TV Reviews : Black Gospel Specials Worthy of High Praise

Black gospel, probably the least appreciated of all major music forms when it comes to television, gets its due with a highly unusual double-barreled salute this weekend. The premiere half-hour episode of the limited series “Gospel According to VH-1” (on the cable music channel Sunday at 5 a.m. and 10 p.m.) is followed the very same day by a rare prime-time gala, the two-hour “Stellar Gospel Music Awards” special (9 p.m. on KTLA Channel 5).

To quote the Scripture-- (not!) --when it rains, it pours.

Though it goes unstated, both shows share a limited definition of gospel, i.e., as an exclusively black art form. (In other words, don’t look for Amy Grant here.) Given black gospel’s rather limited resources for self-promotion, though, the exclusion of more visible Christian rock and pop stars scarcely forms much reason for complaint.

The Stellar Awards are handed out in three R&B-related; genres--traditional, contemporary and urban contemporary, with the least emphasis, surprisingly, on the latter category (though that’s the one to which most of the top-selling crossover artists, like BeBe & CeCe Winans and Take 6, are assigned).

It’s flabbergasting and frankly delightful to see so much corporate-sponsored air time given over to acts wholly unknown outside the gospel ghetto, with Daryl Coley, the Ricky Grundy Chorale and the Williams Brothers among the highly revved featured performers in this seventh annual telecast.

Taped at UCLA’s Royce Hall with hosts Clifton Davis and Marilyn McCoo, the show maintains plenty of gospel’s spirit and power in the glitzy translation. And the tie-in to Martin Luther King Day is given more than lip service, with a special award to Rosa Parks and a brief clip of the late James Cleveland singing “Abraham, Martin and John.”

But what keeps the show from soaring as it ought is the use of prerecorded instrumentals when a live house band would have lit a sorely needed fire under these powerhouse singers. Even BeBe & CeCe Winans, the most electrifying vocalists this side of the psalmists, can’t quite get their opening version of “I’ll Take You There” (with Mavis Staples) into overdrive with just a backing track.

“Gospel According to VH-1,” a four-episode series hosted by Marvin Winans, admirably opts to give a historical perspective. In this, it’s inevitably hampered by the lack of quality film footage of the old greats, who are seen mostly in still photos, but bolstered by recent concert videos. Sunday’s premiere was unavailable for preview but next week’s second episode, focusing on women in gospel, offers a decent clip of legendary Mahalia Jackson in action as well as modern stalwarts Shirley Caesar, Witness and even the mother-daughter team of Whitney and Cissy Houston. This, too, is a stellar effort.