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{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
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Gospel music, as you can see, our artists have not arrived as of yet,

[00:00:28]
there is a mass of humanity between here and the entertainment tent,

[00:00:34]
they just came off from eating, and hopefully they will be here before 1:30 arrives

[00:00:41]
if not, what the heck, you've got me.

[00:00:45]
I, yes, I promise not to sing for you.

[00:00:50]
The group that you will be looking at

[00:00:53]
Earling Mills, and the Ultrasound, from Philadelphia,

[00:01:00]
would like to just make a couple of cultural comments

[00:01:05]
and that is that within gospel music,

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just as within blues or within jazz, there are regional variations

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I talked with Pastor Mills [Arlene Mills] this morning and ask her

[00:01:25]
How would she discern any differences, let's say between
[00:01:29]
the sound of the gospel singers from the Philadelphia area,
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from when she has come, and let's say
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the gospel singers from Chicago?
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Her reply was that the gospel singers
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from Philadelphia have a clearer sound, she said in other words that they strive
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to make each word discernible, clear.
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Wherein gospel singers from Mississippi, who migrated to Chicago
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tend to have a much rougher, a more guttural type of sound.
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So, you might want to listen for that as you hear them come forward.
[00:02:23]
We want to say secondly that the gospel group, which is
[00:02:30]
the singers are all girls, all women, that there is a precedent for that in the city of Philadelphia
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that before the coming of this group you had the Davis sisters from Philadelphia
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and perhaps the most famous female group of all, Clara Ward, the Ward Singers.
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I understand that they celebrated their fiftieth anniversary here last week, and there were groups who came back
[00:03:04]
but, seemingly, a lot of female gospel singers have come out of Philadelphia
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at least come through there; the Caravans, another group, Shirley Caesar
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who is perhaps the reigning queen of gospel music today
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sang with that group, and you might even want to ask
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Pastor Mills about some of her experience because she certainly has performed
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she said one of the highlights of her career was playing for Mahalia Jackson, that Mahalia Jackson came to Philadelphia
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her accompanist was sick, and the person who normally accompanied her in Philadelphia
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was unable to fulfill it, and she got the chance to play with Mahalia.