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| As the Gospel music explosion of the 1990�s resounds into a new millennium, The Kurt Car Singers stand as a bridge between hallowed tradition and cutting-edge innovation. And the seven-voice ensemble�s third and latest profound message and musical excitement that have always been the cornerstones of Gospel still stand, strong and sturdy as ever, in the care of Kurt and a whole new generation of musical visionaries. �We want to reach mama down in Mississippi, as well as college kids up at Yale,� says Kurt, who formed the group in 1989. �Our mission is to mesh the tradition of the church with contemporary music and expand our boundaries across the entire spectrum of popular music.� Kurt wrote all the project�s songs except one, and co-published with hot up-and-comer, Jason White. With lead and choral vocals all shared by Kurt and his six associates, Awesome Wonder offers a dazzling mix of gentle ballads of praise, as well as healthy helpings of percolating percussion, punching horns, and Latin, R & B, pop and urban coloration, all seamlessly woven together. While few artists are ever completely comfortable with categorizations that are inevitably affixed to their work, Kurt is content with the pocket the public seems to have put him in. �Each of my songs has its own particular purpose,� he says, �but they fit together as a complementary and very complete statement and experience. I never think in categories musically, but people seem to hear our music as sort of a convergence between praise & worship songs with a strong Gospel and contemporary R & B flavor. And I�m very conformable with that. We believe that praising and worshipping God is what we were created for. � �In The Sanctuary� is a feel-good song,� Kurt elaborates. �It�s Gospel/pop music with words of praise and worship. I want to make people feel good about worshipping God. I pray that it will catch fire, and churches all over the world will be singing, �Yes!� to the Lord. I also think it will get the attention of people who aren�t familiar with today�s Gospel music. I want them to be singing with the radio, then realizing what they�re saying, and want to know more. �I asked a Latino brother, Alberto Salas, who�s Andrae Crouch�s band leader and percussionist, to help me on, �We Offer You Praise,� � he continues. �It�s always intrigued me that all the rhythm instruments in Latin music are playing something different, and yet they all fit together. It�s a praise & worship song, but musically very authentic to tradition; we went all the way there.� The album�s funky and irresistibly melodic title song almost didn�t exist in time to be included on the project that now bears its name. � �Awesome Wonder� was written and recorded after we initially thought the record was finished,� Kurt explains. �I just realized there was something else I still wanted to say. It�s a little more urban then I�ve ever gone but I�m comfortable there. The song talks about the majesty, awesomeness and the grandness of God and creation. I like putting a basic, fundamental message like that with a very modern groove. � �We Declare War� is an emphatic statement that even as Gospel music reaches out to the masses, we can�t lose the power of the message in order to get there. Gospel is not limited to any one particular sound musically today. Gospel is all about lyrical content, and what a song has to say. And we have to remain bold in our message. �I want to minister to the needs of people,� he adds, �and not just to their emotions or to their ears. I want the music to sound good, and to make them feel good. But to me, all that is pointless if we aren�t also doing something to touch the spirit and go to the very heart of a man or woman.� Though Kurt says Christian values prevailed in his home throughout his youth, his was not a church-going family. At age 13, Kurt took initiative and started attending services regularly, and soon became active in his church�s music programs. �I had a natural ear for music, and my mother saw my interest in Gospel, so she bought me a Walter Hawkins album around that time,� Kurt remembers. �It literally changed my life. I listened to it every single day for at least a year or two, and I taught myself how to play piano from those songs.� The legendary Hawkins was only the first of small but singular group of artists who helped point Kurt down the Gospel pathway. �There has been a myriad of people who have shaped what I believe developed into a style that is uniquely my own,� Kurt says. �James Cleveland, Andrae Crouch, The Hawkins Family; they are the reason I know about gospel music.� Kurt, a native of Hartford, CT, received classical training at the University of Connecticut. Graduating with a degree in fine arts, he was also mentored and strongly influenced by classically trained Gospel great, Richard Smallwood, whom he affectionately refers to today as his �godfather.� My classical studies broadened my horizons and taught me not to be afraid to experiment with different things,� Kurt explains. �I listened to all kinds of music, which accounts for a lot of our musical diversity today. That experience also gave me an edge on what real musicianship is about. I�d like to be remembered as one of the true musicians.� In 1986, Kurt came to the attention of Gospel patriarch, Reverend James Cleveland, who asked the young Kurt to join him as his pianist and musical director-a-capacity in which a somewhat amazed Kurt joyfully functioned until the reverend�s death in 1991. �Working so closely with Rev. Cleveland imbedded traditional Gospel music to me,� says Kurt. �My style, and the diversity of my songs, no matter how contemporary it is, always brings you back to church a little bit. But more than anything, Rev. Cleveland taught me how to make music minister to people and touch their hearts, and to never to give the Lord anything less than my very best. I will never forget that.� |
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