TV gets a burst of gospel glory

At times, gospel music might be overlooked in a rock/rap world.
Not now, though. Coming is a five-day stretch overflowing with big voices and huge passion. That includes:
— Friday (Feb. 9): “Gospel Live,” at 9 p.m. on PBS, with some stations repeating it at 10. Henry Louis Gates hosts the show with Erica Campbell, who opens with some impressive vocals. More big moments are coming from Shelea, John Legend (shown here in a previous performance), LaTocha, Anthony Hamilton, Mali Music, Lena Byrd Miles and more.
— Saturday (Feb. 10): “Super Bowl Soulful Celebration,” at 8 p.m. on CBS. It’s the 25th year, for an event that used to be called the “Super Bowl Gospel Celebration.” Now the hour mixes gospel– Kirk Franklin will perform; so will Campbell, this time in the Mary Mary duo — and pop (Robin Thicke, Earth, Wind & Fire). It also has a chorus made up entirely of pro football players.
— Sunday (Feb. 11). There’s no specific gospel event, but there is another chance to hear a top voice. Shortly before Super Bowl kick-off (6:30 p.m. ET on CBS), Andra Day will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
— Monday and Tuesday: 9-11 p.m., PBS. Now we hear how it all started, with Gates’ four-hour “Gospel.”
The root, the documentary says, is in the pulpit. In the Black church, “our singers preach and our preachers sing.”
In Detroit, C.L. Franklin was so popular that a record store started recording him. There were “more than 70 albums of his sermons,” says his granddaughter, Sabrina Owens.
At 14, his daughter would make her first recording at that store. Aretha Franklin went on to bring gospel power to rock and to rhythm-and-blues. “Gospel never left her,” Owens says. “It was who she was.”
Younger singers went further in merging gospel, rock and an informal style. “They wanted the Good News without the rules,” producer-songwriter Donald Lawrence says.
We also see the early forces, including writer Thomas Dorsey and singer Mahalia Jackson. “She believed every word she sang and wanted you believe it, too,” says Dionne Warwick, who is both a pop star and the niece of gospel great Cissy Houston.
Jackson was a powerful force in music and in activism. Gates offers two examples:
— Martin Luther King Jr. looked tired and solemn as he prepared to give a speech. Then Jackson zoomed into an acapella tune and King brightened. “A voice like this comes only once in a millennium,” he said.
— Before a sea of protesters in Washington, King was starting his speech slowly. That’s when Jackson asked for a riff she’d heard him do: “Tell them about the dream, Martin. Tell them about the dream.”
He instantly switched; his “I Have a Dream” speech soared with gospel-like passion. Appropriately, it closed with words from a gospel classic: “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”