Soul Jazz Records' "Holy Church Of The Ecstatic Soul: Gospel, Funk And Soul At The Crossroads 1971 - 1983" reveals the far-reaching connections between black American gospel music and soul music and illustrates how the sensibilities of gospel artists such as Shirley Caeser, Dorothy Norwood, Andrae Crouch and others crossed over into secular soul music during this period. Many of the most successful soul artists - from Aretha Franklin to Al Green, from the Staple Singers to Sam Cooke - drew inspiration for their musical work from their church upbringing.

This album discusses how important the connections between the black church and soul music were to the emergence of soul music, and introduces some of the many significant (and little-known) gospel artists who walked that line between sacred music and soul, funk and disco in the 1970s and early 1980s.