The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music

Date: 18 Mar 2003 13:12:53 -0800
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43029-2003Mar17.html The Glorious Flight of the Hummingbirds By Jabari Asim, GREAT GOD A'MIGHTY! The Dixie Hummingbirds:Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music
By Jerry Zolten Oxford Univ., 370 pp., $30 You don't have to know the music of the Dixie Hummingbirds to be
familiar with their sound. As Jerry Zolten makes clear in this
affectionate biography, the gospel group's uncanny harmonies and
endlessly inventive arrangements have an influence that far exceeds its
members' limited renown. The long list of successful performers who
studied the 'Birds (as they are often called), is impressive and
includes such soul, doo-wop and blues luminaries as Ray Charles, the
Spaniels, the Temptations, Little Anthony and the Imperials and Bobby
"Blue" Bland. In his memoir, Charles praised Ira Tucker, lead singer of
the Hummingbirds, along with his similarly gifted counterparts, Archie
Brownlee of the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and Claude Jeter of the
Swan Silvertones. "These guys," Charles wrote, "have voices which could
shake down your house and smash all the furniture in it." Hank Ballard, whose Midnighters scored in the 1950s with then-risque
chart-toppers such as "Work With Me Annie," went further than Charles's
praise, offering what we may generously describe as the sincerest form
of flattery. "I was hooked on the Hummingbirds. I would use their
melodies," he told Zolten. "I wasn't trying to steal or anything. . . .
I would take their songs and re-lyric it. Instead of saying 'God,' I
said 'baby.' " The group's show-stopping performances and polished stage
presentations prompted frequent invitations to join the secular music
world, where riches and widespread adulation were likely to follow. The
'Birds always resisted, steadfastly pursuing a career that made them
legends in their field but relatively unknown outside it. Tucker
explains it this way: "When you do a song, it signifies where you came
from. We all have roles and Jesus said that before the end of time, the
bottom will be on top and the top will be on the bottom. There is a
right way and a wrong way." Zolten adds: "Gospel was simply the right
way for the Hummingbirds." They began on that path in 1928, when James Davis formed the first
incarnation of the Dixie Hummingbirds in Greenville, S.C. He was 12.
Zolten's gentle approach traces the group's long career all the way up
to and beyond Davis's retirement in 1984 (they continue to perform under
Tucker's leadership). Throughout those years, Davis served as chief
recruiter, rehearsal director and disciplinarian, fining or firing
anyone who threatened to damage the group's reputation for thorough
professionalism. Zolten writes, "The first and foremost goal of any
Dixie Hummingbirds performance was to sing for the Lord and guide
listeners to spiritual epiphany. But . . . as professionals, they also
had to think about putting on a show." The Hummingbirds joined the gospel circuit in the 1930s, performing
comparatively placid "jubilee" singing, then adusted rapidly to handle
the demanding a cappella showdowns of the '40s, after Thomas Dorsey
transformed the music by fusing "the elegant emotionality of spirituals
with the lowdown beat of barrelhouse blues." One of the most fascinating
aspects of books like "Great God A'Mighty" is the honor roll of notables
with whom the heroes inevitably cross paths. Zolten doesn't disappoint,
peppering the Hummingbirds' recollections with thumbnail portraits of
Mahalia Jackson, the Soul Stirrers, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Clara Ward
-- all of whom were headliners during the prime years of gospel
"programs" and "caravans." Off the circuit, the 'Birds played an
extended engagement at New York's famed Cafe Society, rubbing shoulders
with Paul Robeson and Lester Young. No strangers to the studio, the Hummingbirds first recorded for Decca
in 1939 and enjoyed immediate popularity if not phenomenal sales. They
sang mostly a cappella until signing with Peacock Records in 1952. At
the label's studios in Houston, instruments became a regular part of the
group's mix. The Hummingbirds were still with Peacock when they put
together the roster known as "the quintessential lineup": James Davis,
Ira Tucker, James Walker, Beachey Thompson, William Bobo and Howard
Carroll. The group's constant touring, album releases and TV appearances
helped them expand their fan base beyond gospel without having to change
their style. Their lengthy history includes performances at the Newport
Folk Festival in 1966 and the Newport Jazz Festival in 1972. A year
later, they won a Grammy for best soul gospel performance. Zolten occasionally weighs down his mostly breezy book with
discussions of the difference between "hard" gospel and "soul" gospel,
complete with references to "wandering couplets" and "stock
interjections" -- and I suppose that's all to the good for the scholars. The rest of us may find it more instructive to sample the Hummingbirds'
music and challenge ourselves to select a favorite. I tried that while
writing this review and decided on "Get Away Jordan." Then I changed my
mind and went with "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel." Of course, that was before I
listened again to "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See." Maybe I should just
quit while I'm ahead.
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