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Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, [1] Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with African Americans, [2] [3] [4] which merged varied African cultural influences with the experiences of being held in bondage in slavery, at first during the transatlantic slave trade [5] and for centuries afterwards, through ...
Noted as the premier carriers of the Negro spirituals, the Fisk Jubilee Singers were selected in November 2008 as one of nine recipients of the 2008 National Medal of Arts. The award, which is the highest recognition for artistic excellence given by the United States Government, was presented by President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
The name derives from the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a group of singers organized by George L. White at Fisk University in 1871 to sing Negro spirituals. The members of the original Fisk Jubilee Quartet (1909–1916) were Alfred G. King (first bass), James A. Myers (second tenor), Noah W. Ryder (second bass), and John W. Work II (first tenor). [1]
John Wesley Work Jr. (1871–1925)—also known as John Work II—spent three decades at the historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, Fisk University, collecting and promulgating the "jubilee songcraft" of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers—an African-American a cappella Fisk University student chorus (1871–1878), [8] known for introducing a wider audience to spirituals.
Work was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of Samuella and John Wesley Work, [2] who was director of a church choir, some of whose members were also in the original Fisk Jubilee Singers. [3] John Wesley Work Jr. attended Fisk University , where he organized singing groups and studied Latin and history, graduating in 1895.
His dates are unclear: perhaps 1820 to 1880. He is credited with composing (probably before 1860) several Negro spirituals. [1] [2] Willis received his name from his owner, Britt Willis, probably in Mississippi, the ancestral home of the Choctaws. He died, probably in what is now Atoka County, Oklahoma, as his unmarked grave is located there. [3]
Ella Sheppard, singer, pianist, arranger of spirituals, and matriarch of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers. Ella Sheppard (February 4, 1851 – June 9, 1914) was an American soprano, pianist, composer, and arranger of spirituals. She was the matriarch of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Tennessee.
The Mariners were a four-piece all-male racially integrated group (two white and two African American members). They formed during World War II, in 1942, at Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn; the four members (Tom Lockard, Jim Lewis, Nat Dickerson and Martin Karl) were serving in the United States Coast Guard there. They toured Pacific military bases ...