“It was a night of high praise and intense worship in honour of King Jesus” is how powerful gospel singer, Eugene Zuta describes the live recording session at the Tesano Baptist Church in Accra that resulted in his second album of songs titled Adoration.
Many musicians love the luxury of pacing themselves in the recording studio where they can lay basic tracks and then dub and over-dub various parts as many times as they wish to complete an album. That’s not the formula preferred by Zuta.
For the Adoration album, he packed his backing singers and instrumentalists into the Tesano Baptist Church and they attacked 11 songs with maximum vim.
“You capture everything in real time when you play and record live.You have the whole band playing together instead of a couple of people sitting in the studio to play all the instruments. I believe the result has a better effect on people,” says Zuta.
From the first song to the eleventh on Adoration, he tries hard to pull listeners into the exciting live recording atmosphere.
On songs like He Reigns, None Like You, Wo So (You Are Great), Se Wo (More Like You) and I Give It All To You, everyone on board the recording sound charged up to praise, worship and convince all of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
Zuta, a product of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) was extremely active with music while on campus. He sang with the Echoes of Calvary group there as well as the university’s mass choir.
He admits he got a lot of experience on campus as well as during the five years he spent doing backing vocals for Nii Okai.
His first album of 14 songs called Wo Ye Onyame, came out in 2008. Working through his Eugene Zuta Ministries, he performs at a lot of church programmes and gets actively involved with campus evangelism throughout the country.
“I want to do gospel music that effectively draws people closer to God. I like to encourage people to have a personal relationship with God and also yearn to be truly transformed.”
People’s tastes in music get transformed continually. Zuta thinks it is in order for gospel music to embrace the good practices from various styles of music so long as Jesus Christ and his message of salvation is preserved.
“I don’t favour musical styles that distract attention from what gospel music is essentially about. If a style attracts attention to the baser emotions, then I know questions should be asked about the wisdom in bringing that style on board.”
A gripping aspect of the Adoration album is the proficiency of the instrumentalists. They played with passion and were able to successfully provide a magnificent setting for Zuta to do his vocals.
The instrumentalists on the project were Henry Datsomor and Samuel Antwi (keyboards),Prince Mathews (lead guitar), Caleb Butsome (acoustic guitar), Emmanuel Bludo Jnr (drums), Samuel Akuffo (percussion) and Paa Pee(horns).
No wonder Zuta, who worships with the Mount Olivet Methodist Church at Dansoman in Accra, says he is encouraged to do more live presentations as he continues to praise and worship God through music.
Story by Kouame Koulibaly/Graphic Showbiz
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