25 Edwin Hawkins Music & Arts Seminar Songs You Better Have…Or Else

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Posted January 28, 2018 by J Matthew Cobb in Features
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He Is God Alone

(1994)
from the album Kings and Kingdoms
Writer: Earl Bright III

One of the standouts on Kings & Kingdoms, this rapturous Earl Bright III-penned choir ballad struts like a cocky sermonic hymn. Although this treasured moment should have gotten more radio airplay on gospel formats, it earned a larger audience after being featured on CGI’s Greatest Gospel Hits III double-disc compilation.


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Jesus, I Love You

(1983)
from the album Edwin Hawkins Music & Arts Seminar Mass Choir
Writer: Edwin Hawkins

Not to be confused with Walter’s “Dear Jesus, I Love You” on the Love Alive album, this fierce worship ballad finds “Changed” and “Goin’ Up Yonder” singer Tramaine Hawkins brilliantly forcing blood, sweat and tears into her solo.  But it is the rapturous sweeps of the choir’s harmonies on the opening and closing moments that seals the deal as one of the seminar’s hallmarks.


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It’s Working

(2000)
from the album Church Time
Writer: J.P. Morgan

This smoldering J.P. Morgan-penned ballad reflecting on Romans 8:28 finds former Mariah Carey background singer Melonie Daniels blessing a verse with grace and then going into overtime on the electrifying vamp. And in those fiery moments, the choir blazes forward with punchy “I trust in God” chants. From beginning to end, the whole experience is a powerful reflection on how influential Walter & Edwin Hawkins’ songwriting style has been on emerging talent.


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What a Time

(1995)
from the album Live in Toledo
Writer: Kevin Bond

If you need to get a Sunday Morning high and within six minutes, here’s the go-to track. A jammy Kevin Bond choir rocker infused with blazing synths, spirited handclaps, deep-in-your-gut bass lines and rousing repetitions. It’s like Edwin’s “To My Father’s House” but with ’90’s gospel soul and a zesty disco beat.


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Precious Jesus

(1997)
From the album Dallas
Writer: Thomas Whitfield

David Whitfield reprises the hit of the late Thomas Whitfield and almost replicating every one of his quirks. This time, it’s more expanded and wholly saturated with adoring mass choir harmonies and Kevin Bond’s string patches.


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Give Us Peace

(1987)
from the album Give Us Peace
Writer: Richard Smallwood

Like “This Day,” this Richard Smallwood power ballad swells like a Davidic psalm. And as the praise and worship leader, Edwin is there to lead the way. Honestly, it’s one of the seminar’s grander compositions and one of his best moments vocally. And if you haven’t guessed it, that’s Richard Smallwood supplying the rich keys.


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Even So Come Lord Jesus

(2000)
from the album Church Time
Writer: Antoin Timmons

Giving hope to the Rapture story, this sultry jam by songwriter is executed powerfully with an R&B-esque crooning by songwriter Antoin Timmons and Rusty Watson. When the groovy vamp echoes, Carl Wheeler’s swirling synths, Jonathan Dubose’s guitar and a Donald Lawrence-like sauce creates the perfect ebb and flow for a good congregational sing-along.


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Always By My Side

(2000)
from the album Church Time
Writer: Kelvin Lenox

The closing moment on Church Time, “Always By My Side” breaks out a rousing seven-minute presentation of Chicago soul gospel. The punchy vamp is the song’s greatest reward, led by explosive belting by Queenie Lenox and animated phrasing from the choral gravy as the choir sings “He’s always there, always there/Leads me, directs me/He walks with me, speaks through me.”


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With My Whole Heart

(1987)
from the album Give Us Peace
Writer: Thomas Whitfield

Enter Thomas Whitfield — a soldier in the contemporary gospel field. He had just revealed his composition “With My Whole Heart” on a Keith Pringle solo record three years prior. Here, the Maestro — as he was mostly referred as — and vocal guest Walter Hawkins create a “Mount of Olives” experience, ultimately giving the seminar one of the greatest moments in gospel history.


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This Day

(1984)
from the album Angels Will Be Singing
Writer: Edwin Hawkins

Taken inspiration from The Lord’s Prayer found in the book of Matthew, this Edwin Hawkins ballad gives a modern interpretation to the familiar words by spreading its message to a larger, global audience using the godliness of MLK: “To go from here and share this love You gave to me/To show someone who’s lost and help them find their way, the way to choose and pray. so they can be free like me.” Pop icon Whitney Houston added the song to her repertoire in a host of live concerts and world tours in the early ’90’s, best recalled during Europe stops on the “I’m Your Baby Tonight” tour.

 


Others to look out for

The Chicago album, a favorite with many of the seminar’s devoted attendees, contains a handful of memorable moments. “Only Jesus” features Daryl Coley belting alongside a Luther-styled trio and a melody dressed in beautiful R&B romance. From the same album, there’s “Just Can’t Tell It All.” It contains the bare essentials of a Hawkins classic and is powered up with a moving solo performance from Dita Monique Jackson and an earworm of a vamp.

Urban churches with a propensity for contemporary praise-and-worship hymns have relied on Edwin’s seminar for a good batch of favorites. Some include the childlike gem “I Love You,” the heartfelt “A Hymn of Praise” medley, which contains the Richard Foy-penned “Give Glory to God”  and “Praise the Lord” (made popular on TD Jakes & the Potter’s House Mass Choir) from Seminar ’91. And there’s also the celebratory jam “Shout Worthy” from their 2003 recording release featuring spirited Japanese singer Marisa Kurosawa.

And it would be a crime not to mention LaShun Pace’s ferociously killer squalls on Edwin’s “Leaning on Jesus,” a song that Karen Clark Sheard later lead with the COGIC International Mass Choir.

And there are a few nods to check out from extensions of the seminar choir. Some of Edwin Hawkins’s most beloved offerings, include “If You Come (Come to Jesus)” by Tri-State Mass Choir, “I Can Call Him (Just When I Need Him Most)” — a John P. Kee jam that slickly reprises the bridge of “Never Shall Forget” and “He’s Alright With Me” by the Bay Area Chapter Choir.

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About the Author

J Matthew Cobb

Managing editor of HiFi Magazine


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