Thomas Moore Secs Need For Soiritual Rnliohtenmpnt
by Dianne Simpson
Post Staff Writer
“Present-day songs that are
somehow under the classifi
cation of spirituals are to me
nothing more than a composi
tion of singing and elaborate
instrumental sounds. They ap- -
pear to be a cross-section of
jazz and hard rock. To me
these songs are just too color
ful. I feel spirituals should be
more basic, more down to
earth.”
These are the words that
were confiscated through a
conversation with Thomas
Moore, Charlotte’s well-kno
wn Black opera singer. A
native of Gastonia, and living
in Charlotte for eight years
Thomas mentioned that it was
the intensifying singing of the
famous black opera singer
tendingJohmon C. Smith Un-t
1 FLASH LIGHT
Parliament
2 THE CLOSER I GET TO
YOU
Roberta Flack with Donny
■ Hathaway A
3 BOOTZILLA
Bootsy’s Rubberband
4 ALWAYS AND FOREVER
■ Heatwave
5 SHOUT IT OUT
B.T. .Express
6 IT’S YOU THAT I NEED
Enchantment
7 WHICH WAY IS UP
Stargard
8 AM I LOSING YOU
Manhattans
9 LET’S HAVE SOME FUN
Bar-Kays
10 REACHING FOR THE
SKY
Pea bo Bryson
11 OUR LOVE
Natalie Cole
12 TOO MUCH, TOO LITTT F
TOO LATE
Johnny Mathis & Deniece
Williams
13 JACK AND JILL
Raydio
14 PEACEFUL JOURNEY
Fat Larry’s Band
15 DON’T COST YOU NO
THING
Ashford & Simpson
16 TOO HOT TA TROT
Commodores
17 LET ME PARTY WITH
YOU
Bunny Sigler
18 L-O-V-E-U
Brass Construction
19 FREAKY DEAKY
Roy Ayers
20 DO YOU LOVE SOME
BODY
Luther Ingram
iversity in the early seventies
and concentrating in the area
at Music Education under the
direction at Musk: Director
Christopher Kemp, Thomas
visualized his hopes as being a
part of true reality.
So it war at this point that
Thomas Started doing an ex
tensive amount of traveling. It
was from his constant travels
from the south to the north,
and vice vena, and meeting
and understanding all types of
people that Thomas saw this
tremendous peed foe. spiritual
enlightenment. "I feel
that our Mack culture is not
exposed to the various types of
muric- My main objective now ,
is to expose to the black
society classical music and
spirituals to the black chur
ch.
“Although I enjoy opera
singing I feel that it is not as
important to society as spirit
ual singing. I have directed a
lot of church choirs and by
. doing so I see this great need
—to teach singing to black st-- _
□dents," Thomas stated. “Not
only have I seen a drastic drop
in the number of spiritual
singers coming from the black
culture but pianists, as well. I
want to place a halt to this
Thomas has recently made
his first album composed of
old time spirituals. It uTentiU
irt“OfcmneRaji|ionj\Soi^
gs that are found on the album
are: ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘How
Great Thou Art’, ‘Jacob's Lad
der’, ‘Old Time Religion’, ‘Old
Rugged Cross’ and ‘It’s Me
Ole Lord’. This album can be
purchased at Puff ‘n Stuff in
the Charlottetown Mall.
Hmmy that his al
bum is geared toward senior
citizens. When asked why he
commented, “1 have done vo
lunteer work in rest homes
and have worked in the Hu
man Services Division at
CPCC.” He! foes on-to com
ment that already he has
distributed over 1,000 albums.
He hopes to dedicate his next
album to the children.
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