Very few studio recordings do justice to the spirit and communal glory of live gospel. A Taste of Heaven resolves this problem from the very first cut. “Elijah’s Rock” begins with a single, plaintive female voice and explodes into a full choir, raise-the-roof testimonial. Raymond’s organ sounds like a twelve piece R&B horn section. His voice drips with all the delicious funk and mighty compassion for which he has become known. “I remember the hour when my lord saved my soul…wish you could have seen what I went through, the church was on fire with the Holy Ghost too.”

The word is out. Raymond Myles is a gospel singer with show-stopping, hair-raising talent. Raymond has been compared to Little Richard in personality, Stevie Wonder in range and power, Donny Hathaway in spirit and Michael Jackson In moves and dress. He closed out the Gospel Tent at the Jazz Fest this year with a performance that had everyone testifying.

On A Taste of Heaven, Raymond takes every possible moment to step forward and maintain that essential connection with the audience, putting all of his heart into each song, not to mention his undeniably flamboyant personality. In “He’s Right There,” his original about how easy it is to find God in prayer, he jokes: “You don’t need no MCI, no AT& T…don’t need to call Dionne Warwick’s Psychic Friends Network, because he’s right there.” But he can aIso provide serious inspiration, as in “Learning to Love: a song he wrote for his students at John McDonogh Senior High in which he honestly describes the courage and self-esteem it took to raise himself up from the St. Bernard projects.

Raymond is showcased in a Variety of styles, from traditional gospel to contemporary “quiet-fire” R&B, obviously in an effort to demonstrate his pop-crossover potential. That’s why its surprising that the best song on the album, the song with the strongest “jump up for joy and cry out for mercy” gospel feel, is a secular number. “Put a Little Love In Your Heart” swings like there’s no tomorrow, with a spine-tingling exuberance which could only be created by the world-class Raymond A. Myles singers (the RAMS), who drive the whole album home with divine force.

With this album, the world has a chance to discover what New Orleans has known for some lime. Raymond Myles can turn any stereo, any stage into a Church of Soul.