Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir, Like a Ship (Without a Sail)

This buoyant, spacious album is a delightful time capsule of sanctified soul. Originally released in 1971 in a small private pressing, Like A Ship (Without A Sail) offers up inventive arrangements of old and new gospel numbers. It's a slow-burner, one that's been in demand for years by crate-diggers and gospel soul fanatics.

It's easy to hear why in the title track alone — a slow-rolling slice of choir and keyboard propelled funk-pop. Barrett's arrangement of the "Dr. Watts Hymn" sounds as ready for a hepcat nightclub as it does the church. "Ever Since" is a funky, rhythmically complex tune that builds to an ecstatic release. The instrumental "Blessed Quietness" is an almost-barrelhouse tour de force of electric and acoustic keyboards. And their take on "It's Me O Lord" is slowed-down, meditative and groovy.

Barrett was born in Queens in 1944, but spent most of his time in Chicago. That town is rightly considered the birthplace of modern gospel, and Pastor T.L. Barrett was around to see the music grow in both size and scope. Thanks largely to the Rev. James Cleveland, the sound of gospel got huge in the early '60s, with large church-based choirs abetted by big, funky organs. At the same time, popular music was becoming more overtly political; gospel was the voice of the Civil Rights movement. The music also began borrowing heavily from contemporary soul music — just as soul had cribbed from gospel back in the '50s. With Edwin Hawkins Singers and their uplifting gospel soul "Oh Happy Day!," the music had its first true crossover pop hit in 1969. That record was clearly an influence on Barrett, but this is not a copycat affair.

There is a sparseness to the arrangements here that's absent from most large choir recordings. Saxophonist Gene Barge, who for many years served as Chess Records' in-house arranger, helped to wrangle some of the talent, and is credited as supervisor for the sessions — bassists Richard Evans and Phil Upchurch appear here thanks to Barge. But his help wasn't entirely necessary: Barrett's church attracted local musicians of renown. Donny Hathaway and members of Earth, Wind & Fire were known to regularly worship at the Mount Zion Baptist Church.

For Barrett, music was as much a personal cause as an expression of devotional love and praise. Music was a way to get kids to stay off the streets, and to teach them of their own power. Indeed, Barrett's magnetic personality and interest in helping kids is undoubtedly part of the reason his choir was so huge. And while their joyful noise occasionally gets rapturous and loud, the many dozens of voices in the Youth for Christ Choir don't get too rowdy. When he was 16, Barrett had been told by his high school guidance counselor that he would never amount to anything. He set about then and there to prove them wrong. Like A Ship (Without A Sail) is music that sings in the face of riots, assassinations and poverty. It is the sound of pure optimism.