SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'I Want to be Free' by The Jordan Singers

The Jordan Singers were founded in 1959 by Ora Jordan Jackson and Robert Thomas in their hometown of Monroe, Louisiana where – unlike many gospel groups – they remained for most of their too-short career. The Jordans featured multiple first-rate lead vocalists ... so much so that the Chicago-based Checker label had the group come to St. Louis for the recording session that would result in the LP, I Want to Be Free in 1972... and hire gospel historian Tony Heilbut to write the liner notes.

The whole album is worth a listen, but I really like the title track, sung by Versie Gibson – in 1972, it was pretty gutsy to be singing lines like, “eliminate segregation, over the nation.” Gibson sounds a whole lot like a young Mavis Staples, and “I Want to Be Free” has that same marching-styled beat that made so many of the Staples’ freedom songs so memorable.

I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.

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