Artist:New Jersey Mass Choir of the GMWA
Song:I'll Tell It
Album:At Their Best
Though I'm pretty sure most of you have never heard of the New Jersey Mass Choir, I know you have heard them because this is the choir that appeared on Foreigner's smash hit I Want To Know What Love Is. The choir is led by Donnie Harper from San Antonio, TX. He moved to New Jersey and his choir Voices of Tomorrow appeared on a 1977 episode of Saturday Night Live. He formed New Jersey Mass Choir in 1981 with the assistance of gospel music legend Rev. James Cleveland and Gospel Music Workshop of America. He got them a record deal with Savoy and they released the 1982 album Soon I Will Be Done with the Troubles of the World. Harper moved the choir to Light Records as he wanted the choir to have a contemporary sound and Light was better suited to handle that. And that's when they appeared on I Want To Know What Love Is. So that kept them active for a long time. I'll Tell Him is from the 1986 album Look Up & Live. The lead singers are Harper and Aletha Carlette Watson-White though she does not sing in the video. This choir also appeared on albums by Patti LaBelle and Stevie Wonder among others. They left Light in 1991 and that's when Light released this budget comp. Harper was ordained in 1991 and he is minister of music at Good Neighbor Baptist Church in Newark, NJ. The New Jersey Mass Choir last recorded in 1995. I assume Harper concentrates on his ministry because he rarely appears on anything. He did play piano at Whitney Houston's funeral as he has worked with her mom Cissy Houston. Here's the New Jersey Mass Choir of the GMWA performing I'll Tell It.
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