Gospel Music Evolution Vanessa Bell Armstrong

Born Vanessa Bell on October 2, 1953, in Detroit, Michigan; daughter of Jesse Bell, a minister. Married with five children.

Career

Gospel vocalist. Began singing at age four in Detroit-area churches; worked with Mattie Moss Clark from age of 13; toured and sang with top gospel stars including Rev. James Cleveland, the Clark Sisters, and the Winans as a teenager; released Peace Be Still, 1984; signed to Jive label and released Vanessa Bell Armstrong, 1987; recorded theme for television comedy Amen, 1987; appeared in Broadway musical Don't Get God Started, 1987; released Wonderful One, 1990; released Chosen; 1991; released Something on the Inside, 1993; released The Secret Is Out 1995; released Desire of My Heart: Live in Detroit, 1998.

In the 1990s, gospel music expanded tremendously in popularity as artists such as Kirk Franklin, Yolanda Adams, and CeCe Winans turned the excitement inherent in secular musical styles to religious ends. The music shed its big-Sunday-hat image, and made inroads with the younger audiences that singers hoped to reach. Vanessa Bell Armstrong, an artist steeped in the enduring gospel traditions of Detroit's black churches, did much to blaze the trail that later artists could follow. But when Armstrong first began to merge sacred and secular in her music, she had to endure criticism from the faithful, and it may be that she has received insufficient credit for her part in creating an extremely significant musical movement.

Armstrong was born Vanessa Bell in Detroit on October 2, 1953. Her father was a minister, and she began singing in churches around the city when she was only four years old. In 1966 the gospel choir leader Mattie Moss Clark heard Armstrong sing and took her under her wing. Armstrong traveled with Clark, and under her tutelage received a gospel vocal education in some truly stellar company; among the acts with whom she appeared were the Rev. James Cleveland, the Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Clark Sisters, and the Winans.

Another key early influence on Armstrong's style was the singing of the most famous performer ever to emerge from Detroit's gospel scene, Aretha Franklin, and when Armstrong emerged into her own career, many observers noted a vocal resemblance between the two singers. A married woman with five children, Armstrong made her recording debut late, releasing the album Peace Be Still on the small Onyx label in 1984, when she was 31. The album, produced by Minister Thomas Whitfield, went to the top of the gospel charts.

The year 1987 marked a turning point in Armstrong's career. The success of Peace Be Still attracted the attention of big-time talent scouts, and Armstrong was signed to the flourishing R&B label Jive Records. That year, she served notice of her vocal capabilities when she edged out both Franklin and virtuoso songstress Patti LaBelle in auditions to perform the theme song of NBC television's Amen situation comedy. She also appeared in a Broadway theatrical production called Don't Get God Started. But the crucial event of the year was the release of Armstrong's Jive debut album, simply entitled Vanessa Bell Armstrong.

The album drew denunciations from fans of traditional gospel, who, according to MusicHound R&B, accused Armstrong of "backsliding" and "selling out." The source of their negative reactions was the album's stylistic foray into contemporary urban sounds, which was achieved expertly enough that one of its single releases, "You Bring Out the Best in Me," ended up as a hit on the R&B charts. The song drew on a lyric device that would become a staple of both black and white contemporary gospel styles: it intentionally blurred the boundary between religious feeling and romantic love. When Armstrong employed it, though, the idea was still comparatively young.

Despite the criticisms, Vanessa Bell Armstrong was a strong seller and propelled the singer's career forward. She released two more albums in the early 1990s, Chosen (1991) and Something on the Inside (1993), but after that, she took a two-and-a-half year break to appear with television talk show host Oprah Winfrey in a made-for-TV film of the novel The Women of Brewster Place; the film was widely publicized and exposed Armstrong's image to a mass audience. Armstrong's second Jive album, Wonderful One, extended her crossover experiments. It featured the duet "True Love Never Fails," recorded with jazz guitarist Jonathan Butler. In 1990 Jive attempted to cash in on the publicity surrounding Armstrong with a greatest-hits album.