Purpose By Design

Fred Hammond reinforces the strength of his faith with the power of his music. His newest collection combines exuberantly devotional lyrics with a solid R&B musical underpinning. The rhythm section is girded by Hammond's own muscular electric-bass playing and supplementary horns bolster the waves of sound and emotion of Radical for Christ, his dozen-voice choir. His preceding release, Pages of Life, was a double CD with one disc of studio recordings and one disc live in a Detroit church. Purpose by Design distills that mix to a strong single disc with nine studio and four live recordings, although without the experience of a continuous service that the live disc of Pages of Life offered. Both approaches to recording have their strengths; "I Know It Was the Blood," with its vivid imagery, inexorable rhythm, inventive melodic movement, and subtle electronic manipulation of Hammond's vocal melismas, exemplifies the use of modern recording technology to create exhilarating music. The CD's opener, "I Want My Destiny," has an urgent lyric, a groove to match it, and an equally sophisticated arrangement. The live tracks, like "When You Praise," build from a pastoral beginning to an extended, climactic conclusion that really needs a church full of worshippers to help inspire it and can't be readily simulated in the studio. Among the live songs is a congregation-rousing rendition of "Jesus Be a Fence Around Me," a Sam Cooke classic from his days with the Soul Stirrers. --Bob Bannister

Price: $8.99

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