Lady Aretha.  It was a sobering thought; I wish it had been a fleeting one.  She appeared to be well and she sounded superb; nevertheless, rumors were swirling, and had been for some time, about her health and impending retirement.  Regrettably, I was right: I would never see her in person again.  

Aretha Franklin has died.  The sadness I feel is indescribable.

Media outlets all over the planet will say much in the coming days about her life, her upbringing and the guiding hand of her famous father Rev. C.L. Franklin, her storied career, and her iconic accomplishments which include multiple Grammys and one of the best-selling albums in gospel music.  Accordingly, I’ve decided to repost a write-up that I first published here on GMF in 2012, reflecting on my first live Aretha concert experience.  

Also tune in this Monday, August 20, as I dedicate the entire hour of “The Gospel Music Fever Show” to the memory and gospel music of Lady Aretha.  The broadcast will air at 12 PM CT (1 ET) at kwaygospel.com.

The queen has died.  The sadness I feel is indescribable.  Yet, I am thankful for God’s gift to us known as Lady Aretha Louise Franklin.  Rest with the ancestors, Queen…

This story first appeared Feb. 10, 2012, on GMF.

Mostly everyone knows that Aretha Louise Franklin is the Queen of Soul.  If not, at her insistence, they’d better recognize.  I’m pretty confident that everyone at Durham Performing Arts Center is clear about it, but after the second half of last night’s ninety-minute show, some may think she’s solidified a spot among gospel’s royals, too.

Aretha’s fans see she makes no apologies for her relationship with Jesus Christ, and aficionados know her roots run deep in the church.  So it was, Her Majesty took us on a ride through five decade’s worth of R&B and soul hits before sitting at the piano to play and sing “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”  It was easily the most emotional performance of the night, with her instrumental intro and interlude underscoring the depth of her musicianship.  And while the song itself isn’t gospel, its composer Paul Simon cites Rev. Claude Jeter’s line, “I’ll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in My name,” taken from the Swan Silvertones’ “Mary Don’t You Weep,” as his inspiration.

Maybe that’s why Aretha got to feeling churchy and wound up hurling a sermonette at the audience by the song’s end, testifying that the Lord’ll make a way.  Of course, charismatic church folk know they can’t just “think about Jesus” without wanting to “dance all night.”  By the time her hallelujahs infiltrated the rafters and penetrated the heavens, the orchestra had cued up music for a praise break.

From there, Aretha stepped back to center stage.  Staying in her gospel vein (which incidentally brought her the biggest selling album of her career, Amazing Grace), she sang the worshipful “One Night with the King” before abruptly shifting gears to her 80’s R&B smash “Freeway of Love.”  Determined to include God on that ride too, Aretha shouted “Good God Almighty” and recited the 23rd Psalm while her singers turned the corner on the vamp and changed lanes–first chanting “freeway” and then “higher,” before accelerating to an exclamatory “Jesus!”

The old school would call it straddling the fence.  Somehow, however, the Queen has managed to maneuver the freeway of sacred and secular without being frowned upon by the same churchers who declare it to be disgraceful when other artists do so.  Personally, I’m okay with the presence of gospel tunes in her concert repertoire.  Considering the massive success of Amazing Grace though, I think she’d be just fine singing an entire gospel number and letting it stand alone.  No fusion needed.  Or let’s see, how can I phrase this lyrically?  Ah yes, Let It Be.

All the same, there is a reason Aretha is the Queen.  A darn good reason.  And whether it’s pumping out soul or preaching up gospel, the living legend totally gets my R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Libra Boyd

Libra Nicole Boyd, PhD is a musician, award-winning author, gospel music aficionado, and the founder and editor of Gospel Music Fever™. Her commitment to journalistic integrity includes bringing you reliable gospel music content that uplifts and advances the art form. Libra is presently working on several scholarly projects about gospel music in the media as well as gospel music in social movements.