Hampton Institute Quartet & Sextette - Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order 1937-1942
STYLE: Gospel RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 21354-11984 LABEL: Document DOCD5628 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1 RRP: £9.99
Reviewed by John Hebden
In 1868, the Hampton Institute was established as a secondary school for newly freed slaves in Virginia, USA. Following the tradition of other such institutes, Hampton encouraged the students to form small singing groups to help raise funds for the school and challenge stereotypical ideas about Negros and their music. Incredibly, no commercial recordings were made of these singing groups until 1937. This CD compiles early Hampton recordings along with some recordings from the same period of other comparable singing groups. The result is an interesting and often inspiring collection. Many of the songs will be familiar to a UK audience, eg "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and "Rock My Soul In The Bosom Of Abraham". The singing is almost entirely unaccompanied, often in a call and response style, whilst the passion of the singers is clearly evident and the harmonies are absolutely water tight throughout. The only real problem comes with the variable quality of the recordings - the best are excellent but the worst leave the listener wondering why the compilers bothered including them (I suspect that completism is the answer). Anyway, if you like rich black harmony singing and you have a strong sense of history and the origins of gospel music, this is one for you. The sleevenotes are concise but informative too.
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