You could pinpoint the exact moment “Kosher Gospel Singer” Joshua Nelson’s set at City Park’s Foundation Central Park Summerstage on Saturday went wrong. A 100 minutes in, Nelson performed an “Elijah Rock” that echoed Mahalia Jackson’s testifying genius version. Nelson walked off stage and sang in the middle of Rumsey Field, the “Rock Rock Rock”‘s iterated with a passionate roar and delivered directly to the audience who responded with a joyful noise.
He should have got off stage. That was his finest moment and he wasn’t going to top it. It reminded me of a story in Clive Davis’ autobiography where he tells of taking his young rock stars to play a record distributors convention, and Janis Joplin who was headlining was worried about whether the older audience would like her. Janis performed a great set but the audience didn’t respond well. Why? Because they were all cheered out. True, Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” was gonna be a tough sell at any time during the evening and performing it as a respite wasn’t a terrible idea, but the following four songs -which included spot on impressions of Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and of course Mahalia herself. It should have been the crowning moment in the two hour set but people were exhausted and the set petered out.
However, getting there was where it was at. I had seen Joshua Nelson last January at the Summerstage Showcase, where he stole the evening from under Shuggie Otis nose so I had an idea what to expect. But it took him till an overwhelming “Come On Children, Let’s Sing” introduced with the incredible assertion that among her many achievements, not least being the first crossover and star period of Gospel music, she was the first to introduce keyboards! Joshua, a smart black music man, who explains his simultaneous embrace of Judaism and Gospel by quoting Shakespeare’s “A rose by any other name…” took over the keyboards for a solo and the evening swung into high gear and didn’t relent for over an hour.
Joshua allowed the songs to wield their way, however long it took, till the audience were entirely embrace by the songs, from “He’s Got The Whole World IN His Hand” to “Troubles In The World”, Joshua made every song a perfect song of praise, a happy leap to salvation. And in between he brought out Della Reese.
Della Reese performed her signature song “Walk With Me” , the one “Touched By An Angel” got its name from before joining in a stirring rendition of “Just A Closer Walk With Thee”. Then she told some Della and Mahalia stories, which I am gonna paraphrase for you. The lyric soprano was a star of her Church from an early age and when during a Mahalia Jackson concert at the Church, one of the choir collapsed, her husband refused to allow the woman to tour the South. 15 year old Della joined Miss Jackson after Della’s mother insisted Mahalia take care of her. Dreams of being chased by cute boys came to a fast conclusion when Mahalia “sat on my chest worst than my Mommy did”. One day Della asked Mahalia how she moved the audience so well: “If you feel it down here”, Mahalia said, “then you can bring it out and share it and then they will feel it from you to them”. These are words Joshua and Della have spent their career embracing.
As a Gospel performer, nelson brings a passion to his New Orleans swing, Southern Baptist feel, genre criss crossing music and a precision and a passion to his performance that works as a form of uplift, it lifts up your soul and, since Joshua isn’t Christian and I am an agnostic, God might be the template but the joy is just as much in the music.
Later that night, there was a screening of “Mahalia Jackson’s ‘The Power And The Glory'” and very near the beginning is a snippet of Jackson shaking and singing possessed by love and sound, her hair a mess, bringing an audience to tears. Mahalia was inversion of Ray Charles, Charles brought Gospel to secular music, Mahalia brought secular music to Gospel. And Joshua Nelson did her proud.
Grade: B+