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“The Most Incredible Polyrhythmic Stuff You’ve Ever Heard”: African American Male Quartets in Texas, 1880 – 1950 and Choral Music of Houston Composers

In 1936, charged by the Library of Congress with documenting America’s roots music, ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax traveled to Austin to record Texas musicians, among them a quartet of young African American men singing spirituals. Stunned by the intricacy of their vocal arrangements, he described the singing of the Houston-based quartet as “the most incredible polyrhythmic stuff you’ve ever heard.” The group named themselves the Soul Stirrers, moved to Chicago, and in 1950, hired then-unknown Sam Cooke as their lead singer, becoming along the way one of the greatest gospel quartets of their time. The Soul Stirrers and other Texas quartets who reached national popularity in the mid-twentieth century, such as the Pilgrim Travelers and the Gospel Keynotes, were the culmination of a rich quartet tradition that flourished among African Americans in East/Central Texas between the 1880s and 1950s. In those decades, hundreds of Texas quartets performed at everything from minstrel shows to political rallies to church services, singing 19th-century parlor songs, Stephen Foster hits, arranged spirituals, and, later, the newfangled gospel songs of composers such as Thomas Dorsey. Join The Houston Ebony Opera Guild Chorus and a quartet of talented soloists including tenors Adavion Wayne and L. Wayne Ashley, baritone DuWayne Davis and bass Leon Turner singing repertoire popularized by the Soul Stirrers. Dr. Carrie Allen Tipton guides us through the performances with a lecture exploring the evolution of Black male quartet singing in Texas from the late 19th century through the 1950s, decades that saw the tradition evolve from the classically-influenced jubilee “quartettes” to the powerful gospel quartets that wrecked churches across the Lone Star State and beyond. The concert will be augmented by choral selections written by Houston composers.

View our full schedule for 2012.