Kind of a late Sunday post here. This superb quintet included Floyd H. Lacy, high tenor, and his wife, who apparently played piano for the quintet, though (for some reason) not on these reissued (1940s) Sacred label sides--the superb ivory tinkling is credited to Spurgeon R. Jones. However, Mrs. Lacy does play piano on the five duet sides by the Lacys, which feature added organ accompaniment by the famous Lorin Whitney. The group belonged to the Christian and Missionary Alliance, aka the Alliance World Fellowship, about which I know little, save that a lot of great music is connected with the denomination. It's part of the Holiness movement.
Here's an excellent entry on the group, which started in 1913.
It's more than worth noting that many of the so-called "lower" churches (did somebody say, "class"?) were ahead of the Christian pack when it came to integrated congregations and leadership positions for women. Just saying. We progressive Christians are, and should be, a bit embarrassed by this inconvenient fact.
Anyway, splendid music, with a polyphonic quality that I can't find the words to describe. It's as if the voices are darting in and out on some of the quintet sides. My ears try to determine which voice is doing what, and they (my ears) give up after a spell. To call these tracks lively is an understatement along the lines of, "Godzilla wears at least a 5X." And I love the Lacys' interesting style of duet vocalizing--the very precise enunciation, especially. In addition to the twelve LP tracks, we have a 1925 "Personal Record" (Columbia Phonograph Company) of the Lacys singing the great Rapture hymn, The Meeting in the Air, and The Hornet Song, the theological point of which I haven't figured out yet. But I'm working on it. And I'll offer no puns along the line of "stinging vocals." I can't account for the highly compressed sound on Hornet, and I apologize for the mildly painful resonance. Did someone cover the microphone with a blanket, or...?
This LP is a thrift gift from Diane, and I'm very grateful for it. I knew it would be a great experience the moment she mentioned finding it. This post puts me in the mood to feature one or both of my Doris Akers LPs. I believe I posted one years back, but the entry is gone.
DOWNLOAD: Cleveland Quintet (Sacred Records 9037; 1958)
Lee