Bethel Jubilee Quartet - Now Is the Needy Time

Topic: Early Versions
The first commercial recording of what would become “Kumbaya” was made 13 July 1923 in Camden, New Jersey, by the Bethel Jubilee Quartet of Columbia, South Carolina.  While the Victor Talking Machine Company had been recording for more than two decades, [1] it was a strange experience for the four men.

The challenges began when they planned their journey to New Jersey from the Jim Crow South.  It is possible they had access to an automobile, [2] but a train would have been the safest transportation.

More than likely they stayed with friends or relatives in Philadelphia, across the Delaware river from Camden.  Willa Ward-Royster recalled it was known as a “‘friendly city’ to blacks” [3] when her parents left Anderson, South Carolina, in 1920, to stay with relatives who already had migrated. [4]

The technician who recorded the four men would not have been the one who contacted them. [5] Harry Sooy said Victor employed nine men in 1922 to handle recording sessions [6] in one of two studios in Camden. [7]  Since the number of performers was small, they probably used Studio A, the second floor of a converted church. [8]

Recording still was done acoustically.  Musicians stood in front of horns that transmitted sound waves to wooden boxes where the vibrations of a glass diaphragm moved a stylus that cut grooves into wax platters called matrices.  The horn was in the room with the performers, and everything else in a separate room where the technician watched the physical movement of the stylus. [9]

Sergio Ospina Romero indicated that, while publicity photographs showed groups huddled in front of single large horns, by the 1920s recorders had a choice of horns and diaphragms that were selected to best capture the timbres of different types of sounds.  They could, when necessary, use several horns that were connected by rubber hoses to the one sound box. [10]

Probably whoever [11] recorded the Bethel Quartet began by having them sing.  After hearing their sound, he would have made technical decisions and told them where to stand and how to hold their bodies.  Then, he would have disappeared into the other room to direct the recording. [12]

Artists had to be adaptable when patterns of non-verbal communication were disrupted.  Sooy remembered problems with the “green” musicians in the La Scala orchestra who could not comprehend what they were expected to do. [13]  They had similar problems in China. [14]

The quartet must have done well enough.  They recorded eight songs on Thursday, July 12, then returned on Friday to record four more.  If the first recordings were poor, one suspects they second session would have been cancelled. [15]

Engineers could tell from looking at the wax if a recording was usable.  They could not control street noises, and so many factors could affect the quality of a matrix.  Of the twelve songs recorded by the quartet, half only required two recordings.  One took seven tries, and another eight. [16]

The best matrix for each song was sent to the electroplating department that made a metal overlay.  Ten recordings made it to step two.  The ones that did not happened to be the last recorded each day. [17]  Anything could have been a factor, including increased street noises later in the day or deteriorating wax conditions as temperatures rose above those required for recording.

Sooy said the staff met every morning to listen to the masters from the day before to select those that met their quality standards.  He recalled:

“There is always a lot of competition on every date, that is, with the Recording Staff, as each member has his own recordings and the anxiety creeps in to know whose recorders are making the best records, and which one will be chosen for a master record.” [18]

Six of Bethel’s songs were released.  Unfortunately, “Now Is the Needy Time” was not one of them.  Victor had so many masters to manage, any that were not released were destroyed.  The matrices, of course, probably did not survive the plating process.

Performers
A. C. Brogdon, lead tenor
Henry S. Allen, second tenor [19]
J. C. Eubanks, baritone
Thomas H. Wiseman, bass

Notes on Lyrics
We do not know anything more about the Bethel Jubilee Quartet version than the song was known in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1923, and was using the “needed time” verse.

Notes on Music
Sung a capella

Availability
Unused matrix, take 1.  Bethel Jubilee Quartet. “Now is the needy time.”  Camden, New Jersey, 13 July 1923.  Not survive.

Unused master B-28188.  Bethel Jubilee Quartet. “Now is the needy time.”  Camden, New Jersey, 13 July 1923.  Destroyed.

Graphics
 Wiseman’s picture appears on the Photos C tab.

End Notes
1.  Eldridge Reeves Johnson began producing recordings using wax matices in 1900.  After settling a copyright lawsuit, he reorganized as Victor Talking Machine in 1901. [20]

2.  A local newspaper reported in 1921 that Wiseman and others “drove” to “Union, S. C. where he (Dr. Wiseman) delivered a telling address.  On returning they stopped at Newberry and other towns.” [21]

3.  Willa Ward-Royster.  How I Got Over: Clara Ward and the World-Famous Ward Singers.  Told to Toni Rose.  Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997.  9.  I use Ward-Royster as an illustration because her sister, Clara Ward, recorded “Come by Here” in 1962.

4.  Ward-Royster.  11.

5.  Victor did not yet have a formal Artists and Repertoire (A&R) department.  Calvin George handled the function until 1923.  He seems to have relied on reports and requests from retailers to identify new markets and artists. [22]

6.  Harry O. Sooy.  “Memoir of My Career.”  Unpublished manuscript in collection of Hagley Museum and on their website.  86.

7.  Sooy.  91.  Not all nine were in Camden.  Victor also had a studio in New York, and constantly was sending men to foreign countries to make recordings.

8.  The company had purchased the Trinity Baptist Church building in 1918. [23]  According to the Victor Records website, Studio B, the ground floor was used for symphonies and other large groups.

9.  The clearest discussion of the technology is by Sergio Daniel Ospina Romero. “Recording Studios on Tour: the Expeditions of the Victor Talking Machine Company Through Latin America, 1903-1926.”  PhD dissertation.  Cornell University, May 2019.  143–144.

10.  Ospina Romero.  145.

11.  Recorders kept meticulous records; however such minutia either was not recorded in the Camden ledgers, or was not transcribed by The University of California, Santa Barbara, for its Discography of American Historical Recordings on-line database. [24]  Today, of course, such information routinely is included with the credits.

12.  Ospina Romero.  151–152.
13.  Sooy.  85.
14.  Sooy.  31–32.

15.  Recording dates and song lists from UCSB.  The liner notes for the Wiseman anthology [25] differ slightly.

16.  “Hush, somebody’s calling my name” took seven tries; “I couldn’t hear nobody pray” took eight according to UCSB.

17.  The songs that did not survive the first review are “Oh rocks dont fall on me” and “Were you there when they crucified my Lord.” [UCSB]

18.  Sooy.  86.

19.  His complete name is from T. H. Wiseman.  Letter to W. E. B. Du Bois, 26 August 1923.  Held by Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries, and reproduced on its website.

20.  Wikipedia.  “Eldridge R. Johnson.”
21.  Item.  The Southern Indicator, Columbia, South Carolina, 9 July 1921.  3.
22.  Sooy.  103.
23.  Phil Cohen.  “Trinity Baptist Church.”  DVRBS website.
24. The initial work on Victor recordings was done by Ted Fagan.

25.  Chris Smith.  Liner notes for Johnny Parth.  Wiseman Sextette/Quartet.  Vienna: Document Records DOCD-5520.  CD.  1997.

Willie Peacock - Come Bah Yah

Topic: Political Versions
One path taken by “Kumbaya” into the Civil Rights Movement ran through Rust College.  The Black school was founded in 1866 by the northern Methodist Episcopal Church, and remains affiliated with the denomination. [1]  It is in the red county on the map below.

Willie Peacock was a student at Rust in the early 1960s, where he sang with the school’s a capella choir. [2]  In the spring of 1962, James Bevel and Sam Block visited the campus to recruit volunteers for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. [3]  This was the time when SNCC and the Congress of Racial Equality were riding buses from Washington, DC, into the deep South.  Many, including Bevel, were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, in late May. [4]  The unintended consequence: he stayed to begin organizing voter registration in Tallahatchie County where Peacock was raised.  It is the middle dot on the map.

The following spring Peacock began working in Holly Springs, the home of Rust.  Frank Smith came from SNCC offices in Atlanta, Georgia, and taught them how to conduct meetings. [5]  The group got better training in June, [6] after Bob Moses and Block went to the Highlander Folk School. [7]  As mentioned in the post for 5 October 2017, Guy Carawan was teaching people how to adapt old spirituals to the Civil Rights movement.

Block began organizing in Greenwood in Mississippi’s Leflore county, the lower dot on the map below.  In 1955, Robert Patterson had founded the White Citizens’ Council in response to the Supreme Court overturning school segregation in 1954 there. [8]  Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was murdered on 28 August 1955 north of town. [9]

 Block held his first public meeting in the Elks Hall in June.  It was the first time he tried teaching the Freedom Songs he had learned from Moses.  He noticed the attendees “liked those songs, they identified with them.” [10]

After the Elks was closed to SNCC, he held his next meeting at the First Christian Church. [11]  Block later told an interviewer what he

“remembered the most about that meeting that we had that night were the songs that we were singing.  And asked when we were going to have another meeting and sing those songs.  And I began to then see the music itself as being a real important organizing tool to really begin to bring people together.  Not only just as an organizing tool to bring them together, but also as an organizing tool to serve sort of as an organizational glue of holding them together.” [12]

Peacock joined him in August, after he finished his course work at Rust.  When physical threats became too severe, they began working in Sunflower County, the long county west of Leflore.  The police stopped their bus and, while they were being interrogated, a woman begin singing.  Peacock recalled Fanie Lou Hamer’s “voice stood out way above everybody else’s.” [13]

The Leflore County Board of Supervisors responded to SNCC by opting out of the Federal Surplus Commodity Food Program that supplied food to plantation workers in the winter.  Bobby Smith noted that local cotton growers had begun buying machinery [14] after so many adults fled the county for jobs elsewhere in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. [15]  Land owners no longer needed sharecroppers, and families moved into Greenwood and became low-paid, seasonal laborers.  Without their small plots of land, they no longer could grow their own food and were dependent on the government when their cash was depleted. [16]

The county board upheld its decision in November of 1962. [17]  Block and Peacock notified SNCC headquarters. [18]  The unintended consequence: Moses’ appeals for help attracted the attention of Dick Gregory in Chicago.  By then the African-American comedian was working for Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Club. [19]  He filled an airplane with the goods he collected, and sent them to SNCC to distribute in February. [20]

Peacock was placed in charge of food distribution in Leflore County.  He recalled they often had to sneak into plantations at night, and always left voter registration forms. [21]  Once they had assurance they would not go hungry, Blacks began to listen.  Block recalled they had Hamer lead the singing. [22]

Soon after, whites burned the SNCC offices in Greenwood and framed Block for arson.  On February 28 they shot at Moses’ car.  In March, the county began arresting protestors, who were singing on the march, and siccing dogs on them.  The unintended consequence: The New York Times published photographs. [23]

In early April, Gregory came to Greenwood and spoke at the only church still willing to host a public meeting, the Wesley Methodist Church. [24]  Until then only the Christian Church and Methodist had dared hold meetings; [25] after he spoke thirty-one ministers signed a statement supporting the voter registration drive. [26]

National attention shifted to Martin Luther King, who was active in Birmingham, Alabama, in the spring, [27] but the day-to-day organizing continued around Greenwood.  On June 11, Medgar Evers was killed after leaving a SNCC meeting in Greenwood. [28]  The Klan attacked a memorial service in Itta Bena and the protestors were sentenced to chain gangs.  People now were singing in public at protests and at the prison farm. [29]

The unintended consequence: Pete Seeger arrived in Greenwood on July 6.  Bob Dylan and Theodor Bekel performed at his concert on a farm road. [30]  Albert Ribback became interested in recording the movement’s music.  He had lost his business in December 1962 when the FBI arrested Lenny Bruce at his Chicago nightclub. [31]  The Gate of Horn had been opened by Dylan’s agent in 1950s, and sold to Ribback in 1962 when Albert Grossman moved to New York. [32]

Sometime in the fall, Ribback recorded a meeting in a Greenwood Baptist church led by Peacock. [33]  Peacock begins by asking Hamer, and then Matthew Jones to sing. [34]  Bernice Johnson Reagon, who has heard the tape, [35] says the congregation joins with them. [36]

Hamer then starts “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” [37]  She is accompanied by hand claps, hums, and unison singing by the unidentified musical group.  Peacock then introduces the first of the evening’s speakers, a white man from California.  Dick Frye’s reference to “Wade in the Water” [38] prompts Hamer to sing it with occasional hand claps.  The tempo is slower as she sings solo verse lines and the group responds.  They come together on the burdens.

“Without a break,” Reagon says “Peacock leads a stirring rendition of “Come Bay Yah.” [39]  The singing is done by a group that is well-rehearsed, not by the audience.  Their tempo is even slower as they sing four-part harmony borrowed from the a capella tradition Peacock knew from Rust.  Although his voice is dominant, he is rarely a soloist like Hamer.  The tune is the 1-3-5 one John Blocher, Jr., transcribed for CRS.

The text is a mix.  After the “come bay yah” verse, the group sings three stanzas that substitute civil rights terms into the “somebody needs you.”  The best known is “we need freedom.”  The final verse is taken from CRS, “somebody’s crying.”  He shortens the middle syllable to make the text fit the tune.  They group ends by humming while he repeats “come bay yah.”

Guy Carawan lists Peacock as one of his sources for the collection he produced in 1963 for SNCC, but does not say who contributed which song. [40]  Carawan’s first verses begin with nouns (“churches are burning”) or the pronoun “somebody.”  The last two, which begin with “we,” are the ones Peacock sings.  Two years later, some unidentified person will lead the song at an organizational meeting before the march in Selma, Alabama. [41]

By the fall of 1963, Peacock’s version could have come from anywhere.  Joan Baez had recorded it in 1962. [42]  While her singing style did not appeal to Blacks, [43] Northern students were taking up singing when they appeared at protests.

Lynn Rohrbough included “Kum Ba Yah” in a number of songbooks he published for different Methodist groups.  The one most likely to be distributed widely in 1963 was Look Away: 56 Negro Folk Songs.  Walter Anderson, the African-American head of music at Antioch College, oversaw the revised edition. [44]  Unlike hardcover academic collections, the 6.75" x 3.75" booklet was easily hidden in a pocket, and highly portable.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Willie Peacock
Vocal Group: unnamed group
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
Trad.-arr. W. Peacock

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English

Pronunciation:
Come: varies between “come” and “cum”
Here: yah
Justice: jastice
Third syllable of “somebody”: very short so fits the same musical space as “someone”

Verses: come by here, crying, others shared with Carawan
Pronoun: we, somebody
Term for Deity: Lord
Basic Form: four-verse song, framed by “Come bah yah”
Verse Repetition Pattern: AxxxA
Unique Features: use of first person

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: very slow
Harmonic Structure: chordal harmony
Singing Style: generally, one syllable to one note
Ending: hums the melody

Notes on Performance
Occasion: meeting in Baptist church
Location: Greenwood, Mississippi, fall 1963

Audience Perceptions
The audience generally is not heard by the tape recorder.  However, on the stanza that sounds like “freedom’s heavy,” someone yells out “yessum” and claps.  That man or another says “yassir” on the last “come by here.”  While the group is humming the final iteration, a man says “yassir.”  At the end, some women say “amen.”

Notes on Performers
Peacock was born in Charleston, Mississippi, in 1937, and came of age after World War II when  Tallahatchie County was feeling the effects of the mass exodus of African Americans.  The population dropped 10.8% in the 1940s. [45]  When his older brother was arrested, a local landowner tricked the family into moving to his plantation with a promise to help. [46]  Peacock recalled: “I got a chance to see what slavery was probably like and [felt] like.” [47]

When he was considering working for SNCC in August 1962, he discovered his father was part of a secret network of World War II veterans, that included Amzie Moore.  As a youth he thought the two were just fellow members of the Prince Hall Masons.  He told an interviewer:

“All these people that I found out, about all these people who were involved, that I had no idea. And I grew up right there in Charleston, and I had no idea.” [48]

Secrecy and fear were commonplace.  In 1963, before King drew national attention to the South, Peacock said “we faced fears straight on that the population faced every day and just had a lot of fear.  The workers, the people who came down later, began to realize the kind of fear that people lived under.  Fear that most of the people who came down in ’64 had never had to live under in their whole life.  It was really unreal to most people, but this is the kind of stuff that the Mississippi staff had grown up under.” [49]

Block said Peacock turned to alcohol, and got so “drunk he couldn’t even stand up.  It just almost destroyed him.” [50]  In the summer of 1964, Peacock went to New York City to get himself together, then enrolled in Tuskegee Institute. [51]

His interests turned to celebrating African-American culture with a folk festival in Greenwood in 1965.  The next year he and Block went to California, where he converted to Islam.  After a brief return to Mississippi, he and his new wife moved to San Francisco in 1989.  He was working with “developmentally challenged children and adults” when he died in 2016. [52]

He had entered Rust on a music scholarship, and never abandoned music.  In California, he joined the “Vukani Mawethu Choir, which sang freedom songs of South Africa and performed concerts to raise funds to support the African National Congress.” [53]

His daughter best summarized his life: “he has a great legacy from throughout the ’60s, but to me, he was always just my dad, who loved to sing to me.” [54]

Availability
CD: Willie Peacock.  “Come Bah Yah.”  Voices of the Civil Rights Movement.  Smithsonian Folkways SF 40084.  1997.  Tape made by Moses Moon; recording produced by Bernice Johnson Reagon.

Graphics
Base map: David Benbennick.  “Marshall County, Mississippi.”  Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons on 12 February 2006.  Locations, from the top: Holly Springs, Charleston, and Greenwood, Mississippi.

End Notes
1.  Wikipedia.  “Rust College.”

2.  Leslie McLemore.  Cited by Dustin Cardon.  “Willie Wazir Peacock.”  Jackson Free Press, Jackson, Mississippi, 27 May 2016.

3.  Wazir (Willie B.) Peacock.  Interview by Bruce Hartford, July 2001, Civil Rights Movement Veterans Website.

4.  Wikipedia.  “Freedom Riders.”
5.  Peacock, interview.
6.  “Highlander Folk School.”  Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee website.

7.  Sam Block.  Interview by Joe Sinsheimer, 12 December 1986.  Digital Education Services website, 19 November 1998.  10.

8.  Wikipedia.  “Greenwood, Mississippi.”
9.  Wikipedia.  “Emmett Till.”
10.  Block.  15.

11.  Block.  17.  The formal name of the denomination is Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  It is an offshoot of the Cane Ridge Revival discussed in the post for 8 November 2020.  The church’s activism in Africa is described in the post for 14 March 2021.

12.  Block.  18.

13.  Peacock, interview.  Hamer was raised on a plantation in Sunflower County, where she became literate and deeply versed in the Bible.  After she tried to register to vote, she was evicted by the plantation owner.  In June of 1963, she was arrested and beaten.  She remained active in politics in Mississippi until her death in 1977. [55]

14.  Bobby J. Smith II.  “Food and the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement: Re-reading the 1962-1963 Greenwood Food Blockade.”  Food Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research 23:1–17:April 2020.  5.  International Harvester introduced the first spindle-type cotton picker in 1942.  It was not commercially available until 1948, due to material shortages during and immediately after World War II. [56]

15.  Leflore County’s population dropped 3% in the 1940s and 9% in the 1950s. [57]
16.  Smith.  3.
17.  Smith.  5.
18. “Greenwood Food Blockade (Winter).”  Civil Rights Movement Veterans website.
19.  Wikipedia.  “Dick Gregory.”
20.  Smith.  8–9.
21.  Smith.  8.
22.  Block.  24.

23.  Jon Greenbaum.  “Looking Back on 1963 Fifty Years Later.”  American Bar Association Human Rights Magazine, 1 January 2014.

24.  Bill Hudson.  “Dick Gregory 1963.”  Photograph, Associated Press Images website.

25.  Block thought the main reason the Christian and Methodist churches took risks is their clergy are part of hierarchical, national organizations.  Baptist churches are independent and choose to affiliate with the National Baptist Convention.  Ministers later told Block that whites threatened to burn their churches if they supported him. [58]  He overlooks the fact that John Wesley and the original Methodist church were against slavery.  The Southern churches seceded from the denomination over slavery in 1846, but after the reunification in 1939, the Northern view prevailed, for the most part, within the hierarchy.

26.  “Dick Gregory.”  Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee website.

27.  Bevel masterminded the Birmingham Children’s Crusade.  In response, Eugene Connor, better known as Bull Connor, “used high-pressure water jets and police dogs against protesters.” [59]

28.  Block.  51.

29.  “Struggle for the Vote Continues in Mississippi (July-Aug).”  Civil Rights Movement Veterans website.

30.  “Northern Folk Singers Help out at Negro Festival in Mississippi.”  The New York Times, 7 July 1963.

31. Wendy Shay.  “Guide to the Moses Moon Collection.”  Smithsonian Institution website, 2011.

32.  Kenan Heise.  “Moses Moon, Owned the Gate of Horn.”  Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, 13 August 1993.  Ribback later changed his name to Moon.

33.  Bernice Johnson Reagon.  “Let the Church Sing “Freedom’.”  Black Music Research Journal 7:105–118:1987.  108.

34.  Reagon.  109.

35.  Reagon produced the excerpt of the tape that includes Peacock for the Smithsonian.  Her early version of “Come by Hyar” is discussed in the post for 14 October 2017.

36.  Reagon.  109.  Jones was from Danville, Virginia, and Knoxville, Tennessee.
37.  Reagon.  111.
38.  Reagon.  112.
39.  Reagon.  113.

40.  Carawan.  “Contributors.”  112 in Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.  We Shall Overcome!, edited by Guy and Candie Carawan.  New York: Oak Publications, 1963.

41.  See the post for 11 October 2017.  The use of complete sentences rather than the statement-refrain of “Kumbaya” is often an indicator the person has heard the song, but has not absorbed the poetic tradition.  Other examples are the verses in the Roman Catholic hymnal described in the post for 16 August 2020 and the version arranged by Walter Meador.  A copy of the latter appears in the post for 9 May 2021.

42.  Joan Baez.  “Kumbaya, My Lord.”  Joan Baez in Concert.  Vanguard VRS9112.  1962.  This is discussed in the post for 9 October 2017.

43.  She said that when she toured the South in the summer of 1962, she demanded her concerts be open to African Americans.  However, none came because they had never heard of her.  She had to perform at Black colleges to be heard. [60]

44.  “Kum Ba Yah.”  27 in Look Away: 56 Negro Folk Songs, edited by Walter F. Anderson.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, 1963.  Unfortunately, only the publication year is known for this and Carawan’s collection.  Without knowing more precisely when they were issued, any chronology must be treated as tentative.

45.  Wikipedia.  “Tallahatchie County, Mississippi.”
46.  Cardon.

47.  Willie Peacock.  Quoted by “Willie Peacock.”  Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee website.  Bracketed information in original.

48.  Peacock, interview.
49.  Peacock, interview.
50.  Block.  72.
51.  Peacock, interview.
52.  Cardon.
53.  Cardon.
54.  Della Hill.  Quoted by Cardon.
55.  Wikipedia.  “Fannie Lou Hamer.”
56.  Bill Ganzel.  “Cotton Harvesting.”  Living History Farm website, 2007.
57.  Wikipedia.  “Leflore County, Mississippi.”
58.  Block.  39–41.
59.  Wikipedia, “Martin Luther King Jr.”
60.  Joan Baez. And a Voice to Sing With.  New York: Summit Books, 1987.  103.

Jarrett Roseborough - Come By Here

Topic: Pandemic Versions
The year 2020 was marked by the deaths of George Floyd [1] and 377,833 individuals who suffered from COVID-19. [2]  Very few versions of “Come by Here” or “Kumbaya” uploaded to YouTube directly addressed these tragedies.  Jarrett Roseborough may be the only one who posted a memorial tribute.

Roseborough used a version of “Come by Here” recorded in 1988 by the Breath of Life Quartet. [3]  Using the same kind of techniques perfected by virtual choirs, he sang all four parts.

The arrangement by Cedric Dent originally had three verses: “kumbaya,” “someone’s crying,” and “come by here.”  Roseborough knew that: the choir he directed at Pine Forge Academy near Pottstown, Pennsylvania, performed it that way. [4]  However, for this video, he reverted to the older funeral associations of the song and replaced the “kumbaya” verse with a second “come by here.”

In the notes he uploaded with the video, Roseborough wrote:

“You might notice the different shirts I am wearing in each video.  They all represent a body of people/family that has lost a loved one recently (Oakwood University/Aeolians, Pine Forge Academy, and Decatur SDA Church/South Atlantic Conference).  This is dedicated to them.  You will notice though, that in one of the videos my shirt is blank.  That is for the many names I do not know that have lost.”

Anonymity and anomie may be the worst part of the pandemic.  For long periods, hospitals were overwhelmed, and all the attendant institutions understaffed.  The confinement of individuals to their homes accelerated the separation of individuals from their communities that had been quietly growing unmarked.

The Evereadys of Detroit, Michigan, recorded “Lord Come By Here” in 1983.  There was no on-line obituary posted when a member of the group died in 2007. [5]  Similarly, nothing appeared when the group’s lead singer died from COVID-19 on 2 April 2020. [6]  One fan did not discover Jerome Williams died until August.

“While driving around Belle Isle viewing portraits of Detroit’s Covid-19 casualties, I saw his photo which was one of the last ones.  I was blown away because I had not heard of his transition.  He was an inspiration to me as I learned so much just watching him bless the church & the world with his talents.  Blessings to his family, and may the God of peace continue to watch over us all.  Remember, to go to Jesus on the still of the night.” [7]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: quartet, all parts sung by Jarrett Roseborough
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
Arr. By Cedric Dent

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: takes a deep breath between lines. [8]
Verses: come by here, praying
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Basic Form: one-verse song, framed by “come by here”
Verse Repetition Pattern: ABA
Ending: repeats “Oh Lord, come by here”

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Harmonic Structure: first verse is parallel harmony, the rest uses Barbershop Quartet styles
Singing Style: ornamented
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: a capella

Notes on Performance
Occasion: memorial to those who died from COVID-19
Location: white background
Microphones: none visible
Clothing: dark-colored school sweatshirts

Notes on Movement
He stands still; only his head is shown in four simultaneous frames.

Notes on Performers
Roseborough’s life is recorded by his shirts.  He was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the Greater Atlanta Adventist Academy in 2004. [9]  He matriculated to Oakwood University, where he earned a degree in vocal and choral music.  He later worked as the assistant to the minister of music at the Decatur Seventh-Day Adventist Church.  In 2017, Roseborough joined the faculty of Pine Forge Academy, [10] a Pennsylvania boarding school for African Americans founded in 1946 [11] for students escaping the segregated South. [12]

Cedric Dent grew up in Detroit and earned his music degree from the University of Michigan in 1985.  The baritone sang with Take 6 for twenty-five years. [13]  The a capella group was organized at the Adventist’s Oakwood College in 1980. [14]  At Middle Tennessee State University, Dent teaches classes in black gospel music.  His PhD is from the University of Maryland. [15]

Walter Arties began producing the Breath of Life television program for the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1974 [16] to reach African-American men.  The program’s original quartet made a three albums in the 1970s.  Then, in 1988, a new group recorded “Come by Here.”  The members were Adrian Westney, Jr., Reger Smith, Jr., Myron Ottley, and Ronald Woodfork. [17]

The Evereadys were the second group profiled by this blog.  They are discussed in the posts for 2 August 2017 and 3 August 2017.

Availability
Video: Jarrett Roseborough.  “Come By Here.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Jarrett Roseborough on 4 January 2021.

End Notes
1.  Kyle Pederson’s treatment of Floyd’s death is discussed in the post for 27 June 2021.

2.  Farida B. Ahmad, Jodi A. Cisewski, Arialdi Miniño, and Robert N. Anderson.  “Provisional Mortality Data — United States, 2020.”  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 70:519–522:9 April 2021.

3.  Breath of Life Quartet.  “Come by Here.”  Come by Here.  Portland, Oregon: SonLight Records.  1988.  Uploaded to YouTube by Ricardo Arias Fuentes on 22 March 2021.  Begins about 3:45.

4.  PFA Men’s Chorale.  “Come By Here.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Jarrett Roseborough on 14 July 2018.  I found no evidence Dent published his arrangement.  Roseborough must have learned the parts from the Breath of Life recording and taught them to his choral group.  He may have supplemented the oral transmission by playing the album.

5.  Bob Marovich.  “Eveready’s Aaron Beasley Dies in Detroit.”  Journal of Gospel Music website, 3 October 2007.

6.  Bob Marovich.  “RIP: Jerome Williams of the Evereadys.”  Journal of Gospel Music website, 3 April 2020.

7.  Haywood Glenn.  Comment added 30 August 2020 to Marovich, 2020.  Belle Isle is a city park on an island in the Detroit River managed by the state of Michigan.

8.  Audible breathing is discussed by Zora Neale Hurston in the post for 16 October 2017 on Odetta.

9.  “Jarrett Roseborough.”  Classmates website.
10.  “Jarrett Roseborough, Choir Director.”  Pine Forge Academy website.
11.  Wikipedia.  “Pine Forge Academy.”
12.  “Legacy.”  Pine Forge Academy website.
13.  “Dr. Cedric Dent.”  Middle Tennessee State University website.

14.  “Take 6.”  Singers website.  Oakwood is mentioned in the post for 5 December 2017.

15.  Middle Tennessee.
16.  “About Us.”  Breath of Life television website.
17.  “The Breath of Life Quartet (BLQ).”  Jodah Ministries website.
 

Leo2x - Kumbaya

Topic: Pandemic Versions
Virtual choirs could not exist if the hardware and software used by the major recording studios in the 1970s had not proliferated. [1]  Chris White, who produced Kyle Pederson’s video, owns a home studio that can record up to 48 tracks in remote locations. [2]  Ray Turner’s private studio could offer the New Seasons Ministry “pre-recorded, or custom made music” and merge their digital files into a demo recording. [3]

Even more important were the efforts by Steve Job in 2004 to release audio editing software comparable to that available for video files.  Apple’s current version of GarageBand includes virtual instruments, including percussion.  GarageBand makes it possible for any aspiring musician to create a piece of music in a digital format compatible with YouTube and other video streaming services. [4]

The enforced leisure time created by the COVID-19 pandemic did not lead to more attempts at demo recordings.  One may defer one’s desire to learn to play piano, but if one wants to be a professional musician, carpe diem rules.  One may never be as good as one is at the moment.

I found at least 60 versions of “Come by Here,” “Needed Time,” or “Kumbaya” were uploaded to YouTube by solo artists between April 2020 and March 2021. [5]  The number per month ranged from two in May to seven in April, October, November, January, and February.  The course of the pandemic did not seem to affect when people provided digital versions of their music.

The demographic profile was not altered much either.  Of the 46 videos that showing artists’ faces, 33 were men, 9 were women, and 4 included both.  Of the 37 where race could be discerned, 22 were whites, 14 were African Americans, and 1 had both.

YouTube is useful for publicity, but it provides no monetary return unless a performer has a version on one of the commercial streaming services.  Almost none of the new versions of “Kumbaya” or “Come by Here” uploaded to Amazon after 1 April 2020 was by a new artist.  Most have several albums already listed.

The leap from YouTube to professional status is less about money than it is about finding ways to attract the interest of viewers who spend their waking times in environments saturated with music offerings.  Leo2x chose Instagram ads as his medium of communication. [6]  The platform is owned by Facebook, and uses the same advertising program that allows the buyer to set his or her price. [7]  The maximum video length is 60 seconds, [8] and that appears to be all Leo2x created.

People scrolling through their Instagram accounts do not stop for a song; they stop if an image is striking. [9]  Leo2x created a simple cartoon of a forest with a monkey in a tree on the right, and a striding, male lion on the left.  In the center a man-child is wearing a yellow, hooded sweatshirt and yellow shoes.  The enlarged head has big eyes and dreadlocks.

I do not know when Leo2x scheduled his advertisements.  His video on YouTube was uploaded on 1 July 2020.  It now is 3:43 minutes long.  The extension mainly was done with repetitions of the original text, with small variations added.  The video has a little animation: the monkey and the lion move.

Up to this point he spent very little money, apart from whatever he used to produce the music and drawing.  His YouTube notes suggest it also was made available on SoundCloud and Audiomack.  Both are free.  SoundCloud was founded in Berlin, and may have a European audience. [10]  Audiomack seems to have a special connection with Nigeria and other parts of Africa. [11]

The video succeed in attracting interest.  People on YouTube asked him to put it on Spotify [12] and Apple Music. [13]

Now is when an artist must invest more money in hopes of reaching some kind of stardom.  Each streaming service has its own price structure.  A number of companies have followed CD Baby in negotiating fees with the video companies, and then charging users small fees to do the uploads.  One of the more popular, DistroKid, charges 19.99 a year. [14]

Payments vary for streaming services: Apple pays .0125 per stream, while Spotify pays .00543. [15]  Thus, it would take about 2,000 plays to cover DistroKid’s costs.

When Leo2x placed his animated video on YouTube he already was planning a larger investment.  He hired Johnny Rose to create a film.  This was during pandemic when regulations limited business activities.  Some of the footage appears to have been shot in Puerto Rico.  Since it only opened to locals on 11 June 2020, but still was closed to tourists, [16] it may have existed from an earlier project.

The original lyrics are ambivalent.  With the repetition of the same lines, it could be the fantasy of an adolescent boy who is unsure of how to interact with women.  The perception he is being taunted could occur with every woman he saw.

Popular videos prefer happy endings, and so Rose makes the romance explicit.  The same woman appears, and at the end the two join hands and walk away from the camera.

An alternative vision would have intensified the young man’s frustration until he killed some woman.  However, the sort of vilification of sex and women that underlies such scenarios is not universal.  It results from pressures from particular religious groups.  The difference is clear in the Spanish lyrics, which include phrases like “we dance very slow” and “touching your body mommy,” [17] that say what cannot be said in English in the United States.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Leo2x
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: none

Rhythm Accompaniment: rhythm loop with brushing sound and occasional notes by xylophone and animal sounds

Credits
August 21 video
© 2020 Leo2x. All rights reserved.

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English and Spanish
Basic Form: two verses repeated numerous times, with slight variations

Verse Repetition Pattern: A-A-A1-A-B-A-A-B1-B1-B1-B1-A-A-A2-B-B2-B2-B2-B1 where A is in English and B is in Spanish

Ending: repeats “kumbaya” twice

Unique Features: uses Spanish to make erotic intent explicit without offending English speakers

English
Verse Length: 4 lines

Verse Rhyme Pattern: all lines rhyme, country/monkeys/taunt me/want me.  The one line that does not have that end rhyme has an internal rhyme: lies/eyes

Line Meter: anapest (xxX)
Line Length: usually nine syllables

Theme: boy sees girl who he thinks is teasing him; he believes that means she wants him; word “kumbaya” does not appear

Spanish: the language has different poetic forms, so these terms may not be appropriate
Verse Length: 4 lines
Verse Rhyme Pattern: all lines rhyme by alternating lento and cuerpo
Line Meter: trochaic (Xx)
Line Length: variable

Theme: they dance and the touch of her body arouses him; he suggests “if you want we do it very slow”; “kumbaya” introduces the section

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: different tune
Basic Structure: repetition of one rhythmic pattern

Singing Style: spoken with slight arc; the line that refers to drugs is pitched lower; he doubles himself on the word “kumbaya”

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: music for Spanish section is richer than for English
Ending: stops with the last word

Notes on Performance
The song describes the foreign country as one with lions and monkeys.  Both are indigenous to Africa, although monkeys live in trees and lions do not live in forests, but grasslands.  The allusions to Africa reinforce the legend that “Kumbaya” was brought to the United States from Africa by a missionary. [18]

Leo2x copies the video with a yellow sweatshirt, but the hood is up, and he wears yellow-tinted glasses.  He does not attempt to lip synch with the video.

Notes on Movement
In the drawing, Leo2x is standing with his hands behind his back and his feet turned out in second position.

He does a few dance steps in the video, but not many.  In one place, he has his upper arms next to his body, with his forearms bent upward.  His hands are apart, facing one another, with his fingers spread.  He moves both arms to one side in an upward sweep, while closing his hands into loose fists.  Otherwise, he is shown walking against a forest backdrop that could have been added later.

The woman mainly poses.

Notes on Audience
The animated version on YouTube was seen 52,792 times as of 20 May 2021, and had 569 comments.  The video version was seen 225,687 times and had 706 comments.  Audiomack recorded 50,000 streams by 11 August 2020. [19]  Spotify reported 425 monthly listeners. [20]

The first video attracted an international audience.  One person observed: “70% comment is filled with Indians, even me lol.” [21]

In addition to India, a number of comments were made from people in Nigeria, or in Latin America. [22]  Surprisingly, viewers also reported living in places that normally are closed to western media, like Saudi Arabia, [23] Russia, [24] and Kazakhstan. [25]

Audience Perceptions
The Spanish lyrics make clear “kumbaya” refers to a happy time.  Vicky Luni told others on YouTube: “This is that one song we’d love to play in the beach at sunset and dance with our partner.  Or a long drive!  Whatever, this song is like a fresh breeze!” [26]

Dax O made a similar comment: “The beginning got me thinking it was Nigerian afrobeat [two red hearts] then boom some Spanish [H in red circle].  Seriously this dude got a lot of potential to penetrate different cultures.  He’s gonna be big if he keeps pushing.” [27]

“Kumbaya” often is associated with marijuana, or other drugs and drinks.  Even Leo2x said: “yah i be smoking weed and i be high into the sky.”  Arghadeep Sarkar, who saw the second video, commented: “This song hits different when you’re high.” [28]

The motifs merge in comments that allude to the Jim Morrison’s psychedelic rock song “Light My Fire.” [29]  Drexx Official said: “Mamacita let me take you outside the country down to Lagos while we vibing to Kumbaya,light up my smoke for more fayah.” [30]

Notes on Performers
The internet provides ways for individuals to remain anonymous while they construct new persona.  Leo2x reveals nothing about himself.  It is left to the listener to infer he lives someplace where he knows his audience tolerates both English and Spanish being spoken, and that his last name is Ortiz. [31]

One Facebook entry for Leo2x suggests Johnny Rose is his manager. [32]  Rose’s given name is Johnny Rosario, and the company address is in West Haven, Connecticut. [33]  His Facebook page indicates he was in Puerto Rico in October and December of 2020.

Rose seems to be in contact with other Spanish-language video companies.  Leo2x’s second video [34] uses an instrumental track created by DCQ BEATZ, a Columbia-based company that specializes in “tropical beats.” [35]  The interface with YouTube was done by SonoSuite.  The group in Barcelona, Spain, [36] only handles corporate accounts. [37]

Availability
MP3 File: Leo2x.  “Kumbaya.”  SourceLid, LLC.  Uploaded to Amazon on 21 August 2020.

Video 1: Leo2x.  “Kumbaya.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Leo2x on 1 July 2020.  Animated version.

Video 2: Leo2x.  “Kumbaya.”  Directed by Johnny Rose.  Uploaded to YouTube by Leo2x on 21 August 2020.  Film version.

End Notes
1.  The use of multiple track recording on Bill Gaither’s 1970 album is discussed in footnote 15 of the post for 17 December 2017.

2.  “Chris White.”  LinkedIn website.  Pederson’s version is described in the post for 27 June 2021.

3.  “Virtual Musician.”  Marinda Studios website.  Turner played keyboards for the Dayton, Ohio, funk rock group Slave. [38]  New Seasons Ministry is mentioned in the post for 20 June 2021.

4.  Wikipedia.  “GarageBand.”

5.  This excludes videos uploaded by institutions like schools and churches, ones mentioned in earlier posts, and ones made outside the United States.  It probably is an undercount.  YouTube’s current search program makes it impossible to get the same results twice with the same key words.  In a dynamic situation, statistics are, at best, indicators of patterns, not evidence.

6.  Comments on the July 1 YouTube video include one from Sourjo Banerjee who wrote in September: “I thought this was another shitty Instagram and used to skip it every time.  But today I let it play and when the chorus came, I got hooked.”  In August, Blessed Kioko said I “never thought I would vibe to an Instagram ad song” before adding “love from Kenya.”

7.  Margot Whitney.  “The Complete Guide to Advertising on Instagram.”  Word Stream website, last updated 17 February 2021.

8.  Whitney.
9.  Whitney.
10.  Wikipedia.  “SoundCloud.”

11.  Wikipedia.  “Audiomack.”  After Leo2x uploaded his video, Audiomack signed “a music licensing agreement with Warner Music Group, covering the United States, Canada, Jamaica, and five ‘key African territories,’ including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania.”  In August, Michael Bradd wrote on the July 1 YouTube video site:
 
“(eHope to hear this on Audiomack
Keep the fire burning...Africa recognizes”

12.  Daniel Vipin.  “Please man, put it on Spotify, it will be worth it, this song will blow up!”  Comment added in October 2020 to July 1 YouTube video.

13.  Meyal.  “Put this song on Apple Music. This is fire.”  Comment added in August 2020 to July 1 YouTube video.

14.  DistroKid website.

15.  Daniel Sanchez.  “Streaming Music Royalties are Even Worse Than We Thought — At Least According to This Indie Label.”  Digital Music News website, 30 January 2019.  Prices may have improved a little since this was written, but it is is still fractions of cents per play.

16.  Wikipedia.  “COVID-19 Pandemic in Puerto Rico.”  On 11 June 2020, the governor, Wanda Vázquez Garced, “announced the reopening of Puerto Rico's sectors except for external tourism, after an 88-day lockdown.”

17.  Translations by Google Translate.

18.  I discuss this legend in “‘Kumbaya’ and Dramatizations of an Etiological Legend.”  Voices 46:26–32:Spring–Summer 2020.  It is available on Academia.edu.

19.  “Leo2x.ortiz music updated their profile picture.”  Facebook, 11 August 2020.

20.  “Leo2x.”  Spotify website.  It features a photograph of a woman wearing a patterned scarf over her head like a mantilla, sari, or Arab khimar.

21.  Unofficial +XXXtentacion.  Comment added in September 2020 to the July 1 YouTube video.

22.  Examples include:

brim brim.  “This song is [two fires and an OK symbol] Respect from Jamaica.”  Comment added in September 2020 to the July 1 YouTube video.

artur.  “I’m from Brazil.  Great song.”  Comment added in September 2020 to the July 1 YouTube video.

Prod. by Ricky.  “respect from Puerto Rico, really dig the vibe, keep doing this typa vibe and you’ll make it trust me.”  Comment added in August 2020 to the July 1 YouTube video.

23.  Hamid 19-583.  “I m telling u.  Your song hit so different that I loved your song.  I listened it for two weeks.  Keep it bro.  Huge respect from Saudi Arabia.”  Comment added in September 2020 to the July 1 YouTube video.

24.  naeyouth.  “So much love from Russia.”  Comment added in August 2020 to the July 1 YouTube video.

25.  James Brayan.  “Kazakhstan also like this song jajaj [country’s flag] moy bien brother.”  Comment added in August 2020 to the July 1 YouTube video.

26.  Vicky Luni.  Comment added in August 2020 to the July 1 YouTube video.
27.  Dax O.  Comment added in August 2020 to the July 1 YouTube video.

28.  Arghadeep Sarkar.  Comment added in October 2020 to the August 21 YouTube video.

29.  The Doors.  “Light My Fire.”  Elektra EK-45615.  1967.  45 rpm.  [Discogs entry.]

30.  Drexx Official.  Comment added in September 2020 to the July 1 YouTube video.  Lagos is in Nigeria.

31.  His internet addresses for SoundCloud, Instagram, and Facebook refer to leo2x.ortiz.  A Facebook entry for 11 August 2020 mentions Leo2x.ortiz music.

32.  A Facebook entry refers to “Kumbaya Management: @johnny_rose Email- leoortizmuzik.

33.  “John Rosario.”  LinkedIn website.

34.  Leo2x.  “Bandz (My Hoes).”  Uploaded to YouTube by SonoSuite on 11 February 2021.

35.  “About Us.”  DCQ BEATZ website.
36.  “Sonosuite.”  CrunchBase website.
37.  SonoSuite website.

38.  “Slave - Stone Jam - 1980.  The best ever Funk album ever made?”  Electric Soul Show website.