The Music Is Black

As part of the BBC’s Music Is Black season, renowned choir director Mark De-Lisser visits the new exhibition of the same name at the V&A East Museum and introduces exhilarating new music from the London Community Gospel Choir and special guests.

Mark takes a guided tour with curator Jacqueline Springer to explore how black music and the sounds and songs of the black church have influenced British culture and worship today.

In Manchester, key figures from soul, pop and gospel gather to celebrate the unveiling of a new blue plaque in honour of a remarkable trailblazer, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Pauline Black, lead singer of The Selecter, tells the story of how Sister Rosetta, known as the 'godmother of rock 'n' roll’, became one of the world’s most influential and pioneering Christian musicians. She explains how she brought church music from America to a wider audience, including in an iconic performance at a Manchester railway station in 1964.

Mark then meets Bazil and Leonn Meade of the world-renowned London Community Gospel Choir, who have been thrilling audiences for over 40 years. Mark explores the choir’s often controversial journey to performing with some of the world’s top artists, learning that faith has always been central to their music.

And there are brand new music recordings especially for the season. In the iconic New Testament Assembly Church in Tooting, the London Community Gospel Choir raise the praise with uplifting worship. And there are powerful solos from West End stars Sharlene Hector and Lawrence Rowe, and renowned soul singer Sarah Brown:

Faith – The London Community Gospel Choir
He Looked Beyond My Faults – Sharlene Hector
Didn’t It Rain – Sarah Brown
Take My Hand, Precious Lord – Lawrence Rowe
Happy Are the People – London Community Gospel Choir
Oh Happy Day! – Union Chapel, London