The Dixie Hummingbirds is one of the most influential groups in gospel music, spanning more than 75 years from the jubilee quartet style of the 1920s, through the "hard gospel" quartet style of Gospel's golden age in the 1940s and 1950s, to the eclectic pop-tinged songs of the present era. Formed in the 1920s in Greenville, South Carolina, by James B. Davis and his classmates, they sang in local churches until they finished school, then started touring throughout the South. The group relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 1940s.

Lead singer Ira Tucker, Sr. joined the group in 1938 at age 13. In addition to his formidable vocal skills, Tucker introduced the energetic showmanship--running through the aisles, jumping off stage, falling to his knees in prayer--copied by many other quartets that followed. Tucker also took the lead in the stylistic innovations adopted by the group, combining gospel shouting and subtle melismas with the syncopated delivery made popular by The Golden Gate Quartet and adventuresome harmonies, which the group called "trickeration," in which Paul Owens or another member of the group would pick up a note just as Tucker left off.

During the years, a number of talented singers starred in the group--their bass, Willie Bobo, baritone Beachy Thompson, James Walker, who replaced Owens, and Claude Jeter , who went on to star for The Swan Silvertones. The Hummingbirds added a guitarist, Howard Carroll, who added even more propulsive force to their high-flying vocals.

The Hummingbirds absorbed much from other artists as well, performing with Lester Young in the 1940s and sharing Django Reinhardt records with B.B. King in the 1950s. Tucker and the Hummingbirds inspired a number of imitators, such as Jackie Wilson and James Brown, who adapted the shouting style and enthusiastic showmanship of hard gospel to secular themes to help create soul music in the 1960s.

The group recorded for a number of different labels over the years, while touring the circuit of black churches and gospel extravaganzas. They occasionally came to the attention of white listeners--at Café Society, the integrated New York nightclub favored by jazz cognoscenti, in 1942, at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966, and as backup for Paul Simon on Love Me Like A Rock in 1973. The Hummingbirds won a Grammy in the category of Best Soul Gospel Performance for their version of that song in 1974. The group, now consisting of Tucker, Lyndon Baines Jones, William Bright, Frank Frierson, James Williams, and Enoch Webster, continues recording and performing.

Further Reading

• Boyer, Horace Clarence,How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel Elliott and Clark, 1995, ISBN 0252068777.

• Heilbut, Tony, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times Limelight Editions, 1997, ISBN 0879100346.

• Zolten, Jerry, Great God A' Mighty! : The Dixie Hummingbirds - Celebrating The Rise Of Soul Gospel Music Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0195152727.