I Speak Jesus

Confucius. Buddha. Jesus. Muhammad. Four extraordinary sages who influenced world civilization more deeply than any other human beings in history. As just one measure of their importance, current rankings of the most influential people in history consistently put them at or near the top of the list. Four centuries after the rise of the scientific worldview, their influence in human affairs continues to be fundamental, underscoring issues ranging from questions of ethics and justice to religious and political conflicts to other issues that dominate today's headlines.

Who was Jesus of Nazareth? What was he like? For more than 2,000 years, people and groups of varying convictions have pondered these questions and done their best to answer them. The significance of the subject is apparent. From the late Roman Empire all the way to our own time, no continuously existing institution or belief system has wielded as much influence as Christianity, no figure as much as Jesus.

The early Christian claim that Jesus of Nazareth was God completely changed the course of Western civilization. In fact, without the Christian declaration of Jesus as God, Western history as we know it would have never happened.

Many of the 42 tracks collected here, 34 of which are being digitally re-introduced to the world, don't sound much like gospel, at least not in the modern sense of the word. Recorded between 1926 and 1936, and done for commercial labels, these are really pre-gospel pieces, religious and sacred songs done in blues, street jazz, choral, and other styles, and some of them are simply passionately delivered proto-rap-like rhythmic sermons. Modern gospel as a distinct musical genre had yet to be codified, and what we really have here are the roots of all that. There's a little bit of everything,