cover image We'll Understand It Better by and by: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers

We'll Understand It Better by and by: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers

. Smithsonian Books, $49.95 (384pp) ISBN 978-1-56098-166-4

A curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and a noted gospel singer herself, Reagon presents a superb collection of essays--by academics who are also gospel performers or record producers--that focus on major figures in black gospel music: Charles A. Tindley, Lucie Campbell Williams, Thomas A. Dorsey, William H. Brewster Sr., Roberta Martin and Kenneth Morris. Highlights here are oral histories by Brewster and Morris, from interviews conducted by Reagon; a roundtable discussion by several former members of the Roberta Martin Singers; and Michael Harris's explication of Dorsey's life as a complex dialectic of the sacred and secular traditions of African-American culture. There is a no less profound tension between the messianic fervor of black Baptist and Pentecostal ritual practice, convincingly depicted in essays by Horace Clarence Boyer and Rev. Charles Walker, and an explicitly social gospel, as evidenced in Reagon's essay on Tindley. Finally, the dictates of the marketplace could not be avoided by even the most devoutly religious gospel performer, as Kenneth Morris, a music publisher and composer, reminds Reagon in an interview. Boyer's essays on each of the six composers are elegant combinations of biography and musical analysis, although some of the latter may be beyond the comprehension of non-musicians. Illustrations, bibliography and discography. (Feb.)