Selah Jubilee Singers: Gospel Roots - From jubilee stalwarts to doowop hitmakers

Friday 17th April 2009

Tony Cummings chronicles the long history of New York's gospel pioneers the SELAH JUBILEE SINGERS some of whose members found doowop fame as The Larks



Continued from page 1

Selah Jubilee Singers: Gospel Roots - From jubilee stalwarts to doowop hitmakers

Relocating to New York in the autumn of 1950, Ruth decided that the time had arrived to make some money out of the myriad of independent record labels that had sprung up on the east coast to record the proliferating rhythm and blues and gospel scenes. In his book Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia, Bil Carpenter reported what happened next to the ever resourceful Thermon Ruth. "[Ruth and Bunn] knew from experience that they would never get royalties on their [recordings], only advance money. So, in October 1950, they went to Jubilee Records and were paid to record four gospel songs. They listed themselves as the Selah Singers instead of the Jubilators. It didn't end there, though. A couple of hours later, they had convinced the Braun brothers, who ran Regal Records in Linden, New Jersey, to record them as the Jubilators. They received their money and made their way over to Newark to persuade Savoy's Regency Records imprint to record them. Savoy was game and they recorded four R&B tracks as the Four Barons (although there were six in the group). One song was the risqué 'Lemon Squeezer' with the line, 'The way I squeeze your lemons is a low-down dirty shame.'

They were paid and made their way back to Apollo Records and asked for a different executive. They were sent back into the studio as the Southern Harmoneers, but an engineer recognised them from that morning and tipped off label owner Bess Berman. When she confronted them, they admitted that there were broke and had spent the day getting money from labels for singing on the spot. She liked their initiative and loved their music, so she forgave them, though she alerted the other labels to the scam. She got to keep them as her group, though the other labels were allowed to release their material under the names the group signed under. However, Berman didn't really want a gospel group. She wanted an R&B group to compete with the Orioles and the Ravens, so she picked a good bird name, The Larks, and rechristened them an R&B group."

In late 1950 Apollo Records released their first single by The Larks, "Coffee, Cigarettes And Tears" with the flip a cover of a pop hit for Guy Mitchell, "My Heart Cries For You". Nothing much happened with that first effort, but the second record released in March 1951 showed the capabilities of the group. "When I Leave These Prison Walls" was written by Eugene Mumford while behind bars. It was this recording that made many listeners aware of the talent and the style of the group. In May of that year, The Larks recorded what is today considered a doowop classic. Taking a song based on a melody by Debussy, "My Reverie" had originally been a hit in the 1930s for the Larry Clinton Orchestra. The Mumford-led doowop version became a national hit. The success led to the group touring with major stars such as Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald. They played major east coast venues such as The Apollo, Washington's Howard Theater as well as many white nightclubs. The Larks' followup "Eyesight To The Blind" backed with "I Ain't Fattening Frogs For Snakes" was a surprise as it featured Bunn's downhome blues guitar and both songs popular with numerous bluesmen. "Eyesight" made the national R&B charts for the group, and this led to various TV appearances including Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, a hit show. The Larks won the competition on the show.

Another R&B hit followed with "Little Side Car" and The Larks toured with Percy Mayfield and his band. More singles followed, such as the Lucky Millinder ballad "I Don't Believe In Tomorrow" backed with the decidedly risqué "Ooh. It Feels So Good" and the Mumford-led "My Last Love" while "Darling", issued in early 1952, is considered a classic amongst doowop connoisseurs. Very strangely, for the next release Apollo inexplicably turned back to pre-Larks gospel material with "Shadrach" backed with "Honey In The Rock". But more doowop ballads, "Stolen Love" and "Hold Me", were quickly issued.

After these releases the original Larks began to disintegrate. With no more hits the group were having trouble making enough money to keep performing full time. They did get some work as a backing group singing on Mahalia Jackson's classic "In The Upper Room" but soon Alden Bunn was recording away from the group as Allen Bunn And His Trio, the Allen Bunn Orchestra and eventually under the pseudonym Tarheel Slim. Bunn had met singer Anna Sanford who he married and between 1957 and 1964 they recorded as The Lovers on Aladdin and Checker and as Tarheel Slim And Little Ann on labels Fire, Fury, Atco, Enjoy and Port. From 1970 to his death in 1974 Bunn recorded for Pete Lowry's Trix label.

Meanwhile, the rest of The Larks went their separate ways. David McNeil joined The Dominoes and later The Inkspots while Raymond Barnes quit singing altogether, becoming a professional band musician. Eugene Mumford, after a stint with the Golden Gate Quartet, reformed The Larks. Recruiting Orville Brooks from the Golden Gate Quartet plus David Bowers and Isaiah Bing from the King Odum Four, Mumford took the new Larks back to Apollo Records who placed them on the newly launched Lloyds subsidiary. "Margie" with a swinging band arrangement was aimed at the rock and roll audience but only got a lukewarm reception and two more singles, "The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise" and "Os-ca-lu-ski-o", plus a single with singer Barbara Gale did nothing to restore The Larks' fortunes. More successful, at least artistically, was The Larks' recording of "No Matter How You Pray" with gospel legend Mahalia Jackson.

In 1956 The Larks once again called it a day. But as it turned out, there was more success for Eugene Mumford. He joined doowop legends Billy Ward And The Dominoes and sang lead on two of their biggest hits, "Stardust" and "Deep Purple". He then recorded for Columbia and Liberty before rejoining Bill Johnson's Golden Gate Quartet. Mumford's golden tones were finally silenced upon his death in the late 1970s.

After the original Larks broke up, Thermon Ruth moved back to North Carolina where he became a deejay known as T Ruth. Then in his later years, Ruth moved bank once more to New York and became an active member at the church which had started his long sojourn in gospel and R&B back in the 1930s, St Marks, Brooklyn. He died on 13th September, 2002. CR

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.
About Tony Cummings
Tony CummingsTony Cummings is the music editor for Cross Rhythms website and attends Grace Church in Stoke-on-Trent.


 
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Reader Comments

Posted by Thermon Ruth Jr. in Far Rockaway NY @ 00:09 on Jun 17 2009

Righton


Reply by Ronzoni in Japan @ 13:47 on Jun 3 2010

I am a fan of gospel quartets and looking for your father's book. (The title is 'From the Church to The Apollo Theater' by Thermon T. Ruth with Linda Saylor-Marchant; T. Ruth Publications)
I have known about your father's book in the biography of the Dixie Hummingbirds.
It seems this book is already out of print. But I want that book regardless of its condition for my research.
Currently I have found only one web site introducing that book and I have sent letter to Blessed Hope C.O.G.I.C. about that book according to that web site information. But the letter I have sent has been returned because of 'Unable To Forward'.
Now I don't have further information about that book. It would be greatly appreciated if somebody would tell me how to get that book.

[report abuse]


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