FESTIVAL ’90 : A Soulful Experience From Gospel : Choirs: African Americans complement their worship services with strong, energetic rhythms. Now, gospel is a category in the Los Angeles Festival.

Gospel. To many it means the good news, the message as taught by Jesus Christ.

But for increasing numbers of Southern Californians it has come to mean good music--music evocative of the religious experience of African Americans--soulful spiritual singing set to strong, energetic rhythms.

“It’s part of our worship experience,” says Barbara Allen, minister of music at Faithful Central Missionary Baptist Church, “but it does not take the place of The Word.”

Celeste Johnson, co-director with her husband Kevin of the Johnson Gospel Choir, agrees. “ ‘If I Faint Not’ is a biblically sound song, and that’s important,” she says of a number that her group will perform.

“Some songs are based on your testimony. It’s important to let people know that God is still working miracles,” Celeste Johnson says.

Actually, black gospel, which for the first time is a category in the biannual Los Angeles Festival, stems from two divergent musical traditions: the biblically oriented spiritual and the blues. History credits Thomas Dorsey with writing and publishing the first gospel hit “If You See My Saviour” in 1926 and coining the term “gospel song.” But in his earlier years, Dorsey enjoyed a long career as blues singer Georgia Tom.

Although most black ministers rejected as unsuitable the efforts of Dorsey and others to project new musical form into the church, they persisted. To popularize the music, Dorsey hired singers to perform in secular venues. In a matter of a few years gospels had replaced spirituals as the primary liturgical music in the black church. Dorsey is also credited with later discovering Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward, who went on to become gospel greats.

Four choirs will be continuing the tradition at the festival: The Voices of Faith, the Johnson Gospel Choir, the St. Brigid’s Catholic Church Youth Choir (or the New Generation Choir) and the First African Methodist Episcopal Church Choir, known as the FAME Choir. They will perform at “Make a Joyous Noise” tonight at 8 p.m. at the Sunset Canyon Amphitheatre (UCLA) and at the Warner Grand Theater in San Pedro on next Saturday at 8 p.m.

Barbara Allen describes the Voices of Faith, as “different” and “very versatile.”

“I try to run the gamut with them--traditional, contemporary and the more sacred gospel. Usually, other choirs do anthems or spirituals well, but that’s all they do. The Voices of Faith have a great appreciation for all types of music, even the hymns.”

“I would say we do a disciplined gospel music,” says Joe Westmoreland, minister of music at First A.M.E. Church, which has six choirs. “There’s a certain discipline, but there is a freedom within that discipline. We can be disciplined and yet have the freedom to be spontaneous and creative. . . .”

A composer, as are the other choir directors, Westmoreland says he and other musical cohorts at First A.M.E compose “70% of the music for the church service.”

At least two of the directors are increasingly in demand. Westmoreland in mid-August had just returned from a gospel music festival in Stockholm where he “taught a seminar and directed a mass choir of approximately 500 singers.” He also led the 500 voices that performed at City Hall and at the Museum of Science and Industry at Exposition Park during Nelson Mandela’s whirlwind visit to Los Angeles in late June. Barbara Allen directed the 1,000-voice choir that sang at the NAACP convention in July.

Gospel is a recent phenomenon in the Catholic Church, but it is thriving in African-American parishes--without abandoning the Catholic liturgy.

“We can take an ‘Ave Maria’ and turn into something with a black Catholic feel,” says Dale La Motte, director of New Generation, the youth choir at St. Brigid’s Catholic Church. “I’ve arranged a composition of the ‘Hail Mary,’ a cappella. It’s totally black.

“What I’m trying to do with the kids is be versatile,” La Motte says. “They sing a capella, old-time gospel, Pentecostal type things with a message for young people, but still with the Catholic background.”

The New Generation membership hovers around 30, ranging in age from 11 to 22, but the numbers fluctuate, especially around school time.

“What I’ve done is get a few kids that go to college here,” says La Motte. “That’s my foundation. The older kids are the backbone of the whole thing. The younger kids see that they can still go to school, still work and sing in the choir.”

Although Kevin and Celeste Johnson are Catholic, former choir directors at Holy Name Catholic Church, the Johnson choir specializes in “contemporary” gospel. The choir is open to anyone who wants to join. Even white Catholics have welcomed the opportunity to get exposed to gospel music.

“Black Catholic churches are moving in the direction of having gospel choirs,” including the guitars, drums, tambourines, says Celeste Johnson.

Both Kevin and Celeste Johnson are soloists, and often they sing duets. Mostly, however, Kevin plays piano as she directs. Celeste often plays guitar. A lot of the music is their own composition, and the choir is trying to complete a gospel album.

At “Make a Joyous Noise,” the Voices of Faith will “be doing every type of music--a hymn, contemporary gospel, an anthem,” says Barbara Allen.

“It’s my belief that the church should offer music for all ages, all types of people because there are all types of people who come to the church,” says Faithful Central’s Barbara Allen . “We have an obligation as a Christian organization to expose the membership to all types of music.”