The Sterling Jubilee Singers

"Jefferson County is the heartland of black American a cappella gospel quartet singing. For more than [a century] black quartets have thrived in Birmingham and Bessemer, and they have provided immeasurable spiritual uplift and musical enjoyment to a large portion of the local population. The tenacious survival of black quartet traditions in Birmingham and Bessemer preserves a cultural and historical continuity that informs and enriches many lives. The older singers share a sense of brotherhood, a common identification with four-part harmony heritage and lore. For many singers, a powerful desire to perpetuate these traditions is coupled with a belief that singing is their allotted personal service to God. These are reasons why there are so many septuagenarians and octogenarians in the field; they're striving to earn the epitaph, "He sang until he died."

"The Sterling Jubilee Singers were founded in 1929 during a vibrant period when large numbers of African-American men who worked in Jefferson County's steel mills and ore mines were forming gospel quartets. African-American a cappella quartet traditions were already generations old in the South when the movement became popular in Birmingham during the 1920s. These traditions have deep roots in nineteenth-century American folk and popular culture. The local quartet activity had its incubation in the mining camps, company quarters, and other segregated black industrial settlements, and was in part a product of the rich fellowship that survived and was enjoyed in those oppressive environs. The original Sterling Jubilees were trained by singing master Charles Bridges, who was a strong force in shaping the Jefferson County a cappella quartet style.