Background
Track: "Stand" by Commissioned; lead vocalist (singing, not the person talking): Marvin Sapp; from their album Matters of
the Heart
This album was
Commissioned's 8th. It was released in 1994, taking a little longer than previous albums to be released, as earlier one were
released each year. A cause for this was that Commissioned were doing various other projects, as their popularity grew.
For example, they were involved
in the album Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration released in 1992, a collaboration of various artists including
Daryl Coley, Sounds of Blackness, Take 6, Vanessa Bell Armstrong,
Richard Smallwood, The Yellowjackets, and MANY more. Commissioned and the
Clark Sisters performed a duet in this album (Commissioned member Eddie Howard, Jr. had previously done projects
with the Clark Sisters)
This album was produced
by Norman Miller and Take 6's Mervyn Warren, with help from Quincy Jones on the last track which contained an all-star collaboration
choir, including Commissioned and Andraé Crouch.
Eddie Howard, Jr.
had left Commissioned after Number 7, and Commissioned was down to 6 members.
This album was released
by CGI Records and Benson Music, and was produced by Fred Hammond and Tara Griggs-Magee.
It included the Dawkins brothers, Eric and Anson who returned to help
as in their previous album, Number 7, and also Run-DMC and Chuckii Booker. Noel
Hall (known for being the musical director for Fred Hammond & Radical For Christ)
did a lot of keyboard playing with Maxx Frank. Parkes Stewart did background vocals on every
song except "We Shall Behold Him" and "Draw Me Nearer". It also included the work of Raymond Hammond, Bryan
Lenox, Ty Lacy, Mark Luckey, Danny Duncan, Dann Huff, and Bo Cooper.
The first track
"Work On Me", written by Anson Dawkins, Fred Hammond, and Mitchell Jones, sounds pretty good, it sounds like
a 60's tune.
"Stand",
written by Fred Hammond and Mitchell Jones, is sung by Marvin Sapp, and is definetly one of Marvin's best sung songs.
"Love Is
The Way" is definetly a Commissioned hit, a should've been included in the Commissioned Reunion! It is one of (if
not THE best) song from Commissioned! I was very disappointed to see this song not included in the Reunion! It included
guest Chuckii Booker on the keyboards, and included a lead part by each of the Commissioned singers (Karl, Mitchell, Marvin,
and Fred) and this song also has a music video which includes Chuckii Booker.
"Dare to
Believe" written by Mitchell Jones and Mark Luckey, is sung by Mitchell Jones, and is a nice song. It
features the guitar playing of Tim Bowman.
The next track,
Phil Collins' "Another Day In Paradise", is the first ever secular song sung on an album by Commissioned.
"You Can
Always Come Home" sounds good, it features both Run-DMC and also Chuckii Booker. I like both Fred Hammond's
singing and bass playing! (Ba-doobie-doo-ba-you...)
"When Love
Calls You Home" is an okay song by Fred Hammond, but I personally can't see why they put it on the Commissioned Reunion.
"Lay Your
Troubles Down", the next track, is better, I like it more, it is a nice song sung by Karl, Fred, and the others.
"Find Myself
In You" is nice in how it opens with a choir, and Mitchell Jones and Fred Hammond sing beautifully. But a song that
I would've really liked on the Reunion is the next track. The guitar was played by Dann Huff, the synth bass by Danny Duncan,
and the piano by Bo Cooper.
"I'm Learning"
written by Mitchell Jones and Parkes Stewart. This song is a favorite of mine, Mitchell Jones, and Marvin Sapp did a good
job on this song! This is one of my Commissioned favorites!
The
classic song,"We Shall Behold Him" by Dottie Rambo, is sung nicely by Karl Reid in the beginning, and by
Fred Hammond and Marvin Sapp. This song features Eric Dawkins as a background vocal.
"Draw Me
Nearer" is also a public domain song sweetly sung by Commissioned.
Selected
Sample Tracks from cdsampler.com
Below
are some pictures from Commissioned's Matters of the Heart Concert and the "Love Is The Way" music video
