Great God A'Mighty! the Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music

From Publishers Weekly
The Dixie Hummingbirds, along with the Swan Silvertones and the Soul Stirrers, were the foremost popularizers of the a cappella style of gospel music that brought the spiritual music of traditional African-American communities to a wide-and primarily white-audience in the 1950s. In this excellent history, Zolten, an assistant professor of American Studies at Penn. State, Altoona, carefully and lovingly details the almost 75-year history of the Hummingbirds, from their start in the Depression to their induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2000. He deftly explores how the group's history itself embodies numerous American ironies: that an "unintended result" of segregation "was the flowering of a distinctly African American homegrown culture" that included gospel music; that the Depression and the mass migration of African Americans from the South "created a nationwide market for black entertainers of all kinds" that allowed the Hummingbirds their initial financial success. Zolten interestingly points out that the group, known for its hard-driving vocal sound, won its only Grammy award for their own version of "Loves Me Like a Rock" by Paul Simon, whose original version had featured the Hummingbirds and brought them to a new rock-oriented audience. Adding to the book's success are Zolten's numerous interviews with founding members James Davis and Ira Tucker, as well as their many collaborators, which add personal depth to the book's amazing wealth of detail and dates. This is a fine exploration of an important style and era in the history of American popular music and culture. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Making extensive use of interviews, Zolten (communication arts and sciences and American studies, Pennsylvania State Univ., Altoona) charts the rise of soul gospel music by capturing the verve and fervor of gospel greats, the Dixie Hummingbirds, during the last 50 years. After chronicling their founding in 1928 and early concerts in South Carolina, he continues with the addition of the silver-throated Ira Tucker and their move in 1942 to Philadelphia then New York City. There, they landed a stint at the influential, antiracist Caf‚ Society, which led to national exposure. Using the Hummingbirds as an example of how African American religious music has changed during the last half century, Zolten also charts their transition from spiritual group to soul-drenched gospelists punctuated by the electric guitar of Howard Carroll to what they are today. Throughout, the author places the Dixie Hummingbirds in their social and musical contexts, discussing how pre-World War II racism and then the Civil Rights Movement influenced the group, and notes their impact on doo-wop and Motown. This intriguing, fast-moving history is highly recommended for anyone interested in music, social history, gospel, or the American experience.Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, SeattleCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
As far as public visibility goes, the Dixie Hummingbirds hit their apogee backing Paul Simon on his 1974 hit "Loves Me like a Rock." Gospel fans know that the group started way before that, as an a capella aggregation in the '30s. They eventually signed with Decca, a major mainstream label, at a time when most black musicians were relegated to smaller "race" labels with inferior distribution and commercial reach. The 'Birds' story, you see, is also the story of black entertainment slowly entering the American pop-cultural mainstream. It is rather surprising, however, to learn that the group collaborated with Hank Ballard, composer of "The Twist" and singer of the salacious R & B workouts "Work with Me Annie" and "Annie Had a Baby." On the other hand, the line between sacred gospel and profane R & B has been thin, as the careers of Dinah Washington, Sam Cooke, and Al Green, among others, attest. Through personnel and life changes, the 'Birds have endured. Welcome this book with its generous discography to the pop-music shelves. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
From the Jim Crow world of 1920s Greenville, South Carolina, to Greenwich Village's Cafe Society in the '40s, to their 1974 Grammy-winning collaboration on "Loves Me Like a Rock," the Dixie Hummingbirds have been one of gospel's most durable and inspiring groups. Now, J. Jerome Zolten tells the Hummingbirds' fascinating story and with it the story of a changing music industry and a changing nation. When James Davis and his high-school friends starting singing together in a rural South Carolina church they could not have foreseen the road that was about to unfold before them. They began a ten-year jaunt of "wildcatting," traveling from town to town, working local radio stations, schools, and churches, struggling to make a name for themselves. By 1939 the a cappella singers were recording their four-part harmony spirituals on the prestigious Decca label. By 1942 they had moved north to Philadelphia and then New York where, backed by Lester Young's band, they regularly brought the house down at the city's first integrated nightclub, Cafe Society. From there the group rode a wave of popularity that would propel them to nation-wide tours, major record contracts, collaborations with Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, and a career still vibrant today as they approach their seventy-fifth anniversary. Drawing generously on interviews with Hank Ballard, Otis Williams, and other artists who worked with the Hummingbirds, as well as with members James Davis, Ira Tucker, Howard Carroll, and many others, The Dixie Hummingbirds brings vividly to life the growth of a gospel group and of gospel music itself.


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The story of the Dixie Hummingbirds, seen as a case study of post-WWII changes in the record business and in gospel music. They got together in 1928 as a youthful church quartet in segregated Greenville, South Carolina. Their 12-year-old leader, James Davis, was "drawn to the idea that music . . . was a way to connect to people and possibly even earn a decent and respectable living." In 1934, just before Davis was to graduate from high school, the group decided to pursue a career in the burgeoning field of professional spiritual music and dubbed themselves the Dixie Hummingbirds. Defining gospel music as "nothing less than communication about culture . . . intrinsically linked to life experience and the struggle of African-Americans to persevere," Zolten (Communication Arts and Sciences, American Studies/Penn State Univ., Altoona) charts the rise of the group from a regional attraction to a nationally acclaimed band of singers who regularly performed in the �40s at New York�s integrated Caf� Society nightclub; by 1955 they were being described in the media as pioneers who combined musical ecstasy with superb salesmanship to give gospel singing economic value and stature. Zolten also describes the evolution of their musical technique from unaccompanied a cappella harmonizing to the �70s addition of a backup band as he evaluates their recordings for the famous Decca label and such later efforts as their Grammy-winning 1974 collaboration with Paul Simon, "Loves Me Like a Rock." The group�s commercial fortunes were boosted by the growth of radio, which gave them a national audience, and the popularity of singers like Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Ray Charles, who brought gospel sound toa mass audience. Although the author conscientiously offers numerous quotes from the singers themselves, other musicians, and the critics who hailed them, he fails to bring the Birds fully to life. Trapped by facts, they seldom step out from behind the music to tell their own stories. Detailed, but disappointingly dry.


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