mwafrika.com - Patti Labelle

Patti Labelle

One of the world most prolific R&B voices, the legendary Patti LaBelle, is set to release her first ever Gospel album titled The Gospel According To Patti Labelle.

With a successful musical career spanning over three decades, Patti Labelle has tossed herself onto the Gospel scene with a 12-track album that features Gospel bigwigs Cece Winans, Mary Mary, JMoss and Tye Tribbet. Others include Yolanda Adams, Wynona Judd and secular rap magnate, Kanye West.

The Gospel According To Patti LaBelle was produced at Umbrella Records and it features production by music veterans Gordon Chambers, Sami Mckinney, Troy Taylor and Nisan Stewart. Some of its standout moments include Anything featuring Mary Mary and Kanye West, Walking Away featuring Cece Winans, as well as Ain’t Through. Others include, Where Love Begins and Everything featuring Yolanda Adams.

Set to be released on November 21 2006, The Gospel According To Patti LaBelle has been in the works for the last three years. Patti recorded the album in memory of her late musical director Budd Ellison, who died from prostrate cancer. All album proceeds go towards Cancer research.

Born as Patricia Louise Holt on May 24, 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Patti LaBelle was raised as a Baptist and sung in her local Baptist church choir. In 1959 she teamed up with her friend Cindy Birdsong to form the group The Ordettes. A year later the group was rechristened The Blue Bells, when Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash joined them. They proceeded to become quite a 60’s hit, but only until 1967 when Cindy Birdsong left. The Blue Bells then decided to get a face lift, changing their name to Labelle. As the 70’s wore on, the trio took up a more contemporary sound with glamorous stage costumes, churcning out albums such as Labelle (1971), Moonshadow (1972) and Pressure Cookin (1973). Others were Nightbirds (1975), Phoenix (1975) and Chameleon (1976).

Labelle split up in 1976 and Patti LaBelle established a solo career, releasing her self-titled album in 1981 and following it with three more albums in successive years. Come the mid-80’s she became widely known for her rolling over the floor while singing, kicking off shoes and her wild hairdos. In 1986 she released her best-selling album to date, Winner in You, an album containing chart-topping songs On My Own and Oh My People.

30 years after she started singing, Patti LaBelle still continues to top charts. In 1991 she released the album Burnin, which won her first ever Grammy (Best R&B Female Vocal Performance). Success continued with Gems (1994), The Right Kinda Lover (1997), and her second Grammy-winning album, 1998’s Flame. In 2000 she released When A Woman Loves (2000) .

An outspoken AIDS and diabetes awareness activist, Patti LaBelle’s two elder sisters died of Cancer. And with her father, mother and brother also dead, she is the only member of her extended family left.

Patti has a message for Christians, urging them to shun discriminating against others. She says

“There was a time in my church when a minister discriminated against me. Every Sunday he said I was singing for the devil; therefore, I would not go to church as much after that and there are so many phonies who use the church as a shield to hide their anger and their deception and their phoniness and their perpetrating and their doing everything in the name of God.”

With so many feathers in her cap, Patti finally has finally put out a Gospel album, and she seeks to set the record straight concerning her involvement in Gospel music:

“I’m not coming home to Gospel, I’ve been Gospel. And Gospel doesn’t mean prayer. Gospel means what’s in your heart. But I’ve been dealing with some devils who pretend that they’re God’s children behind God’s robes. They hide behind the robe and the pulpit and stuff like that. There are more sinners in the church I believe, than in the secular world.”

» Post Comment