As an integral member of the Isley Brothers and Isley/Jasper/Isley, and as a successful solo artist, Chris Jasper has been at the forefront of progressive R&B music since the early 1970s.  His professional career began in 1973, when the original Isley Brothers vocal trio expanded to include younger brothers, Ernie and Marvin, and brother-in-law, Chris, to create the musical component of the self-contained group, the “Isley Brothers.” Now on his own and singing songs that ispires, Chris has just released “Invincible”. En Sound spoke with him about his conversion and his music

Good day my brother, how are things going on your end?

We’ve just been working and promoting this album and it is really a great thing

This is my first time getting an opportunity to speak with you, I am familiar with all of your music, and just wanted to know how long have you been in the music industry?

I have been in this industry since the early 70’s. 1973 was the year the six Isley brothers released our first record. We had done a few records before that, but the public didn’t see all six of us until 1973. We’ve don lots of record since 1973 and went on my own in 1987.

I think it is very important that we know the history because you guys are staples in the music industry, period. How did it all get started?

The three older Isley Brothers, Kelly, Rudolph and Ronald started back in the 50’s and their first hit was “Shout”. They came to New York, got signed and recorded that song which was their first hit record. They went over to Motown, had a hit there and in the 60’s recorded “It’s Your Thing” that was a hit for their own record label, Teaneck Records. Shortly after that, the three of us younger guys, Ervin, Marvin and I had a trio and were playing a few dates in New Jersey at that time around Teaneck and Englewoood. They saw us and liked the way we were developing, took us in the studios, and shortly after that we started to play on records with the older Isley’s. As time went on we developed into a self contained group.

You guys have had many hits over the years, but to me, “Caravan of Love” was the song that I believe really reaches out and speaks to people all over the world. I recall as a young man, hearing many of your music on the radio. That one song has stayed in my mind to this day. Did you know that this song would have had the impact that it had on millions of lives around the world?

At the time I wrote that song, I was back with the young trio again. The six members had split up and it was just the younger members that formed Isley/Jasper/Isley. We had a record out in 1984 which did ok. When I wrote “Caravan of Love”, I wanted to write something that was soulful but with a message. That song was also written when I was starting my conversion. I also look at that song as being the first inspirational song that I wrote and it has a very special place with me as well.

Do you know exactly how many cover versions of that song there are?

Marvin Sapp did a version of it, the House Martins, an English group also did a version which was big in Europe and parts of South America. Those are the two biggest name artists that I can recall that have recorded it, there are others that I cannot think of this moment.

When did you give your life to Christ and what lead to this decision?

Well, I guess it was around 1985. It wasn’t a shocking situation that made me change, but a culmination of things. I also had a revelation so to speak. I had a dream that kind of lead to my conversion. My son was around six month’s old at the time and wasn’t speaking, and in the dream he plainly said to me, “God build a city, a home away from home” and that hit me like a ton of bricks. That’s the chapter that speaks about the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven…This was exactly what the dream was about. I knew at that point that God was working on me.

Is that how the name of your record label came about?

Exactly, it was named after the golden city, so is my publishing company, Jasper stone Music is the first foundation of that city build with stones of jasper, when you read the book of Revelations 21…that’s how the names come about.

Tell me about the new album, “Invincible”, how long did the songwriting process and recording of this project take?

It was about 3-4 months in the making. I wanted to focus the lyrics towards certain issues and verses of scriptures and that was my aim this time to focus on certain points. It really helped me because sometimes when you are writing a song, you can just make a general statement which can be good, but it may not address anything in particular, but these lyrics are addressing particular points that maybe people don’t understand fully, or maybe they have just been overlooked. To me, that was important for me to bring out on this album. Each song is based on scriptures. I really enjoyed doing it. Musically it is back to a place where I am comfortable. I really wanted to make it as soulful as I could.

Visit: www.goldcitymusic.com to purchase copies of Chris Jasper's Music.