Things are looking up for The Harlem Gospel Travelers, who return here with a new
album, a new lineup, and a new lease on life. Produced by Eli Paperboy Reed, Look
Up! marks the group’s first full-length release as a trio, as well as their first collection
of totally original material, and it couldn’t have come at a more vital moment. The
music still draws deeply on the gospel quartet tradition of the ’50s and ’60s, of
course, but there’s a distinctly modern edge to the record, an unmistakable reflection
of the tumultuous past few years of pandemic anxiety, political chaos, and social
unrest. The songs are bold and resilient, facing down doubt and despair with faith and
perseverance, and the performances are explosive and ecstatic, fueled by dazzling
vocal arrangements punctuated with gritty bursts of guitar and crunchy rhythm breaks.
Born out of an non-profit music education program led by Reed, The Harlem Gospel
Travelers—singers Thomas Gatling, George Marage, and Dennis Bailey—released their
debut LP, He’s On Time, to rave reviews in 2019, with Pop Matters hailing the album’s
“musical transcendence” and AllMusic praising it as “dreamlike and joyous.” The
record charted on Billboard, earned the Travelers high profile fans like Elton John
(who invited them to appear on his Rocket Hour radio show on Apple Music), and
landed them festival slots everywhere from Pilgrimage to Telluride Jazz.