Harlem Gospel Travelers: Rhapsody (midnight blue) LP

With their new album "Rhapsody", the extraordinary vocalists Ifedayo Gatling, Dennis Bailey, and George Marage are able to fully explore the entire range of music that influenced them. The follow-up to their acclaimed 2021 release "Look Up!", the record is a dive into a lesser-known but hugely important era in the evolution of gospel music. Starting in the mid-1960s, local gospel groups and singers began incorporating elements of popular soul and funk styles and in 2006, Chicago-based reissue label Numero Group released "Good God!" A Gospel Funk Hymnal". Harlem Gospel Travellers's longtime friend and mentor Eli "Paperboy" Reed approached the group with the idea of digging through the Numero catalogue and recording some of the gospel funk material, reinterpreted in their own way. At a moment when the world is reconsidering the concepts of genre and category and who's allowed to participate in which traditions, HGT are squarely on the cultural pulse.