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James “Kelly Fox” Davis and A Bunch of Friends welcomed the Christmas season early this year, with a live recording of The Best Gift.
The project, which features 10 new songs, most of which were written and produced by Davis, really was a collaboration of friends -- from longtime buddy Derrick Speight, who collaborated and sang lead on “Silver and Go!-ld”, to Pastor E Laverne Gaither, Davis’ aunt, who brought the house down with her old-school, spiritual rendition of “Go Tell it On the Mountain.”
The robust and enthusiastic choir consisted largely of members of the Abundant Praise Choir of Kettering Baptist Church, where Davis serves as the Minister of Music. And the musicians -- Sam Kendrick, Sean Miles, Beau Talley, Adrian Norton, Domique Austin, Andre Roberts, and Joey Price -- were many of those whom Davis grew up playing with or learning from during his career.
Although Davis has recorded and produced projects for several other artists through his Diverse Movement Studio, this was the first time he recorded a project of his own, and his first live CD.
“I have been pushed by many to do a recording for years, but I never budged,” said Davis. “I was never given the OK from God that it was my time or that He thought I was ready, but then the vision for this project was given to me by Him in the clearest way I have ever heard Him speak and show me. It's like it was in stereo, 3D, HD, BlueRay, 1080p, you name it!”
Davis said the Lord started preparing him for the project as early as 8 years ago, which was when he first penned “Silver and Go!-ld”. Each year, he’d write a new Christmas song for his church choirs – especially in the last three to four years, he said. These are the songs that have become The Best Gift.
“As a Director of Music, I am always challenged from year to year during the Christmas season to find new material for my choirs to sing,” Davis said. “Although there have been a number of excellent special Christmas projects put out by many great Gospel recording artists, I still found difficulty finding a project as great as the Kirk Franklin Christmas CD, which was put out 15 years ago, which was full of awesome Christmas selections from start to finish. I still teach many of the songs from Kirk's project every year, and even 15 years later, they are still powerful and great, and have become new choir Christmas standards. I felt it was time to put out a new project that is equally as great to offer the world even more, great Christmas focused songs for many future Christmas seasons to come.”
He may be on to something.
The project offers a welcome and eclectic variety of sounds – from the traditional to Christian Contemporary – all sung with intensity and passion that was felt throughout the live audience that came to the Eleanor Roosevelt High School auditorium for the recording.
The choir was impressively robust with a well-rounded sound. And even though most of the musical pieces were not entirely new to this writer (I have, in the interest of full disclosure, been part of Davis’ choirs for several years now, and a member of Kettering for close to a dozen years.) even the familiar pieces had been updated and the presentation slightly changed to re-engage old fans.
Brother-sister team Willie Blount and Tanya Blount-Royalty delivered a superb lead performance on the upbeat “What is Christmas,” and Speight added a new dimension to “Silver
and Go!-ld,” which is actually a medley that includes a Davis twist on the Franklin original, and “Go Tell It.”
But the choir’s rendition of that old Negro spiritual was among the most memorable for the audience of about 200. Both the choir and Gaither wrung the passion from the 100-plus-year-old lyrics with a soul-convicting performance that brought the crowd to their feet.
Another standout was “HISstory,” a brooding piece with a CCM influence delivered as an anthem with rock undertones and a very heavy message. Written by Davis, “HISstory” is the type of single that can gain exposure any time of the year.
“Although the songs on my project are focused on the birth of Christ, I still wanted to write songs that could tell about His coming and why He came without necessarily being locked in to being played only during the "Christmas" season,” Davis said.
The live recording coincided with the DVD recording for the project, both of which will be available November 9. Pre-orders are being taken at www.kellyfoxonline.com
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