Hezekiah Walker

In the often egomaniacal world of music it's rare to find an iconic artist who is as altruistic as he is talented, but Grammy Award winning choir director and church pastor Hezekiah Walker is such an exception. Over an almost three decades long career, Walker has collaborated with Justin Timberlake, P. Diddy and Whitney Houston; recorded more than a dozen chart topping albums and become the face of the black Gospel choir with his classic hits "Souled Out," "Grateful" and "I Need You To Survive." In speaking of his forthcoming 14th CD, "Azusa The Next Generation" Walker is philosophically pondering the past generations of believers who influenced his life like the late Bishop Kenneth Moales (to whom the CD is dedicated) while also imparting the wisdom of those

elders to the next Azusa generation through his music and mentoring.

In a manner, Walker is repackaging this faith that kept him during his adolescence and making it relatable to today's youth. The seed for this CD had been on Walker's mind for a while but it really germinated when he was discussing his plans with longtime friend and Grammy Award winner Donald Lawrence, who ended up producing the 10 song set. "He comes from that Pentecostal background as well," Walker explains.

"I think it's a great tragedy for our young people even in Gospel music to experience the new sound in Gospel, or what we call the new swag in Gospel, and not know where all of it comes from. So after having that conversation, Donald said ' I really want to be down with this project because I think people need to know that we can still be relevant and still hold on to some of the traditions that we were taught.'"

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