After the spiritual made its introduction on American culture and became an important fixture within the African-American communities, the blues certainly took form and gloriously became a highly respected style of music amongst other genres - mainly due to blues being the sole foundation of influence for other music genres. Blues is usually defined by the usage of the blue notes (note sung or played at a lower pitch than those of the major scale) and are usually done in the flattened third, flattened fifth and flattened seventh scale degrees. It is hard to actually trace any actual early documentation of the blues but it is true that the music emerged from the spirituals and work songs but lyrically expressed the downside or “personal woes in a world of harsh reality.” The lyrical content in the early stages of blues almost felt like a rebellious response to sacred music with its gritty, earthy and realistic lyrics. In the early years, the main instrumentation of the blues usually surrounded the usage of the Diddley bow (a homemade one-stringed instrument found in the deep South), the banjo, the “gut-bucket” flavored bass drum and later on, the guitar. It was common to hear this music being played in social outlets in the deep South in places usually named “juke joints.” The blues, usually taking on many forms of social expression, could be comedic, raunchy and depressing - but it is important to note the close relations blues had with the spirituals and how early blues singers intertwined the musical nature of the spiritual with the popular sounds of the blues. Singers like Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton and Reverend Gary Davis, herald by blues critics and historians for their groundbreaking work in the blues genre, also included what is usually coined “gospel blues” into their repertoire.

After the commercialization of the blues, record companies began to take notice in the growing number of gospel bred musicians across the country. Early recording artists included:

Arizona Dranes - Another popular blind singer whom emerged from the Churches of God In Christ and recorded a few successful sides for OKeh Records. She remains one of the most important contributors, even though much historical information about her life is limited, to blues and gospel for her innovative “boogie-woogie” piano style.

The Pace Jubilee Singers - Bridging the old religious quartet style with emerging new sounds, this Chicago-based group was led by musician and composer Charles Henry Pace and recorded for a number of music labels, including Victor, Paramount and Brunswick during the 1920s.

Fisk Jubilee Quartet - Emerging out of the singing tradition of the renowned Jubilee Singers came the Fisk Jubilee Quartet; led by noted director and arranger John Wesley Work, Jr. After twenty years of inactivity from the Jubilee Singers, the Jubilee Quartet - a smaller group and very economical for travel - helped jumpstart the university with the popular quartet sound while continuing onward with their tradition in performing the spirituals. Early recordings from this group date back to the early 1900s.

Norfolk Jazz Quartet - Formed during the World War I years, this group used the vaudeville/minstrel catalyst to entertain the Tidewater area during the tough times and became popular icons for their many live performances on Norfolk radio. The group were successful in recording for Okeh in 1921, but switched over to Paramount until 1932.

Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet - Using the popular antics of the Mills Brothers, the Gates became one of the major driving forces in the early commercializing of gospel music and was known for singing in the jubilee quartet style while using their barbershop-tinged sound that was mainly performed by white groups. The group even achieved an impressive run of recordings and even were featured in four major motion pictures including Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and A Song Is Born (1948). Their success was footnoted in history when renowned producer and promoter John Hammond presented them as part of the 1938 musical From Spirituals to Swing at Carnegie Hall and even opened up the door for the group to sing at Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s inauguration in 1941.

Birmingham Jubilee Singers - Developed in the tradition of African American a capella quartet singing, this Jefferson Country-Alabama group traveled to Atlanta to begin their recording career in 1926, after being discovered by a Columbia Records talent scout. The group’s popularity thickened nationwide for their close harmony and their successful lead vocals exchanges from singer to singer. The group also recorded secular sides, but continued to keep spirituals throughout their recording career.

Georgia Peach - Born Clara Hudman Gholston; not much is documented about the artist except that she was a major musical influence for Clara Ward and Mahalia Jackson. She was also featured on John Hammond’s Spirituals to Swing concert series at Carnegie Hall and also appeared on many of the popular Okeh and Victor recordings of Rev. J.M Gates. Her recording career started in the 1930s and remained a popular performer up to the 1940s. Locally, an uproaring scandal surfaced in 1930 in Atlanta when she married the Rev. T.T. Gholston shortly after the death of his ailing wife.

Rev. J. M Gates - Pastor of the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Atlanta, Gates is still regarded as one of the most popular and best-selling recording preachers of all time. He recorded forty-two sides of sermons in just three weeks for six different music labels including Victor, Okeh and Bluebird. While he was known for his preaching, his singing along with several appearances from artists like the Georgia Peach made him a celebrity amongst early gospel pioneers. Experts estimate that Gates recorded at least a quarter of all of his sermons before 1943. His most popular sermons included “Death’s Black Train Is Coming” and “Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting.”

Jazz, having roots in African music, found its metamorphosis in ragtime music (a vaudeville-type genre that enjoyed its peak of popularity between 1899 and 1920 and is accredited for being the first American music genre). The classically-trained Scott Joplin, known for writing “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer,” became the biggest contributor and developer of the ragtime style. Swing music, an extension of the decaying rag music, became the leading component of the popular jazz music of the 1930s and were strongly supported by bandleaders and arrangers including Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Earl Hines, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. The rich culture of deep South music, primarily from New Orleans’ dixieland style, played an important factor in early jazz. Jazz, also using the blue notes as its anchoring tradition, also used the spirituals’ call-and-response nature along with improvisation and the usage of polyrhythms and instrument syncopation to form its foundational patterns. It is the spirit of freedom and the liberated structuring of jazz music that helped with developing and influencing gospel music’s new breed of styles. And while the strongest elements of jazz didn’t really affect gospel’s early recordings, artists like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Clara Ward, Roberta Martin and Rev. James Cleveland made sure that their newer innovations equally included both blues and jazz roots. In fact most record executives and industry personnel during the early 1920s, regardless of what the terminology was, didn’t care what the differences were of blues and jazz - as long as the records sold. It was only until these forms of mainstream black music, or “race records,” decided to integrate with the developing and acceptable style of sacred music - soon to be called gospel music - when the real action for gospel music’s future begun.