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Rejoice and Shout
The Newest Work By Director Don McGlynn
Mavis Staples
A new documentary is encouraging audiences all over the country to move and rejoice in the power of music as they take a lyrical trip through history and explore the roots of the genre known as African-American Gospel.
Rejoice and Shout, the newest work by director Don McGlynn, tells the history of Gospel music through songs by adults and children alike, interviews and archived footage of some of the genre’s greatest legends. McGlynn is hardly a stranger to works with a musical subject – he has already released multiple documentaries about American artists including Glenn Miller and Charles Mingus. Now, the Austin American-Statesman paper is hailing McGlynn’s Rejoice and Shout as one of the best histories of gospel music to yet be shown on the big screen.
African-American Gospel melds culture, religion, history and politics within its music. Rejoice and Shout explores how the genre has endured times of strong cultural change, beginning in the 19th century during slavery and continuing on through World War II and the Civil Rights Movement. The documentary also examines how Gospel itself has changed over the years – it originated as spirituals and hymns, was later influenced by blues and swing, and today features modern-day rap and hip-hop aspects.
Rejoice and Shout features performances by international music legends Smokey Robinson and the Staple Singers. Other great musical legends featured in the film are The Dinwiddie Colored Quartet (from 1902), The Clara Ward Singers, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Reverend James Cleveland, Mahalia Jackson, Andrae Crouch and The Dixie Hummingbirds.
Rare archived footage in the documentary also showcases some of the earliest Southern Gospel singers such as The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. Interviews from musicologists Anthony Heilbut and Bill Carpenter add another great element to the documentary.
The documentary is described as a “beautiful, deeply felt overview of a musical genre that encompasses entertainment and spirituality – and that is inherently political in its ability to move audiences both emotionally and intellectually when its subject is the African-American struggle for freedom and dignity.”
More ticket info here.