SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - Donald Vails

When Donald Vails died in September 1997 after a long illness, he was just 49 years old. But in that time, this child prodigy from Atlanta recorded 16 albums of superb gospel music, mostly for the Savoy label.

He also served as National Minister of Music for the Gospel Music Workshop of America.

But it is also worth noting that Vails founded the Detroit Youth Kaleidoscope, which provided academic, spiritual and musical development for thousands of young people. It was from Kaleidoscope that the Voice of Deliverance group was founded, which in 1977 released the best-selling album What a Wonderful Savior I've Found.

From one of Donald Vails Choraleers' first LPs, I Will Serve Thee, "He Looked Beyond My Fault" from 1975.

MUSIC: Donald Vails Choraleers, I Will Serve Thee LP, "He Looked Beyond My Faults," Side I, Track I (September 3, 2023)

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.

PREVIOUS EPISODES OF SHOUT! BLACK GOSPEL MUSIC MOMENTS

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From the Zion Sings LP by the venerable Zion Missionary Baptist Church of East Chicago, Indiana, comes this moving and reverent version of the spiritual, “The Old Ship of Zion.”

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "People Get Ready" by The Chamber Brothers

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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - “Oh, Mother Tonight” by The Gospel Twins

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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Oh, Have You" by Evangelist Jessie Mae Renfro

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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - “No Segregation in Heaven” by Jordan Jubilee

The Jordan Jubilee’s slow and brooding “No Segregation in Heaven” was a pretty grave statement to make in the early 1970s!

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Down by the Riverside" by The Rev. Cecil Harris and His Choir

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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Pray on My Child" by Rev. Milton Brunson and the Thompson Community Singers

That’s the powerful voice of Maggie Bell on the Rev. Milton Brunson and the Thompson Community Choir’s version of “Pray on My Child.”

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "No Hiding Place" by The Doves

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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "No Friend Like the Lord" by The Silver Bells

The unknown Silver Bells of Macon, Georgia’s “No Friend Like the Lord” is a masterclass in a cappella doo-wop styled gospel singing.