SR5027: On a Glorious Day   -- Pastor Donald Gay

Pastor Donald Gay is one of the last living links to Chicago's golden age of gospel music, and his music are some of its last vestiges. He has a unique deep, warm, smooth, and bluesy voice. But, when expressing the agonies, struggles, and ecstasies of everyday life, he explodes with an intense piercing power. While singing praises to the lord with unshakable conviction, he extends syllables with growls and shouts out exclamations of joy. Pastor Gay is accompanied by some of Chicago’s best gospel musicians: Cliff Dubose, Richard Gibbs, and Curtis Fondren. They create a captivating, soulful, and traditional sanctified groove that can only be heard in an old-fashioned church service.

Press / Music CD Reviews

If all church music ministries sounded as joyful as Pastor Donald Gay's On a Glorious Day, Sunday services nationwide would have standing room only.

Donald has been in gospel music since knee pants (a photo on the back of the CD booklet depicts Donald as a tyke, seated on a piano and flanked by his older sisters, Evelyn, Geraldine, and Mildred). As the Gay Sisters, Donald’s siblings posted a significant gospel hit in 1951 by modernizing "God Will Take Care of You", a hymnbook standard. He would go on to join them in the family singing group.

Today, Donald – the last one left from that photo – leads the congregation at Prayer Center Church of God in Christ, a church his mother founded in Chicago in 1959. Since 2007, he has made a series of records for Steven Dolins’ the Sirens Records, with On a Glorious Day being the most recent.

The album’s collection of traditional and traditional-sounding songs include a lively rendition of Dorothy Love Coates' "You Can't Hurry God" and four from the Gay Sisters' recording repertory: "I'm Going to Walk Out in Jesus’s Name", "I'm a Soldier", "God Will Take Care of You", and "I Must Tell Jesus". Donald's baritone falls somewhere between a blues shouter and a jazz craftsman. He makes singing as enjoyable and effortless as Hank Aaron made playing right field.

Cliff Dubose accompanies on piano, channeling the late Geraldine's unmistakable jaunty keyboard style. Dubose's left hand makes the piano dance while his right hand cranks out flowery ornamental fills. Other musicians on the album include drummer Curtis Fondren and organist Richard Gibbs, both of whom accompanied Elsa Harris on her recent the Sirens release, I Thank God.

The final portion of the CD is an interview with Donald. At first, the notion of a 30-minute interview filling up space ordinarily reserved for music struck me as peculiar, but the interview is extremely engaging. Donald shares firsthand stories about Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, and other stars he and his sisters had the opportunity to know. An anecdote about Elvis Presley is particularly memorable.

Like amber, On a Glorious Day preserves the sounds and stories of Chicago's traditional gospel music and church community for today’s listeners and for future generations.

Pastor Donald Gay made something of a name for himself in the gospel field as a three-year old 'kid preacher' and he performed with his older sisters, who recorded as The Gay Sisters in the golden age of Chicago gospel music between 1948 and 1973 – and several of their songs are re-made here. The pastor has recorded before for The Sirens, with four tracks on the collection, In the Right Hands, and the album Soulful Sounds in 2007 (see B&R 225). On these he was accompanied by his sister Geraldine Gay, who died in 2010 (she shared the credit on the 2007 album).

For this set Donald is accompanied by gospel veterans and Sirens stalwarts Cliff DuBose (piano and background vocals), Richard Gibbs on organ, and drummer Curtis Fondren, with other vocalists Gregory 'Juno' Gay, Jocelyn Buchanan and Elsa Harris helping out occasionally, as do Glenn Chambers and Donald 'Bosie' Hambric, who provide organ and guitar respectively on the jazzy instrumental, "Another Chance". Donald has a big, soulful and flexible voice – label boss Steven B. Dolins points out in his full notes that in different circumstances, Pastor Gay could have become a star vocalist like Sam Cooke, Jimmy Rushing or Joe Williams (I'd opt more for the last two).

He can be very bluesy – try the slow to mid-temp "You Can't Hurry God" or "Thank You Lord" and "Going With Jesus All The Way", the latter two with echoes of Ray Charles (or should that be the other way round?) and "He's Calling Me" is reminiscent of ‘60s soul-jazz. Bear in mind though that these terms are just reference points – this is indisputably gospel all the way. The majority of tracks run to around the two/three-minute mark, but the playing time is greatly enlarged by the inclusion of the final track, a fascinating and informative half hour long interview – it includes some reminiscences of blues, rock and roll, soul and jazz performers in addition to valuable gospel memories.

This kind of music has never really been documented, making this well worth investigating. But then again, it stands proudly as music in its own right, vital and authentic.