Golden Gate Quartet Sings

· 81 broadcasts

The Golden Gate Quartet Sings is a quarter-hour syndicated transcription series built entirely around one of the most influential vocal groups in American music -- the Golden Gate Quartet, the Norfolk, Virginia jubilee-and-gospel harmony ensemble that turned four-part spirituals into a rhythmic, jazz-inflected "vocal orchestra." Each program is pure singing: a run of spirituals, gospel numbers, and secular folk songs, with narrator Tom Scott introducing the group and announcing each song. The run was produced by Transcription Sales Inc. of Springfield, Ohio, which began releasing the 260-episode series in 1950 and alternated programs of secular folk with programs of traditional spirituals. These discs catch the tail end of the quartet's long broadcasting career -- the group had first sung on the radio back in 1935, broken through at Carnegie Hall's "From Spirituals to Swing" in 1938, and sung at FDR's 1941 inauguration. Eighty-one of the 260 episodes survive and are held here, all streamable. As the undated transcription discs demand, they are catalogued by disc sequence rather than by date; there are no per-episode plots, because there is no story -- only the harmony.