Traditional gospel hymns find an audience outside of church
Debra James Tucker knows enough about gospel music to fill multiple hymnals, but no song can top “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”
“I sing because I’m happy / I sing because I’m free,” the chorus, written in 1905, says. “For His eye is on the sparrow / And I know he watches me.”
Tucker, who organizes and hosts the Gospel Soul Brunch at Natalie’s Coal-Fired Pizza and Live Music on the first Sunday of each month, sings because of the happy times spent around the family piano as a young girl.
She occasionally teaches a course, the history of African American Gospel Music, at Denison University in Granville, where she tells her students about the nights spent harmonizing hymns as a child in Mansfield.
“Aside from being inspirational, they’re kind of markers of a lot of our history and culture, which I think is important to preserve,” said Tucker, 64.
Since September 2014, the powerful singer has introduced a new audience to her childhood choruses through the Natalie’s show.
The restaurant already offered a brunch performance on Sunday mornings, but co-owner Charlie Jackson wanted to expand the series to include soul and gospel after an afternoon show with a cappella group the Fairfield Four proved to be popular.
Jackson said that gospel music is often relegated to black churches.
“It’s such a rich, vibrant music,” he said. “It’s great to expose people who have never been in a black church or felt the power of that music. I think that’s one of the reasons it’s worked great. People clap along and feel drawn to the music in that setting.”
Tucker descends from a long line of singers and preachers — her uncle sang in Sam Cooke’s group the Soul Stirrers — and performed with her siblings as “the James Tucker Inspirational Singers” as a child.
Her longtime immersion in the Columbus jazz-andsoul scene — including a weekly gospel brunch gig at the now-closed Out on Main restaurant Downtown — makes booking talent fairly easy.
David Dennis, leader of the jazz band E-Flat, met Tucker at the Lincoln Theatre’s jazzincubation program in late 2015, where she pitched the Gospel Soul Brunch.
On most nights, the smooth-jazz group performs for weddings and galas, but on Sunday afternoon — the group’s third Gospel Soul Brunch appearance — its members will let loose with the songs they sing at Sunday morning church services.
“There’s just a peace that comes over you, and that is portrayed through the music,” said Dennis, 41. “It’s touching their hearts in so many different ways. You never know what people are going through, but that song could help them through that day or encourage them or inspire them. I definitely feel like the music just speaks.”
Every E-Flat member was introduced to music through their childhood churches, Dennis said, and all four of them continue to play on praise teams.
That’s not to say the casual listener can’t relate.
“Music is kind of a universal language,” he said. “There have been people who have come to Natalie’s, people that may have not been raised in church or are as familiar with gospel music, but still, through the gospel music, they’re able to connect.”
The increasing popularity of the Gospel Soul Brunch led Jackson to dedicate the entire first Sunday of the month to the genre, starting several months ago.
Derek DiCenzo’s jazz trio heats up the venue in the morning, followed by Gospel Soul Brunch in the afternoon and a soul show at night. A soul-food special serves up a different dish each month, including a recent fishand-grits meal named after Tucker’s grandmother.
Tucker has breathed out gospel notes since her youth but knows that many of the traditions risk dying off with her generation.
“Most of the people are elderly, so when those people pass on who’s going to know what the music is?” she said.
Her eye is on the hymnbook, and she’ll keep watching over it until a new generation takes her place.