Downtown D.C.’s Holiday market has come and gone, and has turned me on to a few new musical groups. I always love discovering a new band, especially if it is local, as happens to be one of my latest discoveries.
The group is called The Glorious Sounds of The United House of Prayer. Some quick researching of this band revealed that The United House of Prayer is a denomination of Christianity. According to wikipedia, “The national headquarters for the church is located in Washington, D.C. The church is known for its shout bands.” And, “A shout band is a traditional, soul based musical style that arose in some predominantly African American Protestant churches in the 1920s.” I have always been fascinated by traditional African American music such as gospel, jazz, and soul, all three of which are incorporated into The Glorious Sounds.
I was fortunate to see this band play at the Holiday Market a few times. The band was very large and was spilling over the small stage they occupied. There were about 16 members of the group, 13 of which, all played the trombone. (The others played drums, tuba, and sax.) Just the sheer amount of all the trombones playing together was quite a site. The band had a lot of emotion and really got a big crowd watching them.
[Due to copyright issues, a lot of their videos have been removed from YouTube, including the one I took, but this gem is still up…]
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