Interview profile
Robert M. Marovich
An interview on listening, reporting, and Chicago gospel history
01
The first broadcast
In 1984, Robert M. Marovich was preparing music for an eleven o'clock Mass at Notre Dame when a Chicago radio station carried the Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer broadcast. He liked what he heard and pressed record on his cassette player. Gospel was new to him. The tape stayed with him, first as something to replay and later as the beginning of his research.
02
A religion he can hear
Marovich calls gospel his religion. It moves him more than a service, he said, and its lyrics return when he is discouraged. His work as a critic grows from that response. He listens for musical craft. He also wants to know who made the song, where they learned it, and how a church community hears it.
03
Writing Chicago
Marovich spent eight years working on A City Called Heaven. He interviewed singers and ministers, visited churches, searched libraries, and followed records through private collections. The research changed how he understood Chicago. Gospel had grown through migration, neighborhood churches, radio broadcasts, and the work of people whose names rarely entered the city's better-known music histories.
04
Names beyond the record market
A singer could be famous across Chicago churches and almost unknown elsewhere. Marovich named Devella Norton Tuck, Cora Winters, Edna Mae Quarles, Vernon Oliver Price, and Loretta Oliver. Some made only a small number of records. Others had no interest in recording or lacked access to the industry. Older churchgoers still remembered who could move a congregation. Marovich called them stars in their own churches.
05
Where he draws the line
Marovich admires Kirk Franklin's writing and his ability to bring hip-hop and funk into gospel. Kanye West presents a harder case. Marovich hears gospel in the choir and the songs, even though he considers West's role limited. He draws a firmer line around music generated wholly or partly by AI. Gospel needs a real singer with a name, a voice, and something lived behind the performance.
06
What people remember
Much of Marovich's evidence came from people who remembered a singer, a church program, or a radio broadcast that had left few official records. Cassette tapes and private pressings filled some gaps. Conversation filled others. His research depends on asking who was there, following the names people mention, and taking local reputation seriously.
I consider gospel music to be my religion. It moves me more than any service.Return to the archive