Music News And The Bible.

Rosetta Tharpe's appearance in John Hammond's "Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall on December 23, 1938, which both shocked and awed the crowd, along with subsequent appearances with jazz artist Cab Calloway at Harlem's Cotton Club gained her even more fame, along with notoriety. These performance were controversial, as well as revolutionary, in several respects. Performing gospel music in front of secular, 'nightclub' audiences and alongside blues, jazz musicians and dancers was highly unusual, and within conservative religious circles the mere fact of a woman performing guitar music, particularly in those settings, was frowned upon. For these reasons, Tharpe was often falling out of favour with segments within the gospel community.[17][18] Other late 1930's hits, such as her self-penned "This Train" and "Rock Me", which combined gospel themes with bouncy up-tempo arrangements, continued to become hits among audiences with little previous exposure to gospel music.