Professor Bob Darden Continues Collaborative Project with Dr. Henry Louis Gates
Beginning in Fall 2021, Professor Robert Darden resumed a collaboration Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. that began with the PBS documentary special, “The Black Church,” which aired in Fall 2020.
Darden was interviewed multiple times in “The Black Church” about the intersection of Black sacred music and the Black church. The series also used digitized music and excerpt of sermons from Baylor’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project (BGMRP), which Darden founded in 2016.
“Henry has been one of my heroes since I can remember,” Darden, who last year was named Baylor’s 27th Master Teacher, said. “He’s everything you’d hoped he’d be – warm and funny, insightful, and incredibly well-informed. The folks at McGee Media were equally wonderful. We immediately vowed to stay in touch.”
For Gates’ new series, “Black Gospel Music & Preaching,” Darden was asked to serve as the lead consultant. His 2005 book, People Get Ready!: A New History of Black Gospel Music, will serve as the outline for the four episodes. Working with Gates’ longtime production company, McGee Media, Darden worked throughout the fall and into the spring on the shooting scripts and identifying the necessary music. The BGMRP will, again, provide the digital copies of all music and sermons for “Black Gospel Music & Preaching.”
“It’s no secret that I’m incredibly humbled and thrilled that People Get Ready has chosen to provide the foundation for ‘Gospel Music & Preaching,’” Darden said. “I’d always dreamed that someone – preferably Gates – would finally create a documentary series on this music. I’m still having a hard time believing it.”
On April 10 and 11, McGee Media flew Darden to New York to participate in the taping of more interviews on the history of gospel music. Shooting in a Brooklyn studio, the interviews continued for much of April 11.
“The team was so affirming and supportive, they made me – again – feel right at home despite all of the cameras, lights and makeup,” Darden said. “The questions, as you might imagine, were challenging and heavily researched. It kept me on my toes throughout.”
A second round of filming, this time with Gates present, will be conducted either in the late fall.
Darden, who will be retiring in May 2023, will on be a research leave in Fall 2022, as he finishes his biography of gospel music legend Andrae Crouch and the Disciples with Dr. Stephen Newby, tentatively titled, Soon and Very Soon: The Transformative Life and Music of Andrae Crouch.
“Bob will be missed, but the work he is doing is important and it warrants his full attention,” said Mia Moody-Ramirez, chair of the Baylor Journalism, Public Relations & New Media Department .
While Darden said the extensive pre-production work this past year for “Gospel Music & Preaching” has been time-consuming, especially on top of his regular teaching and research, it has been “an utterly joyful” experience from the very beginning.
“I’m not sure I could have juggled everything without the support of our wonderful chair and my dear colleagues in the Department,” he said. “This place supports and nurtures creativity like nowhere else I’ve ever experienced.”
“Black Gospel Music & Preaching” is tentative scheduled to on PBS in Spring 2023.