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| Title: Today |
MP3, WMA, MPC, OGG, M4A, FLAC |
| Artist: Marie Knight |
| (c): (C) 1995 Labor Records |
| (p): (P) 1995 Labor Records |
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10.08 $ |
2004-05-23 |
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LABOR RECORDS TO Re-RELEASE HISTORIC RECORDING OF
LEGENDARY GOSPEL SINGER MARIE KNIGHT
A powerful showcase for one of the greatest American gospel artist;
the legacy of a formidable voice, now nearly forgotten
(The original review/March 1978)
Marie Knight rose to fame some 30 years ago as the late Sister Rosetta Tharpe's singing partner. After several years as one of gospel's top stars, she defected to r&b, quickly fading after a handful of early successes. Little has been heard from her in the past two decades, though talent as enormous as hers is too valuable to go to waste.
Her bounteous contralto is as strong and sure as ever, particularly on slow, traditional-styled moaners like Today and Where He Leads Me, which show off her graceful tremolo, unostentatious embellishments, and sincere, deep-felt soulfulness. If you have been looking for a successor to Mahalia Jackson, listen to the heart-rending In My Home Over There, the moderately swinging Jesus Met The Woman At The Well, theacutely soul-stirring His Eye Is On The Sparrow, and her zealous wailing of Mahalia's theme, Move On Up A Little Higher, and your search may well be over.
Knight receives perfect, unfaltering support from a highly adept, wholly compatible combo. The keyboard work is superb, with sensitive idiomatic chords by pianist Floyd Waite and tastefully pertinent, bright-toned organ by Virgie Knight. Blues guitarist Louisiana Red is listed as "special guest," but he thankfully subdues his personality in favor of the group identity. Ex-Larry Coryell bassist Mervin Brunson and drummer Earl Williams could hardly be better.
Not only is the music choice, the engineering is just about the best I've ever encountered on a gospel album. The sound is clear, the balance well considered, and the surface clean. The only problem is perceptible pre-echo on those tracks accompanied by keyboards only.
-Tom Bingham / AUDIO
MARIE KNIGHT
Biography
b. June 1925, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. A fine gospel singer, with a ringing, signifying voice, Knight attracted attention while singing in the choir at the Oakwood Avenue Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. She made some 78s for Brunswick Records in 1953 and later some EPs and an album for Mercury Records that found her well and truly in the gospel fold. Her fame spread further than many of her kindred spirits owing to some excellent duets she performed with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, notably ecstatic versions of "Up Above My Head" and "Didn't It Rain", the latter recorded for Brunswick. The duo played to rapturous audiences all across the country, on one occasion pulling 27,000 people into Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC. While it might well be that Tharpe was the big attraction, Knight was also popular and the pair undoubtedly benefited from the collaboration. Their decision to record a blues album demonstrated their crossover singing abilities but, unfortunately, it also displayed a measure of misjudgement. The churches, perhaps unaware of or maybe uncomfortable with the close link between gospel and the blues, disapproved mightily of this secular departure. Soon thereafter, Tharpe and Knight split up and in 1965 Knight, her lesson apparently not learned, stepped even further into secular music, albeit into the kindred area of R&B to record an effective and moderately successful version of "Cry Me A River" for Stateside Records. Overall, however, this attempt at a career in popular music failed. Although Tharpe survived the displeasure of the churches and continued to enjoy a successful career, Knight did not. In his book, Black Gospel, Viv Broughton observes that Knight ended up working as a telephone operator in Brooklyn. |
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