The Georgia Sea Island Singers: Guide

The Beginning

The origin story for the Georgia Sea Island Singers begins on St. Simons Island,  in one of the many coastal communities that are part of America’s Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

From the very beginning, the Georgia Sea Island Singers were more than just local performers. They were culture-keepers, ambassadors for their community, preservationists of their culture and a rich legacy of African American spiritual music forms that have influenced singers and musicians in the United States and around the world.

References

Alan Lomax Archive. (2021). Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers: Yonder Come Day (1959) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/NupAm6QnpCA?si=vpcXwcim2MIXIdEU

1920

Amateur folklorist Lydia Parrish, the wife of renowned painter Maxfield Parrish, is credited with organizing the Spiritual Singers Society of Coastal Georgia in 1920. This group would later become the Georgia Sea Island Singers.

Parrish, a New Jersey native, was fascinated by the spiritual music tradition of African Americans on the Georgia coast, especially on St. Simons Island where she spent the winter months. The Spiritual Singers performed for white audiences, at private engagements in people’s homes and at local venues such as the Cloister Hotel on Sea Island.

References

University of Georgia Press. (n.d.). Lydia Parrish. https://ugapress.org/author/lydia-parrish/

1933

In 1933, Mary Elizabeth “Bessie” Jones joined the Spiritual Singers. She was from Dawson, Georgia, but her husband’s roots were on St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island. Jones came from a musical family and was known for her strong voice and vibrant personality.

Shortly after she joined the Spiritual Singers, the name of the group was changed to the Georgia Sea Island Singers. The members of the group also included Big John Davis, Mable Hillery, Henry Morrison, and Emma Ramsey.

References

Cultural Equity. (n.d.). Mable Hillery. https://www.culturalequity.org/alan-lomax/friends/hillery

Masters of Traditional Arts. (n.d.). Bessie Jones. http://www.mastersoftraditionalarts.org/artists/160?selected_facets=state_exact:Georgia

During the 1920s through the 1940s, several prominent anthropologists and folklorists began to take an interest in the culture and traditions of people in the Gullah Geechee corridor, a region that stretches from North Carolina to North Florida, and includes the barrier islands and mainland communities about 30 miles inland. Because of the relative isolation of these areas, the descendants of enslaved people who worked on coastal plantations, or forced-labor camps, in the Gullah Geechee corridor were able to retain many of their African traditions, including music, foodways, crafts, religion, and languages.

Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner, America’s first Black linguist, documented the Gullah Geechee people from 1932 through 1942, and lived here off-and-on to immerse himself in the culture, the language and the music. Turner, who was educated at Howard University, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago, recorded people on St. Simons Island, Sapelo Island, Harris Neck, Brunswick, and other communities.

References

Turner, L. D. (1969). Africanisms in the Gullah dialect. Arno Press.

Wade-Lewis, M. (2007). Lorenzo Dow Turner: Father of Gullah studies. University of South Carolina Press.

1935

In 1935, Alan Lomax, a member of a well-known family of anthropologists and folklorists, visited St. Simons Island with writer, filmmaker, and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. During their time together on the island they heard the Georgia Sea Island Singers perform. Lomax returned in 1959-1960 and recorded the group for Rounder Records’ Alan Lomax Collection, the Southern Journey Series.

References

Cooper, M. L. (2017). Making Gullah. University of North Carolina Press.

Hurston, Z. N. (1998). Their eyes were watching God. Perennial Classics.

Library of Congress Podcasts. (2009). Wallace Quarterman: Voices from the days of slavery: Stories, songs, and memories. https://www.loc.gov/podcasts/slavenarratives/podcast_quarterman.html

Mendonca, A. (2005). Georgia Sea Island Singers. New Georgia Encyclopedia. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/georgia-sea-island-singers/

Vechten, C. V. (1938). Zora Neale Hurston. [Photograph]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://memory.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3b10000/3b10000/3b10000/3b10040r.jpg

1942

In 1942, Lydia Parrish published Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands, which included stories of her observations and interpretations of Gullah Geechee people and culture along with song lyrics and music.

References

Parrish, L. (1992). Slave songs of the Georgia Sea Islands. (Brown Thrasher, ed.). University of Georgia Press.

Alan Lomax’s sister, folklorist Bess Lomax Hawes, would later record the Georgia Sea Island Singers on film.

In this video, the Georgia Sea Island Singers, with Bessie Jones playing the tambourine, sing Adam in the Garden while performing the Ring Shout, which author Art Rosenbaum describes as “the oldest African American performance tradition surviving on the North American continent," and "an impressive fusion of call-and-response singing, polyrhythmic percussion, and expressive and formalized dancelike movements,” which has had “a profound influence on African American music and religious practice.” 

References

Bishop, J. M. (2009, May 28). Adam in the Garden. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/lRy5MoWPyS0?si=QTBVF7E0v5_eVu30

Rosenbaum, A. (1998). Shout because you're free; The African American ring shout tradition in coastal Georgia. University of Georgia Press. 

In this video, the Georgia Sea Island Singers sing Throw Me Anywhere Lord and demonstrate the “Buzzard Lope. In her memoir, God, Dr. Buzzard and the Bolito Man, the late Cornelia Walker Bailey of Sapelo Island described how her father and other men in her community would get together after a hard week at work and do the Buzzard Lope as a way to relax and release tension. The dance mimics a buzzard as it eyes its rotting prey represented by the handkerchief on the floor.

References

Bailey, C. W., & Bledsoe, C. (2001). God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee talks about life on Sapelo Island. Anchor.

Bishop, J. M. (2009, May 28). Throw me anywhere, Lord. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/3dGamWaYcLg?si=XTExssIwdeexXSeF

1968

The Georgia Sea Island Singers performed at the Festival of American Folklife in 1967, and at the Poor People’s March on Washington and at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968.

References

Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage. (2024). Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. https://folklife.si.edu/archives

Smithsonian Collections Blog. (2014, March 21). Singing the past: Gullah heritage and the Georgia Sea Island Singers. Smithsonian Institution. https://si-siris.blogspot.com/2014/03/singing-past-gullah-heritage-georgia_21.html

1969

In 1969, Douglas Quimby and Frankie Sullivan Quimby joined the Georgia Sea Island Singers after Bessie Jones heard bass singer Doug Quimby performing with the Sensational Friendly Stars.

References

The Georgia Sea Island Singers. (n.d.). Celebrating over 25 years as international performing artists. http://www.gacoast.com/navigator/quimbys.html

1972

In 1972, Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes coauthored Step It Down, a collection of children’s songs, games, including clapping-hand games, and other activities that are part of the African-American tradition.

The Georgia Sea Island Singers performed at Jimmy Carter’s inauguration in 1977.

References

The Georgia Sea Island Singers. (n.d.). Celebrating over 25 years as international performing artists. http://www.gacoast.com/navigator/quimbys.html

From her front porch on St. Simons Island, she continued to teach children about their heritage and was a beloved member of her community until she passed away in 1984.

Doug Quimby passed away in 2006, but during his later years with the Georgia Sea Island Singers, he and his wife, along with Thomas “Tony” Merrell, and other members carried forth the group’s legacy of education and preservation of the African and Gullah Geechee traditions of their ancestors.

They performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.; the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway; the National Black Storytelling Festival; and the G8 Summit on Sea Island in 2004.

The Georgia Sea Island Singers are one example of the power of music to heal past wounds, to protest injustice, to worship and find peace through spirituality, and to celebrate life.

References

Conklin, P. (1973). Bessie Jones at home on St. Simons Island, Georgia. [Photograph]. National Archives. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/546994