"We Sing to Lift"

Some of the Negro congregation began to murmur the words of the hymn the choir was singing, "How sweet it is to know Him, Jesus Christ divine." Slowly choir and congregation began to sway and clap and stomp to the rhythm. People in the audience jiggled and jounced up & down shouting "Oh Lord, tell a story!" A mother pushed her child from her lap, crying "Oh Jesus, I'll fly away!"

The powerful, primitive singing of its huge (203 voices) Echoes of Eden choir had been bringing in new members to Los Angeles' stuccoed St. Paul Baptist Church at the rate of 18 a day. It now takes five cops to control Sunday crowds that jam the street out in front to listen over a loudspeaker (and six nurses inside for worshipers who get too wrought-up). The choir's weekly radio program is broadcast to 17 states. Two months ago Capitol Records began putting the choir on wax.

Last week, the first two records, which include Yield Not to Temptation and I'm So Glad Jesus Lifted Me, were sellouts.

Black-robed Choirmaster J. Earle Hines* took over a scraggly group of 60 voices a year and a half ago. He picked his new singers on the old religious credo that who sings well prays doubly. Says he: "I tell my folks they got to feel the spirit inside before they can sing it out. Spirituality covers up for voice."

Few of the singers, many of them housewives, can read music. They sing with none of the trickiness and polish of professional Negro groups like the Hall Johnson Choir. Sure-fire "lifter" at St. Paul is Hines's setting of the Lord's Prayer. The choir chants the first line in unison, adding more harmony with each new line. The screaming climax leaves the church shuddering. Says Hines: "We don't sing to entertain. We sing to lift."

* No kin to famed Jazz Pianist Earl ("Father") Hines.

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