Choir Director Alexander Hamilton

Kenny Lupper---that boy was magical. If Kenny was still alive now, he’d be the Ray Charles of the industry, not that he was blind. Even before Stevie Wonder, the boy was a genius. He did one album, I had a copy of but lost somewhere. Wrote some beautiful songs and was very talented all the way around. In playing, singing, writing. He was the wonder kid that we all loved. He and Billy Preston I would put in the same class. It was his personality. He was just that fun kid who had an infectious way of making you feel good through his music. He was always smiling, always happy. I don’t know how to describe him, other than I just loved being around him. The fresh kid with the smile who just happens to be damn good at what he does----so you loved him, but hated him at the same time. Fingers that just fly across the keys and just have a magic when they play.
	James Cleveland, Oh boy. James I met, let’s see, it had to be, somewhere around 1967 because we started the Southern Cal in ‘68. The circle wasn’t that big---we all knew each other. Of course, he was already pretty much the James Cleveland by then. He was in a very interesting position: he had come up through the ranks back east, in the Midwest, big thing for him was playing in the Caravans and had success with a couple albums with The Angleci Vocies, those people. And he got a contract with Savoy and it worked great, the way he worked it. They said, I think he had 8, 10 albums a year he had to do. Way it worked was all he had to do was have his name on it and one song to get paid. Real smart of him---he would look around to the good groups and say, “I’m James Cleveland and will get you on Savoy.” Fred Mendelson would set up a mic in Ray Charles’ Studio (RPM) and do two tracks straight to stereo, just like the old days. We’d do one marathon, six, seven hour session and the album would be done. It would be “James Cleveland Presents…” and he became known as The Star maker, which put him in a better place than just being the star. So when he started The Gospel Music Workshop of America, it became a natural. Everybody in the country knew that if James Cleveland liked you, he might get you on Savoy, which was basically the gospel music label of the day.
	It was sort of fun being one of the king’s kids. We got instant respect anywhere we went. His vision for that was what effects gospel to this day. He brought people together who would never get a chance to see each other. Just because of his name. He was a nut, but he was fun. You got to be nuts. Especially in gospel because you’re not getting paid most of the time. The only reason to do it is because you love it. When you look at the field, the genre, and you look at the people doing it compared to the people actually making a living at it, it doesn’t exist. The numbers are too small to even call it a percentage. It’s in that category where they say “You don’t have to be crazy to work here but it helps.” It’s like that. So you do it because you love it, because it’s got to come out of you and if something comes to you for that. Yay, that’s so much more. I’ve always had the dream, if there was a way to make a living as a gospel musician, it would have been fun. But most gospel musicians I know did something else and do this on Sundays. He was one of the few who was able to make it, and part of it was by doing the James Cleveland Presents. That made him rich.
	From our perspective, it was just another concert. You add the fact that there’s lights, cameras, stuff going on. The advantage of rehearsal that many times is that it just comes automatically. The one thing that you don’t want is for the things with the lights and the director to distract you from doing what you’re able to do. By the time we got there, everybody knew each song thoroughly and the choir was, of course, a disciplined choir. There was a good 30-40 of us. Community choirs were still a big deal in those days and it was not unusual. Over the last 20 years, I guess, choirs had gone down a bit. We went into what is called praise and worship music and worship teams they call them now where your average worship tema is 8, 9, 10 people because a lot of folks were not trained in how to lead choirs. It takes a lot to do that. But back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, there were, in Los Angeles, easily 40 or 50 choirs around. And that was the great thing. If you wanted to have a big program, just invite two of them and you’ll fill the house. And most of them were good. 
	“Wholy Holy”: The funny thing was, I had never heard Marvin Gaye do it before we started working on it. So I came into it fresh. Aretha played it and said, “OK, how can we do this for the chorus?” The chords in the background are mine. I heard the five note, as I recall AbMaj7 with the bass, actually made it an Fmin9. An AbMaj7 over an F, which makes it an Fmin9. Those were the chords that I heard the pianist do, so I transmitted those and had the choir do them. So when we started singing it, it made it a whole different kind of a sound of a song. Again, I hadn’t heard the original, so to me, this was cool. The way we should do it. No big deal. It’s a big deal now listening to it vis-à-vis Marvin Gaye’s version, but I hadn’t heard it.
	“Mary Don’t You Weep”: Inez, nobody ever sang it like Inez she was and is the definive “Oh Mary.” There again, we just developed it out of the feel we have. Once Aretha started (sings). Rest just came out of it. I can’t really explained how those arrangements developed, they just came out. 
	“You’ll Never Walk Alone”: There’s one that you never would hear in gospel services. I don’t think I’d ever heard it done in a Baptist church. Aretha wanted to do it. So, Aretha gets what she wants. If they’re paying, you play what they tell you. That whole ending with the chords (sings), those are mine. Five part harmony thing. Again, those chords are there again. She has said this is what we’re going to do, just do it.
	“Precious Lord/You’ve Got A Friend”: Aretha’s idea. She was the one I heard present it. Again, it came naturally. Not about if, it’s about how. You’ll hear certain things, and we worked it out that way.
	There’s no problem (working with band). That’s the arranger’s job. That’s why in the best music, you have an arranger who is thinking of everybody’s notes at once. When you listen to Earth, Wind and Fire and those intricate things they do, that’s coming out of the mind of an arranger. Who’s hearing all of that, so that everything as it’s being put together works with everything else. As opposed to a group where everybody’s making up their own thing and sometimes it comes together, sometimes it don’t. So that’s what made that album. All the arrangements we set, wehter in my mind, James’ mind or Aretha’s mind, the arrangements were done knowing how everything else works so it matches exactly.