Golden Gate Quartet / Swing Down, Chariot

Brothers and Sisters!  

We have something to tell you; "Jesus is great and his love is powerful", did you know it?  If not, it is probably because you haven't listened to a stunning Negro Spiritual Gospel band yet.  

 We have a fantastic one for you, the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, sing Alleluhia and keep your ears wide open! We would like to invite you to get on a different trip and get you on a spiritual train to feed your soul with some energic rithms.  

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The Quartet

The Quartet was founded in 1934, by four students at the Booker T. Washington College in Viriginia USA. They begun as "Traditional Jubilee Quartet" which consist in vocal groups traditionaly composed by 4 black students singing before audiences gospel inspired tunes in a enthusiastic style . Then they started to combine clever arrangements combining "Barbershop Quartets" style (accapela characterized by consonant four-part chords) and  rhythms borrowed from the blues and jazz like scat singing.  

• William Landford : the main lead singer, had the great ability to range from baritone to falsetto. 
• Orlandus Wilson : the bass,  was serving as a real anchor for the group. 
• Willie Johnson : the baritone,  was narrating  in a "hip syncopated style";  a special technique breaking the rythm with his voice (specially well illustrated in "Shadrak") and it  became a real hallmark for the group.  
• Henry Owens : the second tenor,  was harmonizing with Landford and Johnson while bringing a special mournful style specialy illustrated in "Anyhow" and "Hush, Somebody's Calling My Name". 

> "Anyhow"

>  "Hush Somebody Calls my Name" 

 

 > "Shadrak" 

It is interesting to note that the Golden Gate Quartet was quite influenced by the Mills Brothers and their popular music, they would often include vocal special effects in their songs, imitating train sounds in songs such as "Golden Gate Gospel Train".

> Golden Gatte Gospel Train

Our Album Selection

We have been dealing with the question of which album we could recomend you and we came to the conclusion that it was difficult to recomend you a specific one.  The early original band composition´s productions seems to be the most interesting to us and we believe you will find more interesing stuff in the early productions of the 30's. After, the group composition changed and they turned into a more R&B style which was not so convincing for us.

ON SPOTIFY

 


ON ITUNES

It was interesting to discover...

1) The Negro Spirituals Slavery's Origin
The negro spirituals songs origin is coming from the days of slavery in America. In 1619, a dutch boat arrive by the Virginian coasts with the first african slaves. Isolated from the whites during two hundreds years, they keep their traditions and culture singing while working in the south cotton's plantations and transmitting their stories from generation to generations. In 1860 , the slavery is at its top; there is an estimation of about 4 millions slaves in America. 

 

Humanists ask for slavery abolition. It is the start of the segregation era with the KluxKlux Klan creation but also the start of the religious education; the slaves start to adopt the christian religion and start to sing what they are taught about the old testament at the church.  There are lot of songs interpretations; we recomend you to click here to take a look to the Swing Low, Chariot, it is pretty amazing...

In 1861, general interest about Negro Spiritual  songs grows. The Times release the song "Let my people go" which apears to be a big success.  (it is not the original song but a good example for you to listen the song)
 
In 1871 appear the first choirs composed by old slaves and 3 years later the fisk jubilee singers play for the president and tour Europe. They direcly influenced the Golden Gate Quartet who also formed a Jubilee quartet. Gospel is more recent creation created by black populations who migrated  in northern cities after the american civil war and who made the synthesis of white evangelist repertories and other big music influences of this times.

2) The Quartet Heritage
The Golden Gate Quartet became the most successful of all of the african-american gospel music groups who sang in the jubilee quartet style in the 30's and 40's. The band was recomposed several times and they managed to keep the spirit of the original songs using differents voices. It is still active today and lead by 2 old members who entered the band in 1951 and 1971.Here is a crazy view on the differents bands members since the Quartet's creation in 1934.

3) Anti Segregation Symbol
The Golden Gate Quartet signed up for a residency at the Cafe Society Nightclub in New York.  It was the 1st racially integrated night club in the U.S. A cabaret featuring African American talents during hard segregation times in the US. That's were they got discovered by Eleanor Roosevelt who invite them to play for the Franklin Roosevelt inauguration in 1941, becoming the first black musical group to sing at Constitution Hall and later performing several times at the White House.

4) Rock and Roll Idol
It was really great to discover that Elvis Presley was a huge fan. He met them personnaly in 1949 when the band came to perform a concert in a Memphis'church. At this time, he was 15 and had grew up in a very religious familly, attending lots of churches where there is a lot of Gospel.  He declared to Clyde Riddick ( William Landford original member substitute since 1939 and first tenor at this time)  "I want to sing like you". In 1960, he got a permission during his stint in the US Army, in Germany, and visited them backstage at "Le Lido", in Paris. He stayed to watch their entire show, staying also with them at the hotel "Prince de Galles. It is said that he privately  jammed  with the quartet with the guitar of Line Renaud husband.

Elvis's "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" might have been originally recorded by The Golden Gate Quartet, who recorded "Swing Down Chariot" in June 1946, which however starts with "Swing Low Sweet Chariot", as recorded originally by the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
if you are interested to discover al the version of this song click here