Sunday, July 28th
timeless
Harmonizing Four (feat. Jimmy Jones), “I Shall Not Be Moved,” 1955 (both takes)
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Tag: Harmonizing Four
2022
Sunday, March 6th
basement jukebox
Harmonizing Four (feat. Jimmy Jones), “In Jerusalem” (J. Williams), 1959
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2014
Sunday, December 28th
three takes
“His Eye Is on the Sparrow” (C. Martin, C. Gabriel)
Soul Stirrers (feat. R. H. Harris, lead vocals), recording, 1946
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Harmonizing Four (feat. Jimmy Jones, bass), recording, 1958
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Kathleen Battle, Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Michael Tilson Thomas, cond.), live, Vienna, 1983
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lagniappe
random thoughts: New Year’s resolution #2
Take nothing for granted.
2011
Sunday, 12/11/11
One of the things I love about these guys is their name: you could hardly get
any simpler, any homelier.
Harmonizing Four
TV broadcast (TV Gospel Time), early 1960s
“That’s Alright”
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“I’m Going Through”
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Recordings, 1957
“Farther Along”
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“Motherless Child”
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lagniappe
It was 25 years ago . . . that four boys in the Dunbar Elementary School Glee Club in South Richmond [Virginia] decided to see what they could do with some close four part harmony. The director of the glee club encouraged their first efforts and pretty soon the Harmonizing Four developed to the point that the were invited to sing for civic meetings, clubs, schools, and churches all over the city.
—Program, 25th Anniversary Tribute to the Harmonizing Four, Richmond, Virgina, 1952 (quoted in Jerry Zolten, Great God A’Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music [Oxford 2003])
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odds & ends
• Elvis Presley was a huge fan of these guys, particularly bass singer Jimmy Jones. (Jones left the group in 1958, after these records were made but before this TV appearance, to form his own group [Jimmy Jones and The Sensationals]; he was replaced by Ellis Johnson.)
• One of the group’s members, Lonnie Smith (rear right on “That’s Alright”), is the father of keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith.
music clip of the day 