The Brooklyn All-Stars

The Brooklyn All-Stars are an all-male Gospel vocal group that's been performing remarkably beautiful spiritual music since their inception in 1950. For a brief period in the '60s, their material became uncompromisingly tough, addressing such volatile issues as the government-sponsored injection of drugs into America's inner-cities and the lopsided use of African Americans in Vietnam. Today their music is punctuated by the tight intensity of a hard-hitting R&B band and strong positivity messages. With a rich baritone voice providing the bottom and smoothly soulful leads soaring above, their old-time material is uplifting and sonically wondrous but it's the politically charged sermons of their heyday that stand as their most important contribution to the Gospel music vocabulary.