Reviewed by Andy Cooper

The Jaffo Gate Quartet are four singers and five musicians from the Netherlands who perform spirituals and songs made famous by the gospel quartets of the 1940s such as the Golden Gate Quartet and the Mills Brothers. They take barbershop vocal arrangements and marry them with jazz and blues rhythms. Most of the tracks here are performed with a small but accomplished jazz band (drums, bass, guitar, piano and sax), and some of the songs will be well known to pretty much every jazz, blues and gospel music fan alive: "Down By The Riverside", "When The Saints", "Go Down Moses", "Joshua" and so on. The Jaffo guys (named after the ancient entrance to the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem) sound fairly authentic, and it's always a thrill to hear such a deep bass vocalist, though it's kind of strange to hear this music without the old pops and crackles of an old '78! However, there is possibly too much vibrato in the first tenor during the faster numbers, and you can't help wondering if a kind of Dutch accent is creeping into the diction, even though they all look to be of African-American origin. The slower numbers, such as "Alabama Bound" and "Peace In The Valley", are much more suited to their vocal style, but they are able to keep it light hearted and energetic when called for, as in "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" and "Shadrack". I'd love to see these guys live: I imagine they would provide a great party atmosphere, and win many new fans over to this rich vintage musical genre.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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