T. L. Barrett

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Thomas Lee Barrett, Jr. (born January 13, 1944),[1][2][3] better known professionally as Pastor T.L. Barrett and Rev. T.L. Barrett, is an American Pentecostal preacher and gospel musician. Barrett is a preacher on Chicago's South Side who released gospel albums in the 1970s; as a musician, he was largely unknown outside of Chicago until a resurgence in interest in his music occurred in the 2010s.

Biography[]

Barrett was born on January 13, 1944 in Jamaica, New York,[1][3] but his family moved to Chicago when he was young. Barrett's father was a gospel musician who was involved with the music at a church led by Barrett's aunt. He attended Wendell Phillips High School, where he was expelled.[4] His father died when Barrett was 16, and he then moved to Queens, New York, where he lived with his uncle and took a job at Flushing Hospital extracting glands from cadavers.[4] At 17 he was arrested for failing to pay child support to a 37-year-old who bore his child.[4] In New York, he worked as a shoeshiner and played piano at parties and at venues such as the Waldorf Astoria and the Village Gate.[5] Eventually, he decided to become a preacher, returning to Chicago and starting his own youth-focused ministry.

After receiving his G.E.D. diploma from the New York State Board of Regents in 1961, Barrett attended Bethel Bible Institute in Jamaica, New York, where he graduated with honors.[3]

His career as a pastor began in 1966.[5] He became pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, in the Washington Park neighborhood of Chicago in 1968.[3] After a theological disagreement with the elders of the Mt. Zion church, he left in 1976 to form his own ministry, the Life Center COGIC church, in the same neighborhood.[3][4]

Barrett was charged in 1989 with orchestrating a pyramid scheme, by encouraging his congregants to donate to a series of economic development fundraisers which yielded over two million dollars in total.[5] The financial viability of the plan was judged by a court to be infeasible, and Barrett was ordered to place his church's title in receivership as a result.[5] He was ordered to repay 1.2 million dollars by 1998, which he did successfully.[5]

In 1998, the Illinois House of Representatives honored Barrett for contributions to civic life in Chicago.[5] The city of Chicago named a portion of Garfield Boulevard, close to his Mt. Zion church location, in Barrett's honor.[4] In 2007, Barrett's youngest daughter, Kleo, was murdered by an ex-boyfriend.[6]

Musical career[]

In the 1970s, Barrett's congregation included many noteworthy Chicago-area musicians, such as Maurice White and Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind and Fire, Donny Hathaway, and Phil Cohran.[5] Barrett, recording as Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir, released the album Like a Ship (Without a Sail) in 1971. The Youth for Christ Choir, led by Barrett, was an approximately 40-member ensemble of children ages 12 to 19, which grew out of his Tuesday night weekly choir meetings.[4] The album featured instrumental contributions from Phil Upchurch, Gene Barge, , and (of Rotary Connection).[7] It was reissued by Light in the Attic Records in 2010 to critical acclaim[7][8][9] and praise from musicians such as Jim James and Colin Greenwood.[5] Barrett also released several further albums of music over the course of the 1970s, as well as discs of sermons; he also recorded as Rev. T.L. Barrett.

In 2016, Kanye West sampled the song "Father I Stretch My Hands", from Barrett's 1976 album Do Not Pass Me By, in the song "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1" and "Pt. 2" from the album The Life of Pablo.[4]

In 2016, Barrett's music was used in an Under Armour commercial directed by Harmony Korine and on the soundtrack to the film Barry.[4] and in the 2017 Almeida Theatre (London) production of Martin Crimp's "The Treatment".

In 2019, Barrett's song "Nobody Knows", from the 1971 album 'Like a Ship (Without a Sail)', was used in an AT&T commercial titled "Roll Up Your Sleeves". It was also used in a trailer to Corpus Christi.

Also in 2019, English musician Richard Ashcroft covered live the song 'Like a Ship (Without a Sail)' and released it as a streaming single (labeled as 'Just Like A Ship'). The song was covered during a live session at the Chris Evans Breakfast Show.

The following year, Barrett's recording of 'Like a Ship (Without a Sail)' was featured in the Netflix documentary, Crip Camp.

In 2020, Barrett’s song “Like a Ship” was sampled by electronic music Duo The Knocks in their song “All About You” featuring Foster The People.

In June 2021, Barrett's song "Like a Ship" was used on closing credits of Season 1 Episode 9 of HBO "HACKS".[10]

The song "Nobody Knows", from the 1971 album 'Like a Ship (Without a Sail)', has been sampled numerous times, including on rapper Copywrite's song "Trouble" from the album "Choose your own adventure: Murderland"[11] and DJ Khaled's album Grateful.

Personal life[]

On July 1, 1967 he married his sweetheart Cleopatra. This union produced seven children (Kim, Kisha, T. L., III, Torrey, Trevore, T'Shaun, and Kleo), He has at least six additional children from other relationships.[3]

Discography[]

Albums
  • Like a Ship... (Without a Sail) (Mt. Zion Gospel Productions TL-8126, 1971)
  • Vol. II; Do Not Pass Me By (Universal Awareness, ca. 1973) (Note: the "Vol. II" refers to this LP's status as a sequel to the prior "Like A Ship" LP, and not to the Gospel Roots LP of the same name, which would be released approximately three years later)
  • I Found the Answer (Gospel Truth GTS-2718, 1973)
  • Do Not Pass Me By (Gospel Roots GR-5002, 1976)
  • Roots (Gospel Roots GR-5009, 1977)
Sermons released on LP
  • Please Don't Squeeze the Charmine
  • John M. Smith (Or Do You Say Smythe?)
  • If I Should Wake Before I Die
  • It Tastes So Good
  • How Would You Like to Have a Nice Hawaiian Punch?
  • Dry Bones in the Valley

References[]

  1. ^ a b "New York, New York, Birth Index, 1910-1965 [database on-line]". Ancestry.com. 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  2. ^ "U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1 [database on-line]". Ancestry.com. 2010. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Pastor T. L. Barrett, Jr". Life Center C.O.G.I.C. Retrieved 23 August 2020. After his father passed at age 44 when T.L. was 16 years of age - He returned to his home town of Jamaica, New York where he earned a high-school diploma (G.E.D.) from the New York State Board of Regents in 1961. Then he enrolled in the Bethel Bible Institute and graduated with honors.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Meet the Least Likely Link Between Kanye West and Barack Obama. Vanity Fair, December 14, 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Without A Sail: The Complicated Legacy Of Pastor T. L. Barrett. The Quietus, September 16, 2016.
  6. ^ Missing deputy found dead. Chicago Tribune, April 3, 2007.
  7. ^ a b Review of Like a Ship. Allmusic
  8. ^ Egon's 5 Favorite Reissues Of 2010. NPR, December 21, 2010.
  9. ^ Pastor T.L. Barrett & the Youth for Christ Choir's "Like a Ship". The Stranger, August 4, 2010.
  10. ^ "Hacks Soundtrack (Season 1) - Songs / Music List from the serie". 13 March 2021.
  11. ^ "Trouble by Copywrite on WhoSampled". WhoSampled.
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