Tyack recalls the first time he played with the Campbells, at the first national convention. "I started with a slow blues—and I had never, ever previously felt what happened in that room. I played a line, and everybody in the room started calling out. I felt this intense, tangible connection with the people in the room. I had Chuck take a solo, then came back in. I had a Holy Ghost moment, and hit this harmonic that just screamed. I held if for most of the verse, and everybody in the room came to their feet and screamed.
"[Fellow sacred steel player] Calvin Cook showed me this video his son took, which shows [sacred steel patriarch] Willie Eason rising out of his wheelchair and raising his arms. Ever since that moment, I have been treated like one of them. It's actually kind of embarrassing to hear the introductions at the conventions, but I'll just say it's nice being called 'Brother Dan.' They don't refer to me as an outsider playing their music, but as a part of the community." Tyack remains one of a handful of musicians from outside the House of God to have been accepted by the sacred steel community; the fact that he lives here and serves as a diplomat for this visceral, juicy, and unique variant of African-American gospel is a very nice treat.
All photography by Michael Rubenstein
Seattle sacred steel master Dan Tyack.
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Churches and Record Shops
Malls and supper clubs are fine, but you haven't really heard gospel music until you've experienced it in church. If you go, don't sit in the back like a wallflower, and, by all means, dress your best. Great gospel is part of the Sunday services at any of the following places of worship. This is just a small sampling of what's out there:
Allen AME in Tacoma
223 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma,
253-572-4124;
www.allename.org.
Cornerstone Community
Baptist Church
25030 36th Ave. S., Kent,
253-839-9380 .
Goodwill Baptist Church
126 15th Ave.,
206-324-6688;
www.goodwillmbc.com.
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Baptist Church
13611 S.E. 116th St., Renton,
425-255-1446;
www.mlkbaptist.com.
Mt. Calvary Church of God In Christ
1412 23rd Ave.,
206-860-6880;
www.mcccseattle.org .
Oneness Christian Center
2716 E. Cherry St.,
206-322-9022.
St. John Baptist Church
2001 S. J St., Tacoma,
253-572-7054;
www.stjohntacoma.org.
Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church
2801 S Jackson St.,
206-329-9794.
In Time Music Productions
3806 S. Ferdinand St.,
206-723-3152.
Local producer/music instructor Royce Shorter will special order gospel releases for you.
Everyday Music
112 Broadway Ave. E., 206-568-3321;
www.everydaymusic.com.
This mini-chain has the best selection of gospel, both used and new, in town.
Web Sites
The Seattle Area Gospel Announcers Guild:
www.seattlegag.com.
Dan Tyack's site: www.tyack.com.
The Total Experience Gospel Choir:
www.totalexperience.org.
—Mike McGonigal
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EXPERIENCE UNLIMITED
Like lots of folks in town, I first saw the Total Experience Gospel Choir at a mall—Westlake Mall, specifically. They drew a large crowd of mesmerized shoppers toward them, many of whom didn't budge for the entire set. Approximately 13 strong, the choir works in the high-energy mass choir tradition begun in the late '50s by the Rev. Dr. James Cleveland: a soloist backed by hard-driving mass harmony and accompanied by percussion and keyboards. When it works, it's electric.
TEGC have been together 31 years, and they are Seattle gospel's biggest "name act." That's partly because they're the city's most diverse choir. Pastor Wright stresses that the group's multigenerational and multiethnic makeup was never explicitly strived for—it just happened over time: "I got the idea to have the parents join in with their children. Thus, the old folks became a part." There is a conscious effort, on the other hand, to have the group perform at penal institutions, restaurants, shopping centers, festivals—anywhere that people least expect to hear church music. Wright's reasoning behind this schedule is surprising. "People are less judgmental at a restaurant and more likely to actually listen to what you're doing," she says. (For the few Seattleites who haven't seen them, TEGC perform at the Century Ballroom's gospel brunch Sunday, Aug. 29, at 12:30 p.m.)
Wright, a Seattle-area native, began her musical training early, singing her first church solo at age 3. "By the time I reached 14, I was the minister over three choirs," she says. Later, she came under the tutelage of the late Rev. Cleveland. "I love working in the choral tradition, hearing all of those voices making perfect three- or four-part harmonies. When it's all blended well, the music is euphoric! I have epiphanies each time I open my mouth to sing. It's as though the spirit overcomes me and I am in another space; I love that feeling! I feel like I can conquer the world through song."
With her numerous awards (including but not limited to the Jefferson Award for Women in Communication and the Mahalia Jackson Community Service Award), electric smile, and buoyant, get-things-done energy, Wright has the demeanor of a queen in exile. (She is, in fact, a former Seafair Queen.) She's tough but considerate, the perfect person to run a choir. And to get one noticed: TEGC have performed for President Clinton and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, appeared on the last Dave Matthews album, and have performed with artists both sacred (the Winans, Take Six, the Rev. Isaac Douglas) and less so (King Sunny Ade, Ray Charles). They're also popular in Europe. "People in Europe seem not to be ashamed of their emotions, and gospel music, certainly when it is done properly, will stir up those emotions," Wright says.
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Wright and the Total Experience Choir at rest. |
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Just as intricate and propulsive as her work with TEGC is the Drums and Spirit project. The concept is simple but pointed: Over deep African percussion, Wright sings her favorite spirituals, bringing the music full circle in a noncampy, syncretic fashion, similar to deceased Mississippi fife and drum master Otha Turner's From Senegal to Senatobia CD. The slave-era songs go back hundreds of years ("I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray," "Standing in the Need of Prayer"), while the percussion, naturally, goes back farther still. Wright's friend Jeff Busch collaborated on the intense arrangements, amassing local African-born drummers whose polyrhythmic percussion and occasional use of stringed instruments make the sound far less stark than you'd think.
Will it be heard, though? Wright relates the fact that gospel music is so terrifically misunderstood and not part of the mainstream music world to systematic cultural racism. "Anything that has to do with African-American culture in this country is suppressed; it stems from slavery," she says. "This country tries hard to deny slavery's very existence. One hundred and forty-one years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery is still alive and well in the fiber of this country. So, if the powers that be in America simply ignore black people, then perhaps black folks will just disappear; [but] we are not going away! I use the power of gospel music to ferret through this stupidity and find peace within myself." And, if Wright has anything to say about it, spread the word beyond the church. Say amen, somebody.
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