They're dancing in the aisles at the Central Baptist Church in St. Louis: "Gonna rock it gonna shake it on Sunday morning!" Framed by the choir swaying behind her, Ann Pittman, 93, surveys the scene from beneath a pink feathered hat, her broad smile competing with her white sequined suit, sparkle for sparkle. For nearly four decades, Pittman has been archiving spirituals passed down in her family since slave days. Today, for the first time, she's hearing the songs performed in public by voices other than her own—a glorious sound she hopes to seed throughout churches across America. Meanwhile, her musical legacy can be heard in its unvarnished form at Hoobellatoo [hoobellatoo.org], where the click of Pittman's dentures literally lays down the rhythm track on several a cappella audio files.
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