There are a couple of gospel groups called the Gospel Clefs, including the one founded in the late 1950s that featured the brilliant Leon Lumpkins. A second group, The Rev. J.R. Lockley and His Original Gospel Clefs, may not be quite as well known, but they’re pretty nifty as well. Lockley’s incarnation of the group boasted the powerful Ann Moncrief on lead vocals, as you’ll hear on this searing rendition of the spiritual, “One of These Mornings.”
As for Lockley, he eventually became a bishop and was influential in introducing the “sacred steel guitar” sound to the Church of the Living God – which continues that tradition today and can be best heard even now in the virtuoso steel guitar stylings of Robert Randolf and the Family Band.
I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.
