Kevin Bond is perhaps the finest producer in the gospel music industry today! In many circles he has been dubbed “The Million Music Maker.” Few could argue with that assertion or his credentials, as his name and production credits have thoroughly permeated the most prominent gospel CD and cassette jackets over the past 20 years.
A native of Chicago, Illinois, Kevin arrived on the gospel music scene in 1983. That year, as a 19 year-old prodigy he became the organist for the highly acclaimed Edwin Hawkins Music and Arts Seminar Mass Choir. Teaming with gospel pianist extraordinaire Richard Smallwood and a host of other gifted minstrels (including guitarist Jonathan Dubose and drummer/bassist Joel Smith), Kevin formally introduced himself to the gospel nation on the 1984 EHMAS release, Angels Will Be Singing.
Proverbs 18:16 states, “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.” Kevin stepped securely into that promise during the years immediately subsequent to his inauguration into the gospel music industry. His fresh approach to music directing coupled with his ultra-clean, innovative, yet sophisticated piano technique won him favor with the renowned Walter and Edwin Hawkins and The Hawkins Family. Serving as music director and keyboardist for the Hawkins music umbrella afforded him the opportunity to hone his skills in a privileged, yet challenging environment. That environment served as a major foundation for his ultimate musical destiny!
Well-established as a keyboardist and music director, Kevin began to exercise his production talents during the early 1990’s. He collaborated with a number of artists, including Stephanie Mills, Donald Lawrence and The Tri-City Singers, The Kurt Carr Singers and Trinitee 5:7, among others. His impeccable work with these artists proved him highly competent as a producer and firmly validated the “production” facet of his calling.
2010 seems set to be a good year for Muyiwa.
Profile of gospel singer Tonéx. Anthony Charles Williams II has never had a comfortable relationship with the industry that made him famous.
Fans know him as Tonéx. His eccentric style and vertiginous high notes helped make him one of the most acclaimed praise singers of the past decade, and, for a time, one of the most successful. He had a certain hip-hop swagger and the status of a sex symbol.
A boisterous live double CD, “Out the Box,” won him six trophies at the 2005 Stellar Awards, gospel’s most prestigious event. Tonéx was a welcome guest at all the biggest black churches, a regular presence on BET’s gospel shows, and a headliner at gospel festivals. He has released dozens of CDs, which contain some of the strangest and most seductive Christian pop music since the glory days of James Cleveland; his most evident musical forbears are adventurous pop stars such as Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson, and Erykah Badu. He made it a habit to tweak old-fashioned, upstanding churchgoers.
Plans are in motion to bring together British Christian artists from the world of gospel, urban gospel, praise and worship and CCM music to record a charity single on February 27, 2010, at the world famous Abbey Road studios in St Johns Wood, London, to raise money for victims of the Haitian earthquake.
Lawrence Johnson, co-founder of the London Community gospel choir and Les Moir of Kingsway Music have joined forces to organise the recording after being moved into action after watching the scenes of devastation caused by the earthquake that hit the island of Haiti on January 12, leaving over 200,000 people dead and the infrastructure of much of the country destroyed.
Artists that have pledged their support to this charity recording initiative include X Factor finalists Voices With Soul and Beverley Trotman, Amy Stead, Graham Kendrick and Tim Hughes, Britain’s leading praise and worship artists, Ken Riley, LZ7, Simon Brading, Tre Shepherd, MOBO award winners Victizzle and Jahaziel, E-Tizz, New Direction, 29th Chapter, Roger Samuels, Cie, Lurine Cato, Priscilla Jones, Cie, Faye Simpson, Trumpets of Zion, Festival of Light Choir, New Wine Choir, IDMC and the Audrey Mattis Chorale.
Dance4Daddy brings you uplifting addictive hooks, big powerhouse vocals and thumping baselines. The lead track Dance for Daddy is being played in the Dolce and Gabbana Fashion shows. With producers from countries as far afield as New Zealand, Croatia and Holland, Dance4Daddy’s one ambition is to get you on the dancefloor with uplifting ‘rise up’ anthems – wherever you are! Debut singles, ‘Another Day‘ and ‘Dancing for Daddy’ feature winner of BBC Radio 1’s masterclass with Usher, Jacy Mai – the little singer with a massive voice!
‘Another Day’ and ‘Dance for Daddy’ are released Summer 2010
GUVNA B The New Website
GUNNA B Sign Up for Free Download
UK Gospel artiste Guvna B continues to set a high standard in his chosen genre by starting 2010 with the launch of his own website and a free download as a thank you to his supporters. Guvna expects the site to become, not just a site for lovers of his music to access content, but a hub for UK christian rap in general. The 20 year old artiste blogged “This site is a dream come true to me. For those that know me I LOVE interacting with people via social networking sites. Facebook, Myspace and twitter are great but there are a few limitations.”
“Are You Listening” is available for purchase at www.verityrecords.com right now. The single will be available next week on iTunes, Wal-Mart and other major retailers. It’s only a $1.29, please support this amazing single.
Article Source: gospelconnoisseur.com
Fyi UK – Audition Time: New South London Choir Wanted, ages 13-25. Auditions, Jan 23rd in Greenwich!
Young people in South London are invited to audition and become part of a funky new contemporary choir aiming to be the most talked about youth chorale outfit in London that is being formed in the London Borough of Greenwich.
This soon to be launched choir is the brainchild of Michael Kosmas, a young social entrepreneur, and will provide young people with opportunities to develop new musical skills, build confidence, perform in public and learn to work in a team with others.
Michael stated, “One thing guaranteed to attract the interest and unite young people together is music. This new choir will give young people of different ages and backgrounds an opportunity to meet other young people, form new friendships and more importantly acquire new skills that will arise as a result of learning new songs and performing in a choir. Plus they’ll be inspiring the public with the great songs they’ll be singing.”
Following the auditions, official rehearsals will start on January 30th 2010. Choir members will learn to sing a mixture of gospel songs and inspirational numbers and plans are in motion to officially launch the choir in July.
It seems that Tye Tribbett and Greater Anointing will be parting ways. It is being reported that in 2010 Tye will be launching a solo career and that their New Year’s Eve concert in Washingotn was the last event that he would be doing with Greater Anointing. Tye apparently broke the news of his decision to his choir members
at a rehersal and it didn’t go down too well.
In 2009 Tye went through a number of personal situations which were reported around the world. He bounced back and went back to performing and ministering both in the US and the Caribbean including Jamaica.
Always performing with a live band and is known for being theatrical in their performance and Tye doing the splits, Greater Anointing will be missed on the scene.
They were different in their approach, style and presentation and had a strong presence with young people as they came with something fresh.
Russell Léonce is officially releasing the Song ‘Born 2 Die’. The song was written in 2007 and received local radio airplay in his country Trinidad and Tobago, but was never made available to members of the public.
Free Download More Love
Russell released his debut album ‘Culture of Love’ in March 2009. The album has just been nominated in the Gospel Category of the 9th Annual Independent Music Awards and is available for purchase on CD Baby, iTunes, Rhapsody and other download sites. With this album he gave away a free song entitled ‘More Love’ and continues to make this song available to anyone who joins his website, ‘www.russellleonce.com’.
‘Desire To Worship God (DTWG) is fast becoming a renowned name on the UK Gospel scene’.
Their vision… “is to use the powerful message of the gospel to impact their generation; as well as promoting gospel music in mainstream communities”.
Since the groups’ formation in 2003, its members have featured at various events across the UK and are beginning to break into Europe.
They have also been opportune to have been featured on various TV and radio stations; including BBC1, BBC3, Premier Christian Radio, BEN TV, OBE TV, LoveWorld TV, Revelation TV, Channel M, BBC Radio.
One of their band members Kristyna Myles broke into the UK album chart Top 10 song with her melodic song “My Lord”. This track appeared alongside tracks from Amy Winehouse and Erykah Badu on the compilation CD ‘Songbird 2008’.
Having recently released their first album ‘The Project: Desire to Worship God’; DTWG has announced they will be taking their album on tour across the UK.
The album has already been well received by Christians and non-Christians across the country. Since the release of ‘The Project’ DTWG has received much recognition and was recently nominated for a MOBO Award and a GMA; “watch out for bigger and better to the glory of God, in 2010” says Samuel the founder of DTWG.
Billboard magazine have compiled a list of the 10 best selling gospel albums of the decade. No British artist features, but lets hope that by 2011, some British gospel artist will have picked up the gauntlet, challenge and become a musicial force to be reckoned with.
Here is the top 10 list.
1. Yolanda Adams Mountain High…Valley Low
2. Donnie McClurkin Live in London and More
3. Kirk Franklin The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin
4. Mary Mary Thankful
5. Kirk Franklin Hero
6. Yolanda Adams Believe
7. Marvin Sapp Thirsty
8. Mary Mary Mary Mary
9. The Fighting Temptations Soundtrack
10. Mary Mary Incredible
The top five albums in this list all sold 1 million copies or more. The bottom five have sold 500,000 or more.
On Thursday morning, December 31, 2009, Richard “s/ave” Douglas (36) went to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. He died in his sleep at his home in Houston, Texas from an epileptic seizure. While he had battled the condition for many years, this was an unexpected occurrence and a complete shock to his friends and family.
Born on March 27, 1973, s/ave was a devoted follower of Jesus and passionate fan of hip hop music. In the mid-90’s he was on staff at Grapetree Records and served as editor of Heaven’s Hip Hop Magazine – one of the first true attempts at Christian rap journalism and a lifeline for fans of the faith-based music in the pre-Internet age. He penned the “Real Criticisms” column and initiated an “Unsigned Acts” issue that spotlighted future Christian rap figures such as Nuwine, Future Shock, and Raphi Henley (aka Shames Worthy).
After moving to Houston, s/ave started the ONEMIND newsletter in 1995 out of his one-bedroom apartment and continued to cover the genre. As the one-sheet garnered more readers, it grew to into ONEMIND Magazine and featured the writings of James “Bad Luck” Parry, Kenneth “Bus” Falls, Jr. (owner of The Bus Shop), Excelsius, Jelani Greenidge, and Sketch the Journalist.
As the world wide web boomed and ushered in the Information Age, s/ave adapted his magazine to an online forum. OM95.com continued to bring album reviews, news, and analysis to the Christian hip hop culture. Its vibrant message board continued to build community until the launch of DaSouth.com.
That site was created to be unified banner site for gospel rappers in the Gulf Coast area. The concept was that artists would forgo forging their own web identities and adopt the DaSouth.com name. Not only that, s/ave was strategic in the launch of The Bus Shop – the first and longest running Christian Hip Hop store on the web – along with Kenneth “Bus” Falls, Jr. He gave the store its name and also created it’s first website.
