African American a cappella gospel quartet singing
Covington, Kentucky
Photo: Skip Rowland
The Brotherhood Singers are passionate and joyous practitioners of the deeply spiritual art of unaccompanied gospel harmony singing. The group has emerged onto the national gospel scene during a revival of interest in this venerable vocal tradition, and one listen to its glorious harmonies makes it clear that this renewed popularity is long overdue.
The gospel quartet style has its roots in the Negro spiritual traditions of the American South. Enslaved Africans combined English hymns with West African rhythms and vocal traditions to create a musical form that expressed both Christian devotion and the desire for freedom. The written record mentions gospel quartet singing as early as 1851; after the massive international popularity of the Fisk Jubilee Singers starting in the early 1870s, many quartets came to be known as “jubilee quartets.” When the early recording industry turned its attention to the African American market in the 1920s and ’30s, several “modern” southern jubilee quartets of the day were among its most popular recording artists. From that era emerged some of the Brotherhood Singers’ greatest influences—legendary quartets like the Golden Gate Quartet, the Dixie Hummingbirds and the Soul Stirrers.
Covington, Kentucky, native, Eric “Ric” Jennings was already a dedicated gospel choir member when he founded this jubilee quartet (originally named the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers) at Covington’s Ninth Street Baptist Church in 1988. Today the group has five members: Ric Jennings, Eric Riley, Stace Darden, Mike Wright, and Samuel Norris Jr. So how does a quintet of men sing as a quartet? Gospel quartet singing has four vocal parts, but parts are often doubled for emphasis or musical depth. A cappella singing, Jennings notes, is “like being on a rope without a net,” so each member goes where he is needed in the context of a song.
The group also goes where it is needed in terms of its performances. It has shared its uplifting music in hospitals, nursing homes, concerts, festivals, and churches of all faiths. Over the past two decades, the nation and the world have taken notice of this talented ensemble. The Brotherhood Singers have performed at major national festivals and in Washington, D.C. at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center. Internationally, they have toured France, Italy, Portugal, and Russia—and made 17 trips to Spain, with their 18th scheduled for this December. How is it that Spain has become such a frequent stamp in their passports? In the late ’90s, the Dixie Hummingbirds passed along a Brotherhood Singers cassette to their European manager. A few months later, the group received a call to fill in for the Hummingbirds on a tour in Spain, and the rest is history.