Read ‘The Book of Enoch’
Enoch Smith Jr
The Director of Music & Worship at the APC Church in Monmouth County has recorded and self-released his sixth album, The Book of Enoch Volume #1, his first in eight years. Pianist Enoch Smith, Jr, bassist Kai Gibson and drummer David Hardy convened at Teaneck Sound in Bergen County. The result is a glorious seven-track master class in how to make traditional and modern hymns swing like crazy. His fusion of gospel, blues and jazz opens with “Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho,” said to be written by slaves in the early 19th Century. Three of its dozens of covers are by Princeton’s Paul Robeson (1925), Mahalia Jackson (1958) and Elvis (1960). But we bet that you’ve never heard it as a Flamenco with Afro-Latin overtones! The trio also covers Andrae Crouch’s 1978 “Soon And Very Soon” with a joyous bounce. Smith rewrites “Amazing Grace” as “Gracefully.” “Holy City” dates back to 1892. Ralph Carmichael’s 1969 “A Quiet Place,” covered by acapella group Take 6 in 1988 and most recently by Maureen McGovern in 2016, has never sounded so syncopated. Even those with little or no faith will dig what Enoch’s laying down.