Overview:

Combining past, present and future, Waddell’s vision is about more than harmony. It’s about reconnecting young people to a legacy built in Baltimore’s choir lofts. Hundreds of singers are pushing back, one rehearsal at a time.

When hundreds of voices rise in unison — the kind that shake the rafters and stop you in your tracks — you’re not just hearing a choir. You’re hearing Baltimore.

More than 400 singers packed into Gillis Memorial Christian Community Church earlier this month, answering Charm City native Eric Waddell’s call to revive a Black gospel tradition born in the city’s choir lofts and carried across generations. 

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The goal was 500 voices. The reality, Waddell says, is something bigger.

“It’s everyone coming together to make one sound,” he said.

Revival and Resistance

At a time when church choirs are shrinking, praise teams are replacing full ensembles, and arts programs in public schools are disappearing, Waddell sees the Sound of Baltimore as both revival and resistance, an effort to preserve a distinctly Black cultural tradition while rebuilding the pipeline that once carried it from classrooms to choir stands.

A recording artist and lifelong church musician, Waddell has taken his ministry across the country. But Baltimore — its history, its harmonies, its church culture — is home. Now, he’s trying to bring that sound back together, with a special focus on reaching young people and reconnecting them to a legacy that’s fading in too many places.

The setting matters. Gillis Memorial is home to legends like Aunt Pauline Wells Lewis, the “Godmother of Gospel,” and Roland Joe Smith — names that still echo in Baltimore’s faith music circles. For Waddell, each rehearsal is as much about honoring that lineage as it is about building something new.

“There’s room for many more,” he said. “We want everybody.”

‘It’s a Lot of Fun’

Waddell’s roots run deep. He was giving concerts at age 9 at Mt. Pisgah CME in West Baltimore, and by 12, he was directing choirs. A graduate of Carver Vocational High School — if you know, you know — he grew up immersed in the hymns, anthems, spirituals, and gospel traditions that define the city’s sound.

I’m praying that it brings our singers back to the choir to stand in our local churches. I’m praying that it inspires pastors to open up the choir stand again, push those screens aside, and get up in the choir stand and let’s sing.

Eric Waddell

Now, he’s working to make sure that sound doesn’t disappear.

“The Baltimore Sound is quickly moving from a mass choir into a movement,” said Rusty Saunders, minister of music at The Hill in Jessup, Maryland. “The energy in the room was off the charts.”

Dr. Patrick Alston, an organist and music educator, sees the project as both a reunion and a revival.

“This is expanding the fellowship,” he said. “And it’s a lot of fun.”

For Waddell, that’s the point: bring the voices back, rebuild the choir stand, and remind a new generation what it means when Baltimore sings. He spoke to Word In Black last week; his remarks have been edited for length and clarity. 

Word in Black: What’s the Sound of Baltimore?

Eric Waddell: It’s the result of the collaboration of singers and musicians who are born and bred in Baltimore; some past, some present. It’s everyone coming together to make one sound, the Baltimore Sound.

WIB: Is Gloria Thompson one of the musicians?

Waddell: I came up under the tutelage of Gloria Thompson, who is just a genius on the organ and has been for many years. Yes, she’s going to be playing. There’s no one like her. There’s Jonathan Nelson, Jason Nelson, Maurette Brown Clark. 

WIB: Name some others, please.

Waddell: Roland Joe Smith, [a keyboardist and singer] who is still around and still playing. Many of the musicians and singers are from Baltimore but no longer living here. They are coming home to participate in the live recording of Baltimore Sound. 

We’re going to have a classic piece from Dr. Nathan Carter, as well as a traditional piece from the music of James Peterson and the Baltimore Fellowship Choir. Dvorak Robinson and the Suburban Mass Choir and the Majestics and Fernando Allen and the Salvation. I started out with my first choir with John Beasley and the Interfaith Community Singers.

WIB: How does music feed your soul?

Waddell: It’s my lifeblood. Even in grief, it gives me strength and brings me joy. This year has been a real struggle for me. I lost both my parents and it’s the music that is getting me through.

WIB: Remember the old school joy night on Friday nights?

Waddell: We’re looking to have a joy night with some of the old groups from back in the day. Before the live recording, we’re looking to put together a nice joy night with all of the old groups coming together in a big way. I want to have the joy night of some of the old, and then I want to have a joy night with the new groups as well, because we not only want to focus on the past but we want to help shape the future.

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WIB: What’s your hope for this project?

Waddell: Through us coming together, that we’re making a statement to the world, that we’re making a statement to our young people in school, the importance in our public school, the choir, the fine arts department, sight [music] reading back in our schools, the instruments. I’m praying that it brings our singers back to the choir to stand in our local churches. I’m praying that it inspires pastors to open up the choir stand again, push those screens aside, and get up in the choir stand and let’s sing.

WIB: When’s the next rehearsal?

Waddell: May 11, 7-9 p.m. at Israel Baptist Church and everyone is welcome.