VARIOUS ARTISTS / There Is A Balm In Gilead Mixtape

I don’t remember how I came to do this particular Mixtape but its stylistic breadth and spiritual seriousness is uplifting beyond anything I could have foreseen. Once I got into pulling together different versions, especially when I delved into selections I had forgotten or had never previously heard, I began smiling. The mix of jazz and gospel, both genres ranging from straight ahead to way out, from historic to contemporary, I was mighty, mighty pleased with the result.

I doubt that anyone has heard all of these fine versions, each of which bring their own specialness to the altar of liturgical song. Certainly no one has heard these fifteen tracks put together in a oneness of sonic delight.

For me, a born again pagan, this set suggests those areas of the human experience for which there are no rational explanations. Here we have an arena of feelings that is beyond the purview of any logic other than the complex calculus of the emotions, the passionate flow of feelings that profoundly move us. When we listen to music like this we might not know how or why but we are nonetheless moved, stirred, filled to overflowing with raw, unnameable sentiments.

I seldom try to predict what people will or will not like but I feel safe in suggesting that this is a collection that can be enjoyed once, twice, thrice without growing old or boring.

—Kalamu ya Salaam

There Is A Balm In Gilead Mixtape Playlist

01 Deep River - Donna Weaver, The Atlanta Singers

02 Motherless Child – John Blake Jr

03 Better Than Anything – Nnenna Freelon

04 Leimert Park – Kamau Daaood

05 Getting To Know You - Sunny Sumter

06 This Little Light Of Mine – Courtney Bryan

07 Sanctuary – Larry Willis

08 The Essential Mahalia Jackson – Mahalia

09 Blasé – Archie Shepp

10 The Hammond Organ of Christmas – Rhoda Scott

11 The Definitive Gospel Collection – Clark Sisters

12 Finally Karen – Karen Clark-Sheard

13 African Spirit – Soweto Gospel Choir

14 At Drury Lane 1977 – Nina Simone

15 At Drury Lane 1977 – Nina Simone

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 29th, 2012 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Cover. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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