With The Harlem Gospel Travelers‘ new album Rhapsody, the extraordinary vocalists Ifedayo, 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. HGT’s longtime friend and mentor Eli Paperboy Reed approached the group with the idea of digging through the Numero catalog and recording some of the gospel-funk material, reinterpreted in their own way—from the high-energy, old-school soul of “God’s Been Good to Me” to the hip-hop-inflected “Get Involved.”
The Harlem Gospel Travelers story began when Gatling and Marage met while studying under Reed’s tutelage. The group put out their debut LP, He’s On Time, to rave reviews in 2019, earning them high profile fans like Elton John and landing them festival slots everywhere from Pilgrimage to Telluride Jazz. Originally a quartet, they brought in Bailey and reconfigured as a trio prior to recording Look Up!, their first album of all original material.
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. “We always found it difficult to stay in this one lane of what people think gospel is supposed to be,” says Ifedayo. “This record allowed us to hear people that were innovators in their own time, pushing how gospel music sounded, and now we’ve created this project that is message-wise gospel, but the feeling and the sound can be whatever you want it to be.”
The genre-busting approach of Rhapsody also encouraged the members of HGT to further embrace their own identities within the context of gospel music. “There are a whole bunch of queer people in the traditional church,” says Ifedayo, “but the openness hasn’t been there, people are very hush-hush about it. We want to represent people being free and sharing love and understanding with each other. That’s something that I see in our show all the time, people are inspired by us to go and spread love.”
“It’s great to be a representation of a positive force and gospel music that is accepting of all people,” Ifedayo continues. “To allow people to see themselves, see full freedom of expression—and how I express myself is completely different from how George or Dennis expresses himself. To have three different representations of Black queer people who happen to sing gospel music is something that, to my knowledge, has not been done before.”
Following the release of their three previous singles “Searching For The Truth,” “We Don’t Love Enough” and “God’s Love,” the band just dropped “Jesus Rhapsody, Pt.1,” the final single ahead of HGT’s new album ‘Rhapsody.’ This new single finds the group questioning what it means to be a gospel group, and challenging how people view gospel. Their aim is to express that it’s about putting love, joy, and acceptance above judgement and hate.
Sonically, the track is high energy and pulls you in with its irresistible groove. Reminiscent of Soul Train, ‘Jesus Rhapsody, Pt. 1’ portrays the vocal power of good-old-gospel. Ifedayo, band member, co-producer, and lead vocalist on this track, screams, whoops, and hollers like the preacher’s kid that they are.
This track is a cover of ‘Jesus Rhapsody, pt.1’ by Preacher & The Saints, and taken from the Numero Group catalog. Originally recorded in Cleveland, Ohio and described as “gospel’s bread baked in funk’s pan,” The Travelers bring this same energy, but with a refreshing, modern, and exhilarating approach.
The Harlem Gospel Travelers’ new album Rhapsody will be released August 23rd via Colemine Records. Click here to pre-order. Their first four singles from it, “Jesus Rhapsody Pt. 1,” “Searching for the Truth,” “We Don’t Love Enough” and “God’s Love,” are out now on all DSPs.
