Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers

The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, a traveling company of 12 to 15, a resident group of 29, have garnered international acclaim and focused worldwide attention on the vast body of folk music termed "African-American." Thirty-six years ago (1968) the Singers undertook their first European tour. Today, after 18 sold-out European tours, 12 tours of the United States and Canada, tours of the Middle and Far East, Africa and South America, they are among the most honored singing ensembles in the world. They were selected three times to serve the U.S. State Department and USIS Cultural Exchange Program in areas of the world, known in those days as "behind the Iron Curtain," including East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Iran, India, North and West Africa, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.

Founder-Director Albert McNeil is well-known to the national choral community, having been honored on four occasions with "Command Performances" before the prestigious American Choral Directors Association in 1981 in New Orleans, in 1985 at their Salt Lake City Convention, at their 1997 convention in San Diego, California, and most recently in February, 2000, at Los Angeles during the ACDA Western Division Convention held on the campus of Loyola-Marymount University. Recordings

Dixie Hummingbirds

They had a regular show over WCAU radio and a long term engagement at Cafe Society, a New York City night club, where they were billed as the Jericho Quartet. The Hummingbirds' popularity began to grow -- Tucker, in particular, wowed audiences with his flamboyant theatrics, rejecting the long tradition of "flat-footed" singers rooted in place on stage in favor of running up the aisles and rocking prayerfully on his knees. By 1944, he was even regularly jumping off stages -- indeed, the frenetic showmanship of soul music may have had its origins in Tucker's manic intensity, itself an emulation of country preaching. At the same time, the Hummingbirds' harmonies continued to grow more sophisticated; the addition of Paul Owens completed the quartet's development, and together he and Tucker honed a style they dubbed "trickeration," a kind of note-bending distinguished by sensual lyrical finesse and staggering vocal intricacy. Their virtuosity did not go unnoticed by audiences, and throughout the mid-1940s -- an acknowledged golden age of a cappella quartet singing -- the group regularly played to packed houses throughout the south.

The Dixie Hummingbirds were formed in Greenville, South Carolina in 1928 by James B. Davis, who had a vision of a group of talented men who would commit to praising the Lord in song. They sang in unique, highly defined harmonies, in a style of music, which was termed "jubilee." They became the pioneers of the Gospel quartet sound that later would cross over into many genres of music, and are regarded as the greatest Southern quartet of their time. Recordings

Fisk Jubilee Singers

Fisk University in Nashville was in dire straits at the turn of the 1870s. The buildings that the school had used since opening in 1866 were in need of major repair, teachers were severly underpaid and the food supply for students was dwindling. In an attempt to raise necessary funds, a group of student singers, under the direction of treasurer and music instructor George L. White, came together to perform during a benefit concert tour of the Midwest. Although they started the tour on October 8, 1871 with only $1 of institution money, they returned seven months later with $20,000 -- enough to pay the school's debts and purchase Fort Gillen, the site of the current university. Traveling to England in April 1873, the group raised more than $50,000 in the little more than a year they toured Great Britain. In the first seven years that they were together, the Fisk Jubilee Singers raised more than $150,000 for the university. More than a century later, the group continued bringing their soulful singing to enthusiastic audiences around the globe. Although their initial repertoire featured what they called "white man's music" and a few "slave songs", the Fisk Jubilee Singers increasingly focused on Afro-American spirituals. Recordings

Golden Gate Quartet

Pioneer Virginia gospel/pop quartet of the '30s and '40s. Calling their innovative approach to sacred hymns "jubilee" singing, The Golden Gate Quartet, propelled by Willie Johnson and William Langford, enjoyed massive acceptance far outside the church. Their smooth Mills Brothers-influenced harmonies made The Gates naturals for pop crossover success, and they began recording for Victor in 1937. National radio broadcasts and an appearance on John Hammond's 1938 "Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall made them coast-to-coast favorites. By 1941 The Gates were recording for Columbia minus Langford, and movie appearances were frequent: Star Spangled Rhythm, Hollywood Canteen, and Hit Parade of 1943, to name a few. Some experiments with R&B material didn't pan out during the late '40s, and Johnson defected to The Jubilaires in 1948. The group emigrated to France in 1959; led by veteran bass singer Orlando Wilson. Recordings

Pilgrim Travelers

The Pilgrim Travelers were formed by Joe Johnson and the Davis brothers in Houston in the early 1930's. By 1942, the group had moved to Los Angeles and was joined by Kylo Turner and Keith Barber. In the early years they mimicked the style of the Golden Gates' jubilee and the Soul Stirrers' gospel. Eventually the excellence of their leads set them apart. In 1945, J. W. Alexander joined the group and became their manager. Under Alexander, the group became more flamboyant in their showmanship often wrecking the churches they sang in, while charming the women. In 1947 the group made some records for small L.A. labels. Later that year Art Rupe signed them to Specialty Records just after they got a new baritone, Jesse Whitaker. Rupe created one of the first companies to nurture African-American gospel music. Originally, the Pilgrim Travelers were recorded a cappella. Eventually, the floor was miked to pick up their percussive foot tapping which was marketed as walking rhythm spirituals. The group enjoyed immense popularity as a result. Between 1947 and 1956, the Pilgrim Travelers recorded over a hundred sides on Specialty. During their reign, they influenced such singers as Ray Charles, Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke. Though the members of the group have faded from memory, their musical legacy will live on. Recordings

Singing Men

The ministry of the Singing Men has been making a positive difference in the lives of thousands of people since 1977. Providing quartet music for the weekly radio program "Your Bible Speaks." Sharing Christian Acappella Music and Fellowship with churches of all denominations in and around the Huntsville-Madison area, the nursing homes, schools, colleges and universities, the hospitals, and the homes of the sick and shut-in. The live appearances for television and radio broadcast, the national and international travel have all provided a spiritual enrichment that is urgently needed in this fast-paced world. Recordings

Soul Stirrers

One of the most popular and influential gospel groups of the 20th century, The Soul Stirrers were pioneers in the development of the quartet style of gospel and, without intending it, in the creation of soul music, the secular music that owed much to gospel. The group was formed by Roy Crain, who had launched his first quartet, which sang in a jubilee style, in 1926 in Trinity, Texas. In the early 1930s, after Crain moved to Houston, he joined an existing group on the condition that it change its name to "The Soul Stirrers." Among the members of that group was R.H. Harris, who soon became its musical leader. Harris, also from Trinity, Texas, brought several changes to the Soul Stirrers that affected gospel quartet singing generally. He used a falsetto style that may have its antecedents in African music, but which was new to the popular jubilee singing style of the time. He pioneered the "swing lead", in which two singers would share the job of leading the song, allowing virtuoso singers to increase the emotional intensity of the song as the lead passed between them. That innovation led the Soul Stirrers, while still called a quartet, to acquire five members; later groups would have as many as seven but still consider themselves "quartets", which referred more to their style than their number. Recordings