The Never Ending Pool

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As stated earlier, Clarence Fountain of The Five Blind Boys of Alabama "became a hard gospel shouter when he heard that Archie Brownlee of the Blind Boys of Mississippi was, as H. C. Boyer puts it "'tearing up churches' with his screams and shrieks."

There are two references to The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi in this thread (pp. 11 & 12) and only one song posted. Here is an anecdote about their hard-shouting lead, Archie Brownlee:

Archie Brownlee died early too. At 2 o'clock on February 8th 1960, the hardest quartet singer of all time gave way to pneumonia in the New Orleans Charity Hospital. He was Julius Cheeks' big rival on the circuit, the inheritor of Silas Steele's title as the star voice of quartet. One old time singer recalled, 'My style wasn't broken until Archie Brownlee, he come in ... I mean, I saw him at Booker T. Auditorium jump all the way off the balcony, down onto the floor - blind! I don't see how in the world he could have done that. People would just fall out all over the house!'

The Five Blind Boys came out of the Piney Woods School for the Blind, near Jackson, Mississippi, where they had learned to sing spirituals while still young boys.


All by The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi:

"Our Father," SE 1950. (Boyer says sometime in 1952) Brownlee (shrieking) comes in late on this one.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/a4mc4e


"I Was Praying," MA '52

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jd1tzk


"Will Jesus Be Waiting For Me," MA '52

http://www.sendspace.com/file/uy23u9

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2011/dec/23/leonards-christmas-gospel-hour/
The Leonard Lopate Show
Leonard's Christmas Gospel Hour
Friday, December 23, 2011
Playlist:

1. Silent Night, Holy Night (Mahalia Jackson) Album: Silent Night: Gospel Christmas with Mahalia Jackson

2. When Was Jesus Born (Marion Williams & Stars of Faith) Album: O Holy Night

3. Go Tell It on the Mountain (Mahalia Jackson) Album: Apollo Sessions

4. No Room at the Inn (Mahalia Jackson) Album: Mahalia Sings Songs of Christmas

5. No Room at the Inn (Marion Williams) Album: O Holy Night

6. No Room at the Hotel (The Chosen Gospel Singers) Album: The Lifeboat

7. Great Day in December (Swan Silvertones) Album: Saviour Pass Me Not

8. Have You Got Room? (Edna Gallmon Cooke with Springfield Baptist Choir)

9. God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman (Marion Williams) Album: Through Many Dangers

10. Mary, Mary, What You Gonna Name that Pretty Little Baby? (Frances Steadman, Marion Williams) Album: Black Nativity, Gospel on Broadway!

11. The Holy Babe (Mahalia Jackson) Album: Mahalia Sings Songs of Christmas)

12. O Holy Night (Mahalia Jackson) Album: Mahalia Sings Songs of Christmas

13. Silent Night (Sister Rosetta Tharpe) Album: Complete Sister Rosetta Tharpe

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"No Room At The Inn" by The Fairfield Four, from 1951

http://www.sendspace.com/file/bcknef

Check this one out if you want to hear a bass vocal as deep as the Grand Canyon. Jimmy Jones was arguably gospel's deepest basso:

"Motherless Child" by The Harmonizing Four, from 1957, J. Jones, lead

http://www.sendspace.com/file/3czfgv

Season's Greetings, everyone.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2012/jan/16/martin-luther-king-day-gospel-hour

Lenny Lopate's marvelous, annual tribute for Martin Luther King, Jr. on this his birthday.


The Leonard Lopate Show
Martin Luther King Day Gospel Hour
Monday, January 16, 2012

Leonard Lopate plays classic gospel songs recorded during Martin Luther King’s lifetime for our annual Martin Luther King Day gospel hour.

Playlist:

Old Time Religion, James Cleveland w. the Caravans (played under the billboard)

Golden Gate Gospel Train, The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, 1937

I’ll Be All Right, Angelic Gospel Singers, 1955

We Shall Overcome, Marion Williams, 1968

These Are They, Mahalia Jackson, 1952

Rock Me (Hide Me in Thy Bosom), Sis. Rosetta Tharpe w. Lucky Millinder, 1943 (band included jazz greats like Joe Guy, Tab Smith, Sam the Man Taylor, George Duvuvier and Panama Francis

Precious Lord, RH Harris & James Medlock w. Soul Stirrers, 1939

Pilgrim of Sorrow, Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers 1955

The Love of God, Johnnie Taylor & The Soul Stirrers 1958

Standing at the Judgment, Julius Cheeks and the Sensational Nightingales

Somebody Touched Me, Mme. Edna Gallmon Cooke w. The Radio 4, 1953

My Imagination of Heaven, Morgan Babb w. The Radio 4, 1955

Lord Hold My Hand, Jess Whitaker w. The Pilgrim Travelers, 1951

Amazing Grace, J. Robert Bradley c.1960

What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Roberta Martin, 1950

The Old Landmark, Clara Ward & the Ward Singers, 1951

God Be With You, J. Earle Hines w. the St. Paul’s Baptist Church Choir of LA, 1947

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Can't argue with "marvelous," clair. As one might expect from Mr. Lopate, he chose a great group of songs. Here's one:

"Somebody Touched Me," by Mme. Edna Gallmon Cooke & the Radio Four, from 1953:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/gwloqe

...



Tutwiler Hotel, Birmingham, Alabama. Built in 1914

In 1937 there were some notable recordings made that included ones by Roy Acuff in Birmingham, Alabama, at the famous Tutwiler Hotel. A few recordings were made by the Ravizee Singers. They were among the first jubilee quartets to include women which was unusual, according to Horace Clarence Boyer. Apparently, this was deemed "okay" on this occasion because the Ravizee Singers were family members. The Ravizees, Boyer adds, were known for their slow and moderate gospelized Baptist hymns.

The story of the 1937 session by noted blues and gospel authority Gayle Dean Wardlow is here:

http://tinyurl.com/7s8csts

Here are two recordings from 1937 by the Ravizee Singers

"I'm Thinking Of A City (Lanka, Lanka)"

http://www.sendspace.com/file/8117t7

"You'll Need My Savior, Too"

http://www.sendspace.com/file/e6eugi

Great stuff.

thanks Warren

It's been a while since my last visit here. I'm reading a book about Thomas A. Dorsey and listen to old black gospel every single day. I also play it almost every week on the radio. One of my listeners, who happens to be a radio host himself, gave me an EP yesterday. It is a 45rpm 7" vinyl record with two songs on each side:

Side 1:
Where Shall I Be?
Give Me That Old Time Religion

Side 2:
Angels
Standing in the Safety Zone

It was released by Brunswick Records in England ("made in England", even) and is numbered: Brunswick OE 9352. In the bottom right-hand corner it says J.P.57.10. My benefactor says it means it came out in 1957. The artist is "Professor Johnson and his gospel singers."
http://www.45cat.com/record/de9352

Click on the image to magnify it. It is worth it. I only wish they had a picture of the back sleeve because there is a very interesting text there, which I may transcribe if I find the time.

The interesting thing about the liner notes is how it sounds like a first introduction to black gospel. ... more to come

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Meinhard, at the top of P. 9 of this thread I introduced the music of Reverend Anderson Johnson. You followed with a post in regard to the mp3 that I posted by saying, "He is so good."

Well, I have reason to believe that the Professor Johnson on your 45EP and Rev. A. (Anderson) Johnson are one and the same:

Here are samples of the four songs that are on your EP, plus 12 songs by A. (Anderson) Johnson:

http://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Classics-1950-58-Various-Artists/dp/B000000JF0/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_3

The version of "God Don't Like It" that I posted on P. 9 is No. 9, above.

I've listened a lot to Rev. Anderson Johnson and like his music a whole lot, but I had no idea that the two names would be the same man. I remember reading something to the effect that Rev. Anderson Johnson was a painter as well as musician.

I haven't listened to this record yet, because my brother borrowed my pick-up amp.

I find it very difficult to dig up any info on Professor Johnson. An auction website lists two copies that sell for $10 and $15 so this is hardly a "hard to find" record. What had me interested was the liner notes that read like a first introduction to black gospel. This is 1957, a year after Elvis breaking into the European market. By this time it will have become known that Elvis was part blues and part gospel, but I have no idea what would be their frame of reference in this regard. Europeans knew negro spirituals and listened for example to Paul Robeson, but I don't know when that started.

I'll transcribe the liner notes here:

"The world was created, as we read in teh first chapter of Genesis, in a spirit of high-spirited exaltation. In a week, God invented day and night, the firmament, the dry land and the waters, the trees and the animals, and perhaps the only faulty conception in this week of glorious creation, he made man. But at any rate, there was nothing half-hearted about it.

Neither was there anything half-hearted about the early prophets as they forecast death and damnation, and offered hope only at a very high rate of interest. The Bible is full of fire and fury. Nor did Jesus Himself shun the use of the dramatic.

We have tamed religion in Europe into a polite and intellectual discourse, a matter of convocations and chapter-house meetings; the lamb rather than the lion has become the main symbol in the coat-of-arms. The tactics of a Billy Graham may stir the Church into temporary militance, but there is a quick relapse into a politic gentility.

The Negroøs religion seems to have descended more directly from the fire eating, Bible-punching tradition. A warm and excitable people, they expect their religion to be warm and exciting as well. They couldn't intone a polite 'amen' if they tried; each one must be a shout of elation and a personal confirmation of belief.

It is only natural that the medium they use shuld be akin to their natural jazz idiom. Racy and exhilarating, the preacher's words fall quickly into a pulsating rhythm, a rising cadence which the congregation quickly warms to. As the preacher gets more excited, the congregation add their improvised exhortations, both answering and accompanying the preacher. Usually a piano joins in, perhaps a trombone and a drum, and as the excitement increases they fall into a pounding, relentless rhythm and a kind of rhythmic ecstasy that may astound some Western ears unused to such abandon; but no one could mistake the sincerity and the fervour of the Negro singers.

Professor Johnson and his Gospel Singers give us a condensed version of some of the gospel songs regularly used in the Negro churches, slightly polished and pruned and rather more professional than we would probably find in most, but giving us a very good idea of the way the preacher builds up the excitement and the result fervour. It is an exciting record by any standards - religious or jazz."

PETER GAMMOND
...

It sounds like this tries to introduce a slightly watered down version of raw gospel (or what you prefer to call it).

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Interesting, Meinhard. Gammond was a prolific writer and seems to have primarily covered both jazz and opera. He wrote a biography of Duke Ellington.

Paul Robeson returned to London and settled there in 1958, the year the U. S. State Dept. gave him back his passport that had been confiscated in 1950. He made London his European base, and while there was tailed by the F. B. I. Incidentally, it was a time when Jack Elliott and Derroll Adams were making waves and Robeson was seen in their audience on at least one occasion. And yes, he was known for singing spirituals.

I'm no Elvis expert. I do know that Presley was very much influenced by the white gospel quartet, the Blackwood Brothers, as well as the Statesmen Quartet, both in the early '50s. In other words, he was listening to them prior to his breakout single, "That's All Right, Mama," in 1954. You may well know this, I appreciate. He auditioned for the Blackwood's in 1953 and was turned down. Naturally, he was also listening to black gospel quartet singing.

Here's an example of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet at their early best:

"Angels Watches Over Me," from MA, 1952

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jquu08

And here's Professor Johnson and His Gospel Singers:

"Give Me That Old Time Religion," from the mid-'50s.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/nyl08p

The actual singing begins at 1:03.

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According to VocalGroup.org, "the most revolutionary group in gospel music [was] the Soul Stirrers, and their succession of incredible lead singers were largely responsible for the development of modern soul music."

One of those lead singers was Sam Cooke. But R. H. Harris was really the foundation of this group. The Soul Stirrers were introduced in this thread on page 5.

"R.H. Harris became the innovator, handling the lead and directing the group away from the old fashioned Jubilee style toward a modern gospel approach. He created the concept of a second lead singer, turning quartets into quintets and providing for consistent four-part harmony under the alternating lead singers. He also introduced the concept of ad-libbing lyrics, signing in delayed time, and repeating words in the background. When R.H. joined the Stirrers he revered blues artists like Leroy Carr, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Lil Green."

I cited this latter point near the top of p. 12 of this thread. Here is a sample of those artists that Harris revered:

"How Long, How Long Blues," by Leroy Carr, JN 19 28 [Scrapper Blackwell, gtr]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/3b4v8v


"Bad Luck Blues," by Blind Lemon Jefferson, from 1926

http://www.sendspace.com/file/t86jvy

Rebert [R. H.] Harris became a member of the Soul Stirrers in 1937. Lil Green did not record until 1940. So, presumably, Harris saw her perform live in the 1930s when she was honing her craft. Green died in 1954 after apparently contracting bronchial pneumonia. She was only 35.

"Romance In The Dark," by Lil Green, from 1940

http://www.sendspace.com/file/0kvin0


And here is one of the finest from The Soul Stirrers with R. H. Harris taking the lead:

"(We'll Understand It Better) By and By," from 1950

http://www.sendspace.com/file/o2efgc


Much more about the Soul Stirrers in this link:

http://www.vghf.org/inductees/soul_stirrers.html