Drexel Glasgow’s Gospel in a Mello Tone does it again (LHM)

British Virgin Islands

As I expected, Drexel Glasgow’s Gospel in a Mello Tone had recaptured their stride in the four months since I last saw them at Jazz on the Hill in May, 2009.  Right off the bat, the band sound was on point.  The volume level was silky on the ears and the tone infectious.  The engineering mix balanced out all of the instruments to perfection; the five-strong chorus of singers too.

This is extremely important in the BVI context, for as much as there are competent sound engineers around, their knowledge of Jazz is sorely lacking as evidenced by the sound  fiasco of Jazz on the Hill earlier this year.  I will make the connection.  No wonder an engineer had to come out of the United States Virgin Islands to make the GMT sound as they should.

Not having to worry about “technical difficulties,” Gospel in a Mello Tone took flight with a Latin selection entitled ‘Tribute to the King’ in support of the New Life Baptist Church (NLBC) Dancers.  GMT did promise A Night of Worship in Song, Dance and the Arts.

For ‘The Lord’s Prayer,’ which Glasgow adapted with an original arrangement, the reeds and brass dropped out, save for the featured soprano sax of Jeremy Vanterpool.  The chorus of singers lifted their voices above the combo to match Vanterpool’s intensity – now softly sleeping – as in exultation.

‘The Lord’s Prayer’ was reprised as a solo exposé for the leader, Drexel Glasgow who, for all intents and purposes embodied the song as he developed it from the knees (literally) up to a sustained note that pulsed and drew the patrons out.

I then saw a pattern forming with the band doing another double take, two adaptations of ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness.’ The first was pensive in delivery, Glasgow taking the lead and the band holding down a low ride rhythm for him.

The second take was done to a funk back beat to allow Akim Johnson to let this arrangement by the Church of God of Prophecy, Huntum’s Ghut fly on the pan. The extended solo, punctuated with starts and stops, none too jerky though, was incised only by the classical guitar of Gath Hewlett.  Gath has not blessed my eyes in a major concert such as GMT 11 so I would have to surmise that was the reason why he was tight and tense and why he sometimes lost the level of fluidity demanded by his five-finger picking when the nails inadvertently missed the strings.

Jonathan Butler’s ‘Falling in Love With Jesus’ was a highlight for singer Kassandra Malone.  However, had Randy McDowall been given any more leeway on keyboards, Malone may well have been upstaged.   His short interjection was thrilling to the point of leaving one exasperated when he had to give way to Malone.  That is how good this guy is.

But then, surprisingly – and pleasantly so – he was immediately placed front and center under the spotlight on ‘Total Praise’ (Richard Smallwood).

This turned the concert into a piano recital as McDowall swooped up and down the keys, half-lifting his hands to the heavens before alighting them back on the ivories with exquisite, feathery touches.   Of course, he was assisted in this device by the bassist, Darren Vanterpool, and drummer, Kennel Stoutt, who dropped in on the party, riling and working him up even more.

At that point, maybe not by device at all, Glasgow prompted the audience – a full house by the way – to join in as a mass choir.  There was hardly a pair of closed lips in the house.  The spirit was descending, or is it rising?

‘Precious Lord’ (Thomas Dorsey)/’Just a Closer Walk with Thee’ (Traditional) was given a makeover of sorts: a vamp to start with, a begging sax solo by the leader, a classical fling by Hewlett juxtaposed by an unabashed funk arrangement. On top of that, McDowall produced another pianistic essay that could have stood on its own in any setting.

Fanny Crosby’s ‘Blessed Assurance’ was given a rollicking, swing treatment to close the first half of The Gospel in a Mello Tone presents Praise Hymn – music to lift your spirit & soothe your soul.   At the outset, I thought that the band was going to drift the set to a calm pause.  Lo and behold, percussionist Raphael del Rosario put hands to conga drum skins and Stoutt sticks to drum heads.   The next thing you know, the Glasgow was trading nursery rhymes on the tenor with the pianist McDowall, which drowned the audience in fits of laughter – well deserved.

‘The Lord Has Been Good’ was GMT’s first original of the night.  They categorized it as a GMT Cadence.   I say the head sounded all too familiar.  But if anything was to be dubbed creative, it would have to be the stylistic fingering of the bassist, the left and right hands meeting low down on the neck of the five-string axe to give the song character.  And then trumpeter Reuben Fernandez unleashed another one of his pyrotechnics, clean-cut and exuberant as is typical of this not-often-seen musician.   Fernandez has has his reasons, he tells me, but it is a shame that he is not his own person on the BVI music scene.

A shame indeed, when one listened to Fernandez dish out a mellowed, aged blurts on the heels of Glasgow’s well-in-form alto on ‘My Tribute’ by Andrae Crouch.  I was enraptured by the mood of the piece, the light, classical runs on the amplified acoustic guitar and the lukewarm response of the pianist, each soloist complementing each other like the threads of a spider’s web.

At this point, Fernandez switched to the flugelhorn to deliver with Malone ‘The Prayer,’ threaded through as it were by the leader and the pianist to needle-point perfection.

Gospel in a Mello Tone would not have been thoroughly fulfilling without a Smooth Jazz offering in the form of ‘How Great Thou Art.’ That was a job for Jeremy Vanterpool’s soprano saxophone.  It was truly amazing how authentic the band sounded as a unit on this one – no standouts, no grandstanding, just a feel-good groove by the nine-piece outfit.  Yes of course, solos were taken and Glasgow and Vanterpool went at it for a while, but they were both subservient to the song, I felt.

The concert then took a turn in an interesting direction: an out of the park bass solo on Kirk Franklin’s ‘Don’t Cry’ by Darren Vanterpool and a remarkable arrangement of ‘Give Me a Clean Heart’ (Adoration and Prayze.)

And then the finalé, ‘Without You,’ a Latin inflected rendition, was a time for Pastor Colin Gunthrope to exhort the congregation, the real reason behind this free Night of Worship.

VERDICT?

It was evident that the musicians had really enjoyed the shared experience with their audience, choosing to continue jammin’ long after the curtains had been drawn and the vast majority of the patrons were on their way home.   That enthusiasm was key to the telepathic transfer of spiritual energy by GMT that most will be sustained in the core of the souls who filled the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College’s Auditorium to capacity this September 19th.

Missing from GMT Members, Derek Vanterpool, tenor sax