December 23, 2024
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FOLK/Music The Bronx New Heaven Shout Band African-American gospel brass band

Friday: 7 p.m. parade from Heritage to Railroad; Saturday: 3 p.m. Heritage, 7 p.m. parade from Heritage to Railroad; Sunday: noon at Railroad with Robert Turner and the Silver Hearts Gospel Singers of Indianapolis

“Praise him with sound of the trumpet; praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel [tambourine] and dance; praise him with string instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals; praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.”

The United House of Prayer for All People takes literally this directive of Psalm 150: 3-6. With their all-brass “shout bands,” congregants of the United House of Prayer offer up joyous sounds of praise through this African-American sacred musical style. The Bronx New Heaven Shout Band carries on this tradition.

African-American religious music, itself a blend of African worship style and Christian theology, takes on myriad forms that have been developing for more than 200 years. These musical manifestations include spiritual song, jubilee music, the lined-out hymn, a cappella quartet singing, mass choirs and many other styles. One of the lesser-known traditions is that of the shout bands of the United House of Prayer.

In the 1920s, the Cape Verde-born spiritual leader Marcelino Manoel de Graca, known as “Daddy Grace,” founded the United House of Prayer in Newport News, Va. He established a church in which ecstatic experience with the Holy Spirit is an essential part of worship. To propel the service, Daddy Grace and the church’s bandleaders created brass bands whose members applied jazz instrumentation of the era to gospel hymns. Today the tradition is carried on in more than 130 United House of Prayer congregations nationwide.

Crystallized into a performance ensemble in the 1970s, the Bronx New Heaven Shout Band has its roots in groups that gathered at church on Sunday to play brass band repertoire. Most members of today’s group remember a father, uncle or other relative who played gospel brass, and think of their current endeavors as continuations of that long tradition.

Directed for more than 20 years by Brother Russell Williams, the band’s musical arrangements reflect Williams’ incorporation of influences from other forms of gospel and jazz, and his training at Juilliard in New York City. The instrumentation, a veritable trombone choir, is typical of United House of Prayer brass bands and creates stirring volume and power.

The group performed recently alongside the Monique Walker Love Fellowship Choirs and at the premier of the movie “Straight Out of Brooklyn.” It has toured throughout the Midwest and done numerous local performances and charitable work. Most importantly, its members continue to carry on the spirit and tradition of their faith through their music.


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