To restrict gospel music within the parameters of the Christian establishment would be doing great disservice to a form of music that nourished many other secular genres, such as blues and jazz. And one of the world's foremost pioneers of this distinctly American import – Dennis Montgomery III, the director of the Reverence Gospel Ensemble at the Berklee College of Music in Boston – will play a gig at a SoBo venue later this weekend. He sheds more light on the genre over an email interview. Edited excerpts.

Can you tell us about your growing up years in Shreveport, Louisiana? And how would you normally spend the $100 you would earn a month playing at churches?
I grew up around musical parents. My father got me my first church gig when I was nine. I was making $25 a Sunday, and I would contribute that to my parents. I believed that music was my destiny. I attended Berklee, where I found my own voice as a young student and was soon hired as a faculty member, and went on to form Overjoyed, Berklee's gospel choir ensemble.