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S, Cal E Ate Ns 120731bk Golden 17/3/04 11:43 PM Page 2 1. Golden Gate Gospel Train 2:39 10. When The Saints Go Marching Home 2:16 18. Blind Barnabas 2:11 22. Time’s Winding Up 2:51 (Traditional) (Traditional) (Willie Johnson) (Traditional) Bluebird B 7126, mx 011931-1 Bluebird B 7897, mx 024367-1 With unknown, drums With unknown, drums Recorded 4 August 1937, Charlotte N.C. Recorded 10 August 1938, New York OKeh 6345, mx 30549-2 OKeh 6238, mx 30284-2 2. Gabriel Blows His Horn 2:28 11. You’d Better Mind 2:55 Recorded 25 May 1941, New York Recorded 18 April 1941, New York (Traditional) (Traditional) 19. He Never Said A Mumblin’ Word 3:23 Unaccompanied vocals except as noted. Bluebird B7126, mx 011932-1 Bluebird B 8348, mx 042908-1 (Traditional) Recorded 4 August 1937, Charlotte N.C. Recorded 6 October 1939, New York OKeh 6529, mx 31850-1 Tracks 1-15 3. Preacher And The Bear 2:52 12. What A Time 2:30 Recorded 3 December 1941, New York As THE GOLDEN GATE JUBILEE QUARTET: (Traditional) (Traditional) 20. Didn’t It Rain 2:30 Willie Johnson, baritone/leader; Henry Owens, Bluebird B 7205, mx 011935-1 Bluebird B 8286, mx 042900-1 (Traditional) 1st tenor; William Langford, 2nd tenor and Recorded 4 August 1937, Charlotte N.C. Recorded 6 October 1939, New York With unknown, drums guitar on track 15; Orlandus Wilson, bass vocal 4. Take Your Burdens To God 3:20 13. He Said He Would Calm The Ocean 2:50 OKeh 6529, mx 30551-1 Tracks 16-22 (Traditional) (Traditional) Recorded 25 May 1941, New York As THE GOLDEN GATE QUARTET: Bluebird B 7617, mx 018634-1 Bluebird B 8328, mx 049202-1 21. The Sun Didn’t Shine 2:14 Willie Johnson, baritone; Henry Owens, Clyde Recorded 24 January 1938, Charlotte N.C. Recorded 6 October 1939, New York (Traditional) Riddick, tenors; Orlandus Wilson, bass 5. To The Rock 2:04 14. The Valley Of Time 2:48 With unknown, drums Transfers & Production: David Lennick (Traditional) (Traditional) OKeh 6345, mx 30548-1 Digital Noise Reduction: Graham Newton Recorded 25 May 1941, New York Bluebird B 7835, mx 024366-1 Bluebird B 8388, mx 046129-1 Original monochrome photo of the Golden Gate Recorded 10 August 1938, New York Recorded 26 December 1939, New York Quartet from Michael Ochs Archives / Redferns 6. Noah 2:39 15. Jonah In The Whale 2:29 (Traditional) (Robert MacGimsey) Also available from Naxos ... Bluebird B 8160, mx 031980-1 With guitar Recorded 2 February 1939, New York Bluebird B 8620, mx 042916-1 7. Travelin’ Shoes 1:56 Recorded 6 October 1939, New York (Traditional) 16. Anyhow 2:45 Bluebird B 7463, mx 018624-1 (Traditional) Recorded 24 January 1938, Charlotte N.C. With unknown, drums 8. I’m A Pilgrim 3:17 OKeh 6238, mx 30550-1 (Traditional) Recorded 25 May 1941, New York Bluebird B 8362, mx 042909-1 17. Dip Your Fingers In The Water 2:27 Recorded 6 October 1939, New York (Traditional) 9. Sampson 2:15 With Abe Green, guitar (Traditional) OKeh 6712, mx 32622-1 Bluebird B 7513, mx 018632-1 Recorded 25 March 1942, New York Naxos Nostalgia 8.120546* Naxos Gospel Legends 8.120638* Naxos Folk Legends 8.120675 Recorded 24 January 1938, Charlotte N.C. * Not available in the USA 5 8.120731 6 8.120731 120731bk Golden 17/3/04 11:43 PM Page 1 THE GOLDEN GATE QUARTET combination of a variety of influences; most youthful lineup began expanding beyond the weekday programme. The shows stimulated form another quartet called the Southern Sons. notably, the highly rhythmic small band sound of traditional spiritual repertoire established by requests from local churches to have the Gates With Riddick replacing him as a full-time member, ‘Gospel Train’ Original 1937-1942 Recordings the Mills Brothers. Whereas the Mills Brothers Griffin. Baritone Willie Johnson served as their perform concerts, despite objections by pastors the group shortened its name to the Golden Gate used their individual voices to emulate the sounds arranger, and infused their music with innovative who complained that despite the group’s richness Quartet as they added more and more secular More than any other vocal group, the Golden raise money for their college. Jubilee came from of riff-driven horns (trumpet, trombone, and complex rhythms patterned after the Mills in sound and strictly religious-based repertoire, material to their repertoire. Their fame peaked Gate Quartet was responsible for combining the Old Testament, when a “year of jubilee” was saxophone), the Gates went a step further by Brothers’ recordings, which had become hugely their approach was too “eccentric” and rhythmic. with two inaugurations: that of their own CBS traditional spirituals with secular musical forms in used to indicate a time when slaves would be adding a self-propulsive rhythm based on the popular. Johnson incorporated not only elements These pleas went unheeded and the Gates’ fame network radio program (1939) and a command a way that was commercially appealing to the emancipated. Eventually, the success of the Fisk repetition of words and syllables lying underneath from the Mills Brothers, but also from the jazz grew exponentially. performance at President Franklin Roosevelt’s record buying public during the late 1930s and group caused the term “jubilee” to be generic, the lead vocal, which group member Willie hipster style made famous by Cab Calloway. Eventually, this brought them to the attention third inaugural in January 1941. Their last session 1940s. Although there were other groups on the used to identify the groups as well as the material Johnson called “vocal percussion.” Although the Johnson’s is the voice heard most often on the of Victor’s savvy director of artists and repertoire for Victor saw them join forces with the influential scene at the time, the “Gates’” sound permeated used in their repertoire. By the early part of the chords the Gates sang on their songs were simple, narrative pieces, such as Noah, in which the Eli Oberstein, who signed them to record for the folk singer Leadbelly before switching labels and the popular music field with its successful blend twentieth century, this term was expanded to the percussive element was anything but. Biblical story of the Great Flood is told through label’s Bluebird subsidiary. Their first session took recording for Okeh in 1941, followed by a stint of spirituals, barbershop harmonies, and hot jazz include groups that performed not just spirituals Precision and syncopation, both elements integral Johnson’s syncopated, jazzy chanting. place at Charlotte’s Pope Hotel on 4 August with Mercury after World War II. in a career that has endured for seventy years, and hymns, but gospel and even secular material. to the Swing Era, were their hallmarks, taking the William Langford was the virtuoso of the 1937, resulting in fourteen recordings cut in a Between 1943 and 1947, the Gates appeared despite wars, the changing tastes in popular Early examples of these include the Norfolk group’s sound far beyond that of secular groups group, having a wide range that enabled him to whirlwind two hour session. in five motion pictures, including Star Spangled music, and the inevitable turnover of personnel Jubilee Quartet, the Utica Jubilee Singers, and the like the Mills Brothers and the Three Keys. effortlessly slide from baritone to a falsetto One of their most popular numbers was cut Rhythm and A Song is Born, the latter starring that is expected with long surviving groups. Tuskegee Institute Singers. Configurations ran the The quartet’s personal appearances began soprano. Henry Owens had a vocal versatility that at this session. Golden Gate Gospel Train featured Danny Kaye. Changes in the lineup began when It was in 1934 that the original quartet, gamut, and included choirs as well as quartets, shortly after their inception and by 1935, they enabled him to adapt to whoever was singing train effects, horn imitations, and the syncopated Johnson and Owens left the group respectively in consisting of first tenor A. C. “Eddie” Griffin, the latter becoming more prevalent due to the were performing at churches in Virginia as well as lead, while Wilson, who would become the accompaniment by the lower voices to simulate 1948 and 1950. In 1955, a successful tour of second tenor Henry Owens, baritone Willie combination of jubilee with the popular parts of the Carolinas. Griffin did not want to group’s director, utilized a bouncing, rhythmic the sound of the train chugging along. Story-songs, Europe led to the Gates relocating permanently to Johnson, and bass Robert “Peg” Ford, began barbershop quartet format, consisting of two jeopardize his barbershop business during the bass accompaniment that gave the quartet’s with Willie Johnson serving as narrator, drama- France four years later, where they were able to performing together in the Tidewater region of tenors, baritone, and bass. Depression, so he left the group to be replaced by sound its verve and sense of swing. tized events in the Bible, such as the saga of the avoid the racism often inflicted on black artists Norfolk, Virginia. Griffin, who ran a Norfolk Their name, the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, a tenor from Portsmouth named William With tenor Clyde Riddick serving as an able Great Flood in Noah. Two decades later, folk touring in the United States. They have remained barbershop, formed the group with Ford, who got had been used by a number of other groups Langford. The following summer, Robert Ford replacement, the group became a sensation while singer Harry Belafonte used the Gates’ recording there ever since, with Orlandus Wilson serving as his nickname due to the unfortunate loss of one dating back to the 1890s in Baltimore, making also left, and was replaced by Orlandus performing on radio stations WIS in Columbia, as a model for his own version of the song.
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