Review

What can I say about an album by Martha Munizzi? She has had two Top 5 Billboard Gospel albums and has been recognized by Grammy, Dove and Stellar with nominations from each organization. She has toured extensively, ministered in mega-churches, with mega-ministers, appeared on TV, and the list of accomplishments goes on and on. Martha has an incredible voice and an even more incredible passion to bring to her audience her heart for praising Jesus.

Martha's music on No Limits is alive with positive confession and exuberance, delivered to a live audience that eats up her every word. The feel of a live concert is captured well as she engages the crowd often with words that exhort and uplift.

The musicianship is also top notch. It's a big band, with no less than three keyboards in action. And the arrangements are inventive, not your typical I - IV - vi - V chord progressions. She often has the feel of a club singer, and that's not to disparage her, it's just that she is comfortable singing with a big band and backup singers, as well as alone with a piano playing jazz chords.

I'll confess that I don't attend a black gospel church, nor do I particularly call this style of music my own. A music reviewer's code of ethic is to critique music based on how he felt the artist did in communicating their message and passion. In that respect, I have to grade Munizzi's "No Limits Live" an A. Her passion is unquestioned. Her message is that we have a relationship with Jesus and He provides for us.

When you come across an album that offers different styles and perspectives for worship, I think it's important to be gracious. God's kingdom swells with so much diversity, as His people come to Him from so many different places. How one person worships, another may find dry. The truly important review comes from God Himself.

My church is just at the beginning of moving from the suburbs into the city. Reviewing this album has been a great teaching tool to me, because it reminds me that I may one day be sitting next to people for whom this style of worship is the expected norm. I must say that I am richer for it. You may be as well.

Review by John Ausmus