Jubilant geography

>> The Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir's journey continues

by GERARD DEE

Listening to A Cappella Plus, the latest CD by Montreal's own Jubilation Gospel Choir, is like going on a journey--it begins in Africa and ends in Europe. Not that the choir's founder and director, Trevor Payne, planned it that way. That's just the way it turned out.

"The whole germ for this album was that I thought it was time that we follow up the first a cappella album that we did in '92," says Payne. "And then, as I was researching the songs, I realized that our scope had grown. Although the basis of it all was still the Negro spiritual, we had a cappella songs from practically all over the world."

On this, their ninth album in 15 years, those global influences are keenly evident. From the opening track, "Nkosi Sikelel, iAfrica," sung in the Kenyan language of Luhyia, to Payne's very personal reading of Beethoven's "Sonata No. 18, Opus 13," he takes this 45-member choir around the world in 15 tracks.

Along the way, Payne makes some unusual stops that propel him beyond another strictly a capella recording. For instance, "A Great Day" incorporates the sounds of a New Orleans street band to add colour to his musical vision. "As soon as I came up with the title A Cappella Plus, my brain said, well, wait a minute, 'plus' could mean anything. Yeah, let's turn 'A Great Day' into before the burial in New Orleans. And then on the way back from the cemetery, we'll have them dancing in the streets."

For the second African-influenced track on the set, "Kwa Unyenyekevu," it meant recreating a scene that Payne had witnessed first-hand. "When I was in Kenya working on the African album ('97's Hamba Ekhaya), they took me to these huge, huge markets. I thought, that's it, I just have to find the right marketplace crowd noise, and I'll have kids running around, and some chickens and turkeys making noise, and I'll have one of the African artists trying to sell his produce, and I'll have the choir just barely inside this tiny church with the door open."

A more personal journey inspired the set's closing classical piece. "It's dedicated to my father, who was my driving force to pursue music," he explains. "He passed away in 1994, and I'm only just now starting to appreciate what he tried to do, albeit in a very unorthodox way."

Payne says he did the track in one take. "It was the way I felt at that moment. I basically decided that if it was going to take more than one take, it was probably going to start sounding less and less spontaneous. So I decided I was going to play it once, listen to it, and either it was going to be on the album or it was not."

At St. James United Church, Thursday to Sunday, Dec. 6-9, 8pm, $30