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| Professor Robert Darden |
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Baylor University professor Robert Darden is working on collecting Gospel recordings from 1940-1970 for their Moody Library.
He is stretching a grant for $350,000 from a Connecticut investor for the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project at Baylor.
With a staff of three, Darden buys and solicits old records from collectors, average fans, record companies and other schools. Along the way, he is finding some lost or forgotten gems.
Since the project began more than a year ago, Darden and his staff have preserved more than 1,000 rare and classic Gospel records. The Rev. Bryan Cater, pastor of Concord Baptist Church in Dallas, said old-time Gospel music is still performed in many churches but is not easy to find on CD.
There was a time when Gospel music was a dominant sound in black culture. It evolved from spirituals, rooted in slave songs. Gospel, by definition, refers to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Rev. Thomas Dorsey wrote the historic, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” 76 years ago after losing his wife and child during childbirth. Professor Darden was introduced to Gospel as a boy in the 1950s, when is father, an Air Force lieutenant, used his $15 a month raise and bought a hi-fi player and three recordings, one being Mahalia Jackson.
Darden went on to become Gospel music editor at Billboard magazine and amassed a collection of his own.
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