Biddleville Quintette

The Biddleville Quintette ought now to be recognized as one of the great east coast African American gospel units of the early 20th century. The group waxed 36 sides for Paramount and QRS between September 1926 and August 1929. Original copies of their 78 rpm records are prized by collectors impressed with the Quintette's passionate intensity and soulful delivery. These feature call and response sanctified singing and sermons peppered with emphatic shouts and hollers. The 1929 recordings include instances of shape-note singing and progressive congregational polyphony that make...