Mississippi Mass Choir

For nearly 40 years, some of the finest voices in Mississippi churches have combined their talents to create the Mississippi Mass Choir, one of the country’s great gospel choirs whose powerful, inspiring, and uplifting sound has been embraced and admired from central Mississippi to Hollywood, and all the way to the Acropolis of Athens. The Mississippi Mass Choir is a true testament to the often-heard saying that the best voices in America are found in church.

The gospel choir tradition goes back to the father of Black gospel, Thomas A. Dorsey, who led a choir in Chicago in the early 1930s. The first mass choir—a group tied to a community, rather than to a specific church—was founded in that city by Reverend Milton Brunson in 1948. Known as the Thompson Community Singers, Brunson’s choir made their first recordings in the 1950s, inspiring the birth of similar groups over the years. Two decades later, gospel superstar James Cleveland further innovated and popularized gospel choir music with his own live recordings and through his Gospel Music Workshop of America & Choir. This institution paved the way for other choirs across the nation to produce their own live recordings. By the 1970s, synthesizers made their way into the accompanying band, making the sound more contemporary. Simultaneously, choirs maintained a strong connection to the elements of traditional gospel, such as call-and-response vocals, as well as backing on organ, piano, bass, and drums.

The founder of the Mississippi Mass Choir, Frank Williams, initially made his mark singing with smaller gospel quartets, including two of Jackson’s most prominent outfits: The Williams Brothers and the Jackson Southernaires. Both groups recorded for Jackson-based Malaco Records, where Williams became an executive in 1979. “Frank knew about all of these great singers around the state who had never had an opportunity to showcase their gifts,” explains Pastor Jerry Mannery, the choir’s executive director. “He said the Lord gave him the vision to start a choir to bring all these people together.” The choir made its debut in 1988 at Thalia Mara Hall—then the Jackson Municipal Auditorium—with over 100 singers. The performance was recorded for a live album, released by Malaco, which would go on to top Billboard’s gospel charts for 45 consecutive weeks, a record in both sacred and secular music. After Williams’ death in 1993, the Mississippi Mass Choir continued his legacy with a robust recording and touring schedule that included Europe, Asia, and Africa. When the choir performs of a church they still present a service, complete with an altar call from Rev. Benjamin Cone, III.

Their magnetism is still strongly felt today; as Mannery explains, “When we last held auditions we needed 30 singers, and we had 64 people who passed, so we are now a 214-voice choir!” Mannery credits the group’s enduring popularity to the way it brings the Mississippi quartet sound into a choral context. “I like to say that we’re a choir-tette,” he laughs. “We have the big sound of a choir but also the harmonies and flavors of a quartet.”