JASPER WILLIAMS JR.
LANDMARK

This summer marks a landmark year for Atlanta’s Pastor Jasper Williams Jr. as he celebrates his 60th anniversary as a preacher. Followers have labeled him Son of Thunder for his electrifying, hooping pulpit proclamations. The vinyl of Williams’ best-known sermon recordings such as 1970‘s If Walls Could Talk, and 1986’s I Fell In Love With A Prostitute are considered classics of the spoken word genre. Now, Williams has re-recorded his first traditional gospel music CD in two decades, the brilliant, Landmark.

The first radio single “Down Through the Years” is a throwback to the old fashioned but never out-of-style Pentecostal church services of the early 20th century. “Every time I normally preach, I hit that song and everywhere I go people cling to it,” Williams smiles. “When I sing it, they grab it.” He’s been singing the foot stomping song of gratitude with rugged field hollers and exhortations all of his life. “I told my producer `Let’s do it the old way with no music.’ It’s one of those songs like `Amazing Grace.’ You don’t know when you first heard it but you heard it all your life. It tweaked my spirit one day and I took it on and made up my own verses.” It’s one of those infectious, feel-good, sing-a-long songs that radio audience will be snapping fingers and clapping to all year long.

It’s the kind of down home gospel Williams learned in his native Memphis where he began preaching at the age of six. Before he graduated from Morehouse College, he was installed as pastor at Atlanta’s Salem Baptist  Church when he was 19 years old.  A disciple of Rev. C.L. Franklin’s dynamic preaching style known as hooping, Williams released his first sermon LP Clear Shining After The Rain  (Jewel Records) in 1967.  He’s since recorded over two dozen sermon and gospel music albums.

After two decades of dormancy, Williams has re-activated his Church Door Records label with the Landmark project. “I thought it would give me an opportunity to introduce my son, Joseph L. Williams (who duets with his dad and solos), to the world,” he says. “God has blessed me with a name in the ministry. If there’s anything I wanted it’s to let him spring from my shoulder. He had a lot of enthusiasm about doing this with his dad and that pumped me to want to do this.” The 14-song CD is a celebration of William’s musical heritage. Amid gospel standards such as “Born Again,” “Calvary,” and other classics arranged by Salem’s Minister of Music/Producer Kelvin A. Manson, are new songs with an old school feel by Dorinda Clark Cole’s tunesmith Derrick Starks, Bishop Means, Malcolm Williams, Morris Mingo, and Oscar Williams.

The second Sunday in August, Williams will celebrate sixty years of preaching and in November he will look back on 47 years as Salem’s pastor. In spite of his hectic ministry and community work schedule, he makes time to relax. He plays racquetball three times a week and plays checkers with his buddies almost daily and only accepts outside preaching engagements, “when it’s something I really want to do.” Right now, he just wants the world to hear Landmark. “If I leave this world now,” he says. “I feel that God has given me a fullness of life for which I’m proud and pleased and this would be a great exit for this album to hit and make it.”