For most of gospel music’s history, making music was pretty much a slap-dash affair at best. Most gospel record labels were under-funded, sometimes run by unsavory people, and the artists were treated as a nuisance rather than a resource. Recording sessions took place in a matter of hours in cheap studios and the artists were paid a pittance.
Occasionally, a label would spring for a couple of Christmas-related tracks ... and the artists usually had to provide their own material. That’s apparently what happened to the Six Trumpets in 1961. Nashboro booked some time in their hometown Nashville studio and the group emerged a few hours later with “Jesus Christ the Baby.”
For all of that, it’s an usually touching, sweet-spirited offering. The Six Trumpets only recorded eight 45s for Nashboro in the early ‘60s before disappearing forever. But “Jesus Christ, the Baby,” with its doo wop flourishes and the lead singer’s lovely falsetto, is a great little early Christmas present for people who love this music.
MUSIC: “Jesus Christ, the Baby,” The Six Trumpets, 45 (Dec. 11, 2022)
I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU, the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries and is funded by generous support from the Prichard Foundation.