Sad story out of New York, where the Rev. Claude Jeter, lead singer for the Gospel quartet the Swan Silvertones, has died. Rev. Jeter’s improvised line in “Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep,” – “I’ll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in my name” – brought Paul Simon to the line “like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down.” In the 1970s, Simon would invite Jeter to sing the gorgeous falsetto bridge on “Take Me to the Mardi Gras.”

Rev. Jeter had been ill for a while, and will be sorely missed. More from the New York Daily News’s David Hinckley.

Here’s an impromptu “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” featuring the brilliant Patti Austin, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival last July.

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Sunday Gospel, a new feature here at Paul Simon Web, examines the threads of Gospel music that run through Paul Simon’s work, an impressive collection considering Simon is a short, white, Jewish guy from Queens. Here’s a monster of a first take -- Paul Simon, Luther Vandross, Jennifer Hudson and a Gospel choir with an over-the-top take on “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” You my recognize the arrangement from Aretha Franklin’s chart-climbing cover of “Bridge” and from Simon’s own Live Rhymin’ performance from the early 1970s.