Patrick Lundy and The Ministers Of Music – Standin’

Jesus is A Rock

Standin'

2003 has featured a comparatively thin list of stellar recordings by community gospel choirs. Principal chorales like the Tri-City Singers, New G and Youthful Praise are apparently all still in choir practice, electing to sit out ‘03. With the exception of Pastor Hezekiah Walker’s LFCC and Pastor John Kee’s New Community Singers and emerging chorales like Freda Battle & The Temple Worshippers or Lamar Campbell & The Spirit Of Praise, 2K3 has been a relatively uneventful choir explosion…at least until the arrival of Washington, D.C.’s Patrick Lundy & The Ministers Of Music and his standout release, Standin’ (AAMG). Eyes have not seen, nor ears heard the glorious praise of one of gospel’s best kept secrets today.

Offering a sense of seasoned artistry and an overdose of divine spirit, Brother Lundy & M&M take you on a musical and spiritual odyssey through fourteen songs and many moments of pure bliss. Their style bears finite resemblance to many of gospel’s great legends. The Thompson Community Singers, Thomas Whitfield’s Company and D.C.’s finest ambassador, Richard Smallwood, can all be detected, to varying degrees in Patrick Lundy’s music. Yet, Patrick’s identity is firmly in tact, as both a music minister and exceptional songwriter, as evidenced through the majority of the album.

The CD commences in uncharacteristic form with the operatic, meditative selection, Even Me, reminiscent of Smallwood’s Total Praise and Donald Lawrence’s Bless Me (Prayer Of Jabez). Such a solemn introduction prepares the listener for more than was anticipated, as the song successfully transports and arrives at a destination sure to please.

The album quickly whisks away to a more joyful number written by Minister Lundy with Won’t He Make A Way Somehow?, a selection featuring a couple of familiar figures from the Tri-City Singers camp, LaJeune Thompson on solo and husband Cedric Thompson as producer. The selection will sound familiar, since it’s currently featured on Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr.’s latest CD, Let It Rain (Tehillah); however, Patrick Lundy’s version gets the thumbs up with Cedric’s funky feel and the community choir’s urban edge making the difference.

The party is on by the time the album hits the track, Blessing Me. Chicago’s Adrian King and Cedric Thompson bring a bounce to this song that has you believin’ you’re blessed. On the title track, Standin’, all suspicions are removed regarding this little-known choir from the nation’s capital. Patrick Lundy & The Ministers Of Music are undoubtedly exceptional on all accounts with vocal harmony, lyrical genius and musical ingenuity in full display. The song reinforces the age-old proverb that we shall indeed stand through all adversity, regardless of the storms we face…amen !!!

Praise is magnified on Together to heights rarely heard on disc, while the song Worthy invites the listener into an intimate experience of worship through song.

And just when the CD seems to have delivered on all fronts, Patrick Lundy and the choir propels the listener to a golden age in Gospel music with a surprising little treasure from the eighties written by Percy Bady for the legendary Tommies on Miracle (Word) called There Is No Way. The album is consistently spectacular in its range, creativity and divinity on selections like In The Face, the awe-inspiring Stay In The Race and the reflective I’m Not Finished written by Evangelist Jackie McCullough and super-producer Kevin Bond. Revealing both the vocal prowess and a commitment to the music that preceded our current form of Gospel music is a Spiritual by the prolific Glenn Burleigh, Keep A Preachin’ The Word. And to ensure the choir remains a fixture in people’s minds and hearts, at least until the next release, is the benediction – Jesus Is A Rock – which rocks with fervor and feeling like few songs have in 2003. It’s an appropriate ending to an album that’s clearly set its sights on Standin’ head and shoulders above the clutter.

Patrick Lundy & The Ministers Of Music are definitely on to something special with their latest release. In a season when good choir albums are seldom released (or found), Standin’ offers the Gospel fan an alternative to the familiar solo projects that drop like a token in the turnstile each moment. Through fourteen songs and seventy-one minutes of pure ministry, the chorale unveils the undeniable power and presence that’s entirely unique to the community choir. At least for now, hope is once again restored in the familiar sound that defines Gospel music…thank God for Minister Lundy and the Ministers Of Music.