Gospel music has deep roots in Northeast Ohio, with a history that stretches back well over a century. Black Americans in the region brought with them the tradition of spiritual music, congregating in churches that have long served as the primary venues for choirs spreading the word of God through song.
However, the local gospel music scene is changing, with church congregations shrinking in recent years and music tastes shifting.
Recently, hundreds of Cleveland Heights High School Gospel Choir alumni joined together for a large reunion concert at the school.
Choir Director Sandra Dixon, who has led the group for the last 21 years, said the choir has shrunk from over 80 members strong to about 15.
Dixon said this follows a common trend of churches moving from traditional choirs to smaller ensembles and praise teams.
“Churches got away from having their youth choir,” she said. “So, you didn't really have that pipeline of kids who were singing in church that would come to sing in school.”
Young people are finding other ways to enter the gospel scene without that pipeline.
In Akron, 16-year-old Zee Gales sings in the Akron Symphony’s Gospel Meets Symphony Choir, which includes more than 200 singers from 70 area churches who perform alongside the Akron Symphony Orchestra.
“When you go to the store, or you're shopping, we rarely hear gospel. We only think that it should be confined to church or like those types of environments."Zee Gales
Gales was exposed to gospel music through her grandmother, and she is passionate about performing the music and enjoying it with other young people.
She said when she first saw a gospel choir perform, it moved her to tears.
“I never had that experience ever before,” Gales said. “So, I was like, ‘Nana, I want to do this.’ And so, she was like, ‘You know what? We could do it together.’”
Gales and her grandmother perform in the Gospel Meets Symphony Choir, but these days, Gales said she is one of few singers in her age group.
“I sing with the adults. I'm literally the only kid,” she said.
Her choir performs at E.J. Thomas Hall, opening possibilities for the community to hear gospel music outside of a church sanctuary.
“When you go to the store, or you're shopping, we rarely hear gospel. We only think that it should be confined to church or like those types of environments,” Gales said.
Gospel outside
Gospel Sundays in Downtown Akron also aims to bring the genre out of the church walls and into public spaces.
Mount Olive Baptist Church minister Lance Bell runs the Gospel Sundays series, where gospel choirs perform free concerts outside in the community.
In the past, the recurring performances were held at Lock 4 behind the Akron Civic Theatre. This summer, they will take place at Cascade Plaza and the Lock 3 Backyard Stage and feature a different, hand-picked group of singers each week.
The performance series starts with Joe Townsend and Friends on Sunday at 4 p.m.
Bell said his goal is to book area church choirs and artists who put on energetic performances that can appeal to any music fan.
The crowd is encouraged to participate, let loose and have fun, he said.
“No one is there to judge you. And no one would even know that you're, say, not a churchgoing person if you don't sit there and tell them,” Bell said. “Go and enjoy the music, and you might be surprised.”
Bell said he’s hoping to draw larger crowds when the annual event moves back to Akron’s reconstructed Lock 3, due to reopen this fall.
Diversifying the genre
Gospel music has long influenced other genres, from R&B to soul to country music. Rock icons like Elvis Presley and rappers like Snoop Dogg released gospel albums after becoming secular music stars.
This is one area the local gospel music scene can grow and attract younger singers — by incorporating other modern music styles and giving them a platform to perform on stages outside of church.
Grammy-winning, Akron-born gospel rapper Swoope held a homecoming concert at House Three-Thirty this past spring, drawing a large crowd. Akron Mayor Shammas Malik even declared April 20 as “Swoope Day” in the city.
While Swoope currently makes music in Atlanta, in Northeast Ohio, other gospel artists are making a name for themselves in eclectic, contemporary genres.
Jelani Aswad, a 37-year-old Cleveland gospel artist, has been releasing music for more than a decade. His music fuses sounds from his Jamaican roots and hip-hop.
“When you get a gospel artist, you might get a lot of things at once. You might get a musician. You might get a spoken word artist. You might get a rapper."Jelani Aswad
He also said there is room for the genre to expand and welcome more young people.
“When you get a gospel artist, you might get a lot of things at once. You might get a musician. You might get a spoken word artist. You might get a rapper,” Aswad said.
He said gospel is the basis of their craft, but younger artists are diversifying the genre.
“The gospel scene and the music in it is like their foundation, usually,” he said. “That's just, like, the root of it. But from that root has branched so much ability.”
Aswad records much of his music at the Breakthrough Sounds studio in Valley View, where owner and producer Charles Pratt has worked with many of the region’s gospel artists and ensembles.
Pratt has been leaning into the evolution of gospel and technology to take the sound in a new direction.
“A lot of times people think that to get a really, really big choir sound on a recording, you got to have 50 people,” Pratt said. “All you need is like three or four people.”
Pratt said he does many different takes to layer the vocals and create a dense, textured effect that sounds larger than life.
“It is a beautiful choral sound,” Pratt said.
Bringing in younger artists and audiences
Bell, who has worked as a DJ for many years, said he hopes younger audiences and artists will see how influential gospel music is on some of their favorite artists — and how many of those artists have influenced the sound of modern gospel.
“I think, in some respects, that's what some of the younger generation have in their mind,” Bell said. “The old-school church and grandma.”
He hopes people attend Gospel Sundays in Akron to experience the energy and hear how talented the singers are.
Aswad, the Cleveland gospel singer, said equipping and empowering the next generation is an important teaching in the Bible.
“I think the people that are now influential in these spaces are in our age group,” Aswad said. “And they are now leading the charge of diversifying the sound by being inclusive with the kind of people that come in musically.”
At Cleveland Heights High School, Dixon said she remains committed to bringing up the next generation of gospel singers. She’s starting to spread the word about the choir in the middle school to get kids interested and to know that they have an outlet.
“I always say, as long as I have some that want to sing, you know, we’ll sing,” Dixon said.
