**1/2 Martha Wash

THE COLLECTION

(Logic)

As one of dance music's longest-serving gospel divas, Wash merits this compilation's extended survey of her career. From the howling glory of "Gonna Make You Sweat" (which she sang for C+C Music Factory), "Keep on Jumpin' " (a remake of Musique's 1978 disco hit), "Catch the Light," and "Strike It Up" (originally released by Italy's Black Box) to the campy glitter of "It's Raining Men" (first credited to the Weather Girls, who were Wash and Izora Armstead, but performed here with RuPaul), Wash displays a steady command of ferocious celebration. Less known in clubland but equally rubicund are solemn hymns like "God Bless the Road" and such Gladys Knightish soulful intimacies as "Talking Away Your Space." Unfortunately, the compilation includes nothing of Wash's first sessions, when she and Armstead sang back-up to Sylvester as the Two Tons of Fun and on their own as disco's first and largest Size Queens.

-- Michael Freedberg