Performing rights organization BMI is proud to
announce the date of the 6th annual Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards
Luncheon. The invitation-only event, to be held in conjunction with the
2005 Stellar Awards, will take place on Friday, January 14, 2005 at
Downtown Aquarium in Houston, Texas (401 Bagby Street). The gala
luncheon salutes gospel music and honors outstanding gospel music
recording artists, award-winning BMI writers, and gospel music industry
executives. The 2005 honorees include contemporary gospel singers Rance
Allen and Pastor John P. Kee.
The Rance Allen Group was founded more than four decades ago and Allen
has been fronting the band with his soulful, soaring vocals ever since.
This Detroit-based black gospel group was the first to incorporate rock,
jazz, and soul into their music, topping both the gospel and urban
Billboard charts throughout the years. Their most recent release, The
Live Experience, features gospel greats Fred Hammond, Kirk Franklin and
LaShun Pace joining the band on hits such as “Miracle Worker,”
“Something About the Name Jesus” and “I Can’t Help Myself.”
Pastor John P. Kee, considered one of the genre’s greatest artists,
blends a rich brew of funk, rock & roll, soul, reggae, and even club
dance elements to create his own personal form of expression on top of a
gospel music foundation. His diverse styles can be heard on his latest
Verity Records effort, The Color of Music, which features superstar
producer Rodney Jerkins on the track “Dancin’.” The full-time pastor of
New Life Fellowship Center since 1995, the Charlotte, North
Carolina-based singer gets his inspiration from seeing how people’s
lives are changed and turned around through the power of music and
worship.
The 20th Annual Stellar Awards will take place the day after BMI’s
Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards Luncheon on January 15, 2005 at the
George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. Produced by Central City
Productions, the Stellar Awards celebrate the year in gospel music.
Nominations are received and voted on by the Stellar Awards Gospel Music
Academy (SAGMA), made up of members who encourage and promote gospel
music worldwide.
Founded in 1939, BMI is an American performing rights organization that
represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers
in all genres of music. Through its music performance and reciprocal
agreements with sister organizations around the world, it grants
businesses and media access to its repertoire of approximately 4.5
million songs and compositions.
