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Hi Les,

the Highway QC's are still active! And Spencer Taylor is with them. As you're living in Chicago you should try to see them. The Highway QC's "fed" the Soul Stirrers with some of their members: Sam Cooke, Johnnie Taylor and - if I'm not wrong - the Crume Brothers.

Bernd

I agree with Muddy.

Quartet is the oldest style of African American religious music besides congregational singing. Quartet dates back to the time around 1850. There's a report about African Americans singing "quartet" but without any further information. So, we don't know if only males were singing quartet nor if it had been mixed groups. There isn't even any informaion about four people singing quartet or more. The first ever recorded African American "gospel" music was "quartet" in the early 1890s. It was the Unique Quartet. The Dinwiddies first recorded in 1902.

In my knowledge, the style of the quartets before the late thirties is called "country style" and that's just what the Norfolks did. The Norfolks have been the first nation wide well known African American quartet.

In the late thirties quartet style changed to "jubilee style" and it's the Golden Gate Quartet (Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet) which became famous for this special style in quartet. The harmonies in "jubilee style" are fixed and the lead singers didn't have much posibilities in individual interpretations of the lyrics they sang. So, in "jubilee quartet style" the lead parts are fixed, too.

Afterwards quartet changed into what is called modern "gospel style".

The word "jubilee" within a group's name doesn't mean they're singing in quartet jubilee style but only they're singing religious songs. e.g. the Fisk Julilee Singers.

Bernd

Thanks, Les!

I think we don’t have any problem with the poll categories. You just started an interesting discussion, as you said.

You’re right, “quartet” doesn’t mean four men singing. The Swanee Quintet is a quartet like the Soul Stirrers who had six members. And today, even traditional female groups are called “quartets”. You also can call the modern quartet sound being “hard quartet” or “modern quartet”.


Here are the categories, Tony Heilbut enumerates in his book “The Gospel Sound”:

- female solo personalities

- male solo personalities

- gospel groups (female groups, small mixed groups like the Staple Singers or Roberta Martin Singers, duets like the Consolers and male groups (!) like the Raymond Rasberry Singers)

- choirs

- quartets


You might also add those “concert spiritual singers” who had been trained singing in a classical way, which also has a long time tradition (Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson).

Also the guitar evangelists or street gospel singers like Blind Willie Johnson are a different category of gospel music.

Today people also distinguish contemporary gospel music from traditional gospel music and there are categories like Urban Contemporary, Hip-Hop, Rap, etc..

And “Southern Gospel” means white gospel music.

I guess some board members might add further categories.

Bernd