I also miss the era of the choirs!! If you think about it, groups have been getting progressively smaller over the years. There was a time when the MASS choirs ruled (like The Mississippi Mass Choir, Florida Mass, Georgia Mass, New Jersey Mass, COGIC Int'l Mass Choir, all the COGIC Jurisdictional Choirs, convention choirs, church choirs, etc.) Then during the 80s it kinda shifted to the slightly smaller community choirs like Rev. Milton brunson & the Thompson Community Singers, Southeast Inspirational Choir (they were BADD!!), Timothy Wright & the Concert Choir, the New Life Community Choir, etc.
This paved the way for the young super community choirs of the 90s like Hezzie, James Hall, Ricky Dillard, Donald Lawrence & Tri City, Olanda and the Associates, B. Chase Williams, etc. Now we hyave P & W groups and ensembles.
I like P & W music, but NOTHING takes the place of a good choir! At least the choir market is not completely dead. We still have Hez, James, Donald (for now), Ricky, MS Mass, Miami Mass, etc. I just hope people realize the value of a choir. Our best singers (both gospel and secular) came through the choirs!! The Clark Sisters, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, James Moore, The Pace Sisters, The Winans, The Hawkins and many others are all products of Dr. Mattie Moss Clark and UNAC!!