MUSIC

The Folklife and Traditional Arts Program of the Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) invites the public to Global Gospel: African Roots, American Sounds, a showcase of three rousing styles of sacred music based in the African Diaspora. On March 13, 2011, at 6pm, African American gospel quartet music, highlife-inflected Nigerian Anglican sounds and Garifuna church music will be featured.

Global Gospel: African Roots, American Sounds highlights these Houston-area musicians and congregations by providing an opportunity to share their musical traditions and discuss their roots and their influences. This presentation will feature Stella-award nominees Endurance, the musicians of All Saints Nigerian Anglican Church and congregants from La Iglesia Garifuna Misericordia de Dios.

Musicians will talk about and demonstrate the cross-continental influences that have been traded back and forth among these styles for decades. The program will be moderated by Dr. Anthony Pinn, Rice University, and Pat Jasper, Director of the HAA Folklife and Traditional Arts program.

Participants in Global Gospel: African Roots, American Sounds include the following artists:

Endurance, the powerhouses of the Houston quartet scene, are a relatively young group by the standards of the style, but this Stella-nominated group of locals are strictly old school. Claude Cummings, Michael Robertson, Earl Sampson and Dave Botts rely on that rollicking, syncopated sound indigenous to the American South. They perform nationally and have produced three CDs, the latest of which is I’ve Got A Home.

Andrew Akele, music director at All Saints Anglican Church, will bring a group of musicians that work with him during services at this large Nigerian church on Renn Road. Members of All Saints are mostly Igbo, an ethnic group based in the southeastern part of the country, and enjoy congregational music that spans from the standard Anglican hymnody, to the highlife and soukous-inspired style of gospel that came about with the Africanization of the church.

Pastor Erick Suazo of La Iglesia Garifuna Misericordia de Dios leads a small Pentecostal congregation that worships and sings in Spanish and its native Garifuna. The Garifuna are descendants of Carib, Arawak and West Africans who developed a disctinctive culture, language and music. This Afro-Latino community (most church members are originally from Honduras) has settled in Houston over the last 15 years.

Global Gospel: African Roots, American Sounds is a part of Sacred Songs, Sacred Sites, a program of HAA's Folklife and Traditional Arts Program. Sacred Songs, Sacred Sites celebrates the artistic and cultural traditions that reside in the city’s diverse faith communities through concerts, lectures and workshops. These programs are free and open to public.

Visit Houstonartsalliance.com  for more information on upcoming Sacred Songs, Sacred Sites programs.

The Houston Arts Alliance is the official local arts agency for the city of Houston, providing funding, technical assistance and leadership to non-profit arts organizations region-wide. Sacred Songs, Sacred Sites is part of HAA’s new Folklife and Traditional Arts Program, the only one of its kind in the state of Texas.

Sacred Songs, Sacred Sites programs are funded in part by the Houston Endowment, Inc., the National Endowment for the Arts, Sara and Bill Morgan, His Highness The Aga Khan Council for the USA and Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston. Co-sponsors of Global Gospel: African Roots, American Sounds include the HERE Project at Rice University, the Houston Gospel Announcers Guild and the Houston Museum of African American Culture.

Pictured:  Endurance. Photo: Brandon Bliss.