Classic Moments in Jubilee Showcase: Church before Church

Music doesn’t have boundaries. We impose things like genre, or let a marketing department impose a genre and then just go along with it, and then say short-sighted things like, “I love all music… except country/hip hop/hated-genre-of-the-moment.”

Music does have power. Songs can speak and speak to us. Songs can move and move us. Songs can embolden us.

I don’t go to church – I don’t hold beliefs that draw me in that direction – but I am as vulnerable to a good gospel song as any devout worshipper. The clap of hands, the boom of a voice raised in full heart, the rhythm that stomps or the held note that draws a thread tight from the soul… it encompasses the best of what music can do.

From the early ’60s through the early ’80s, Sid Ordower (a Jewish man who felt the power of gospel) brought that boundary-less power into the homes of Chicago television viewers with a show called Jubilee Showcase. Sunday mornings, viewers could sit down and experience powerful performances from gospel stars like James Cleveland, Andrae Crouch, the Soul Stirrers, the Staple Singers and more and still have time to get to church. The show not only shared the music of the brightest stars in the gospel firmament, but also launched careers of fledling artists.

A new DVD, Classic Moments in Jubilee Showcase, brings this wonderful show out of the past and out beyond Chicago. The disc contains four full episodes picked from thoughout the show’s timeline. From early black-and-white footage of the Staple Singers (with the ever-lovely Mavis Staple opening up those spectacular pipes) and the Soul Stirrers (the group from which Sam Cooke launched, though Cooke does not appear in this DVD) to later performances of Jessy Dixon, Inez Andrews, another appearance from the Soul Stirrers and a whole program of gospel mega-star Andrae Crouch, this DVD displays the range of gospel music, from high church hymns to stomping spirituals. The highlight of the collection for me is when the Soul Stirrers perform “Oh, What a Meeting” with powerful lead vocals from Willie Rogers. (I don’t have a clip to share, but you can hear a different recording of the song here and see what the performance looked like it all its technicolor glory below.)

The disc extras contain short, but often illumnating, documentarian bios of Ordower and some of the featured artists. And if you become as interested in the history of the show and its creator, Sid Ordower, you can look forward to a documentary of the show. Producer of the upcoming documentary, Steven Ordower says:

“Currently in development, Jubilee, is a documentary film featuring rare performances from a local Emmy award winning Chicago gospel music television show that aired from 1963-1984, called ‘Jubilee Showcase,’ the brainchild of civil rights activist and producer, Sid Ordower. Jubilee will feature exclusive footage – never before seen by a national audience – from many of gospel’s greatest singers. Ordower’s history as a participant in the struggle for equal rights will be interwoven with the historic performances from his show. This approach is intended to contextualize gospel music within the civil rights movement specifically, and the African- American experience in general. This documentary will consist of contemporary interviews, still photography, originally shot footage, and archive clips from what some have described as ‘the greatest single collection of gospel music in the world.’”

For more information on the DVD, including ordering information and to see some of the informational clips about the artists appearing on the DVD, visit the site:

Jubilee Showcase Official Website