Dust-to-Digital Parlortone

REV. JOHNNY L. “HURRICANE” JONES - Jesus Christ from A to Z (Parlortone)
A hurricane is a force of nature with which to be reckoned, unapologetic, a mighty storm in force, speed, and effect. These descriptors hold true for Reverend Johnny L. Jones, nicknamed “Hurricane” because of his larger than life delivery of the word of God. Since the Eisenhower Era, Jones has been pastor at the Second Mount Olive Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta, where he has recorded and amassed a collection of tapes of his impassioned services. Through a series of seemingly unlikely events, Dust-to-Digital’s Lance Ledbetter crossed paths with Jones and began listening to and editing hours of these tapes. Jesus Christ from A to Z is the first fruit of said collaboration in what promises to be a series of LPs on the vinyl-only Parlortone imprint. Once a best-selling gospel recording artist for Shreveport’s Jewel Records, seventy-three-year-old Jones retired from making albums over thirty years ago. This record marks his triumphant return to the game, and what a grand homecoming it is.

“The Day Is Past and Gone” starts off the record with an organ drone like a low storm siren, which is promptly interrupted by the moans and groans of a man with something on his mind and in his soul. Somewhere between speaking and singing, language and primal communication, Jones proceeds to lay it out for a crowd of congregants getting happy and vocal about it — think Albert Ayler sermonizing and you’re close. The record continues with “Prayer,” a moving invocation for those in need, like “the people that didn’t rest at all last night because pain was racking their bodies, for the widow walking the floor all night long…” The centerpiece of the collection, as well as its title, is Jones’ liberation theology meditation using the letters of the alphabet as a road map; it is a tour-de-force, which when it concludes at almost fourteen minutes leaves a gaping void. The album finishes with the serene, almost sacred harp sounding “Old Ship of Zion,” the calm after the storm has passed. This very same calm comes to believers amidst life’s inevitable hurricanes from inspired and impassioned words and sentiments such as those heard on this record. Something tells me that Sunday morning would come much earlier for more folks if this type of experience were waiting for them at church.
- Kevin Coultas (via The Other Music Update)