Larger text
Smaller text
Print
E-mail
Harlem Gospel Choir preaches faith first, entertainment second
The Harlem Gospel Choir will perform Saturday
Harlem Gospel Choir
Oh, Bailey's not naming names, but this particular star wouldn't let the people working for him look him in the eye, even if their sole job was to make sure he was comfortable on tour.
But that wasn't the final straw for Bailey, 62, who will bring the world-famous choir to Carnegie Library Lecture Hall on Saturday.
"One superstar, we're traveling, and he calls me at four in the morning," Bailey says in a phone interview. "He says, '50-50!' I said, 'What are you talking about?' (He says,) 'These sheets are 50 percent cotton, 50 percent polyester blend!' I said, 'I'm going back to work with the Lord now.'"
And so he did, making the Harlem Gospel Choir official in 1986 on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday - Jan. 15. The singers came from churches around New York's Harlem neighborhood, all united by King's philosophy of "bringing people together," Bailey says.
"The choir is foremost a ministry. We do benefits for children's organizations all over the world. We're not entertainers. People call us and ask us if we're entertainers. We're missionaries for Christ. We're a nonprofit organization. We donate our profits."
The reason people might think they're entertainers first is because of the areas the choir has been known to perform: backing Irish pop stars U2 on the song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," touring with Irish folk stars The Chieftains, and at the B.B. King Blues Club in Manhattan, where they've appeared on Sundays since the tourist spot opened three years ago.
But the group also performed - to name a few engagements - at Yankee Stadium to celebrate Nelson Mandela's release from prison. They sang for the Pope in Central Park.
And they traveled about 200,000 miles last year while wrapping up the worldwide God Bless America Tour, which launched shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, and resonated with European crowds.
"At that time, everybody wanted to be inspired. When we were in Germany and France and Italy, everybody said they felt so sorry for us. People from these little towns would come and tell us this. We could see how people everywhere in the world were affected by this."
Irish crowds give them an exceptionally warm welcome, he says - and not just because of U2 and the Chieftains.
'They identify so much with us. ... They feel this close affinity. Because the Irish had problems. African Americans had problems," Bailey says. "(In New York,) we get a huge amount of Irish tourists in black churches."
The Harlem Gospel Choir has several offshoots. One is the group at B.B. King's club, made up of members who don't want to tour. Another is the Angels in Harlem - dubbed so by U2's singer Bono, which is mostly older singers who prefer traditional black gospel, as opposed to younger singers in the main choir looking to incorporate a bit more hip-hop and R&B.
The years with Prince, Michael Jackson, Isaac Hayes, Lionel Richie and others might yield great war stories. But with the Harlem Gospel Choir, Bailey says he has found his calling.
"What we do now is affecting the lives of people," he says. "When you're working with these superstars, you're just affecting them, and their big egos."
| Harlem Gospel Choir |
More Music headlines
- Period-instruments orchestra sets concert
- Symphony gives 'Favorites' lackluster treatment
- Herb Alpert, Lani Hall have many praises to sing
- River City Brass Band runs the gamut of 'American Classics'
- Symphony seeks right balance to Dvorak masterpiece
- Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert offers great opportunities
- This Administration has its own new deal
- Slatkin out for symphony's WVU performance
