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.
 

Voices Of Zimbabwe - Kumbaya

Topic: Movement - Origins
Hypothesizing African origins for the movements used with "Come by Here" is easier than finding evidence. Alan Lomax’s cross-cultural research team suggested the trait that separated Africans from Europeans was the use of the torso. The group observed whites treated the trunk as a single unit, while Africans divided it at the waist. [1] Peggy Harper noted:

"There are three characteristic dance postures. An upright posture with a straight back is used as an expression of authority in the dance of chiefs and priests. In the second posture the dancer inclines forward from the hips, moving his attention and gestures toward the ground. In the third posture the dancer holds the torso nearly parallel to the ground, taking the body weight onto the balls of the feet." [2]

Both Lomax and Harper attributed the differences in placement to economics. Lomax thought mobility at the waist resulted from the twisting movements used in planting millet. [3] The cultural divergence in the use of the spine may have followed the adoption of the plow and domestication of draft animals elsewhere that allowed farmers to plant and cultivate standing erect. In parts of Africa where crops like rice were grown, farmers needed to work low to transplant and harvest.

Harper paid more attention to the ways Africans used their feet and suggested they were related to the terrain: people who lived in savannah grasslands "place their feet firmly on the sunbaked earth"; the Ijo, who lived in mangrove swamps, "use a precision of light, rapid foot beats, moving their weight from heel to toe to side of foot in a variety of rhythmic patterns, as though balancing on an unsteady canoe or picking their way through the swamp"; and the Yoruba altered their foot patterns in ways that suggested the need to find "a way through forest undergrowth, which necessitates reactions ever alert to the unexpected." [4]

The human body has at least 320 pairs of muscles [5] that are developed through use rather than deliberate exercises by children copying the adults around them, and by adults as they walk and work. The resulting musculature reflects cultural values and necessities. In this country, football players strengthen their leg muscles, while ballet dancers stretch the very same ones to maintain flexibility and long extended lines. Once trained, neither can do the routine actions of the other without some soreness. [6]

During the years of slavery, some Africans were shipped to familiar climatic zones in the American South to do analogous work. The ones taken from the upper Niger river to South Carolina rice plantations were the most obvious example. Others, especially those purchased for cotton plantations, encountered different work environments and the appropriate muscles were strengthened. These changes occurred without altering what parents perceived to be the proper posture to be learned by their infants and toddlers.

The remigration of African Americans to urban areas further altered kinesic habits without completely obliterating certain ways of using the feet and torso that had survived from Africa. Thus, Jerome and Fred Williams of the Evereadys bent their torsos forward or arched back from the hips in Detroit and Jerome executed rapid combinations with his feet. [7] Similarly, the man at the far end of the line of men in Skylar Patterson’s backup group sometimes bent forward but treated his feet as rigid units in Alabama. [8]

Some of the patterns mentioned by Lomax and Harper, and exhibited by the Williams brothers and Predestined, were clear in a video made the Voices of Zimbabwe. The students at the girls’ private boarding school were barefoot when they performed a variant of the Soweto Gospel Choir’s arrangement [9] of "Kumbaya" on the parquette floor [10] of an English church in 2011. Even though they had the potential to arch or flex their feet, they keep them flat in the same way Bessie Jones had learned in Georgia. [11]

The group retained Lucas Deon Bok’s tripartite division of "Kumbaya," but changed each section. The Soweto choir stood still during the first part. The Arundel girls began with their heads bent down and their hands in the conventional western prayer position for the opening verse, "somebody’s crying/praying." When they reached the phrase "Oh Lord, hear my prayer" they raised their heads, and lowered the hands, keeping them in the prayer position until their arms were down. Then, they fell to their sides. They stayed in that position for the remainder of the first section, standing still and facing straight ahead.

In Bok’s second section, the Soweto choir began turning to the right and left and clapping when they reached the forty-five-degree diagonals. One Zimbabwe group sang "Oh Lord" while the other repeated a native phrase. They stepped to thirty-degree diagonals, but kept their heads facing front, so their torsos were divided into two parts at the neck.

Soweto’s third part included a Zulu phrase. Voices of Zimbabwe changed to "Zita Rake Guru Ndiye Mutsvene," a traditional hymn. A young woman began playing a four-foot-high, cylindrical, floor drum. One group sang hosanna against a Shona phrase. The girls bent their knees in unison; their shoulders rose and fell slightly.

The lyrics changed to all Shona ones, and the girl sometimes stopped playing the drum with her hands. The chorus members moved their shoulders and feet to the diagonals, but kept their waists facing front. Most bent at the waist, and their arms were bent at the elbows with their forearms in front of their bodies.

Toward the finale they stood facing front and raised their bent arms upward, with their fingers extended together and introduced a different musical phrase. They brought their arms down into the prayer position, then dropped their arms with their palms facing outward. They repeated this pattern, then resumed the second native melody and movement pattern without the drum. They ended by sustaining a tone and raising their arms again.

While the girls’ movements varied by melodic section, the director’s were tied only to the rhythm. Her role was essentially a western one that had been Africanized. She used her arms, often in rolling sorts of motions, to signal the different groups, but she maintained the beat by stepping. Thus, even when the girls were standing still, she was stepping the rhythm for them. Her footwork became progressively more pronounced as the chorus moved from the partly Christianized beginning to the completely native text.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none

Vocal Group: looked like eight women in the first row and five in the second

Vocal Group Director: woman
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: cylindrical floor drum

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English and Shona

Pronunciation: coom BY yah with long "ba"; this differed from Soweto who made each syllable longer than the previous one

Verses: crying/praying, in despair, local ones

Bok verses
Vocabulary:
Pronoun: somebody
Term for Deity: Lord

Format: Lucas Deon Bok
Verse Repetition Pattern: AABCBC

Zita Rake Guru Ndiye Mutsvene
Vocabulary: the hymn means "his greatest name is holy" according to YouTube notes.

Repetition: phrases repeated

Notes on Music
Singing Style: one syllable to one note with little ornamentation. The variations came from two or more groups singing different parts.

Notes on Performance
Occasion: the school was named for Arundel Farm, which was purchased in 1954 for the school’s Harare campus. [12] In 2011, the chorus was in England and visited the town of Arundel in West Sussex on 12 February. The relationship between the Simpsons, who owned the farm, and Arundel was not mentioned.

Location: Saint Nicholas Church was built in 1380. [13] The acoustics of the stone building reinforced the group’s harmony.

Microphones: none

Clothing: ankle-length brown print skirts with turquoise trim; turquoise bodices or corsets over brown tops. Their hair was pulled back and their feet were bare.

Notes on Movement
Some girls moved their torsos more than others. The one second from the left was the most flexible.

The motions using the gesture for praying were inspired by the word, but not directly tied to it as they were in the Wyandot County 4-H version mentioned in the post for 25 October 2017. The girls changed their positions when verses changed; the smallest unit of text associated with a movement was a phrase.

The director did not stay in one place, but stood directly in front of and close to the group that began the first verse. She then moved to a central location from which she rotated or moved toward groups when they had key parts. It was possible to see her step down like Bessie Jones without shifting her weight.

Notes on Performers
Arundel School opened in 1956 for girls 12 to 18 years of age. One alumna wrote in 2012:

"Deportment – a term most teenagers go through high school not knowing how to spell, let alone use – was the mark of a true Arundel girl. It symbolised a manner of personal conduct synonymous with Austenesque behaviour: ladylike, well-groomed and intelligent." [14]

Most of the boarding houses were named after English female authors, including Jane Austen. [15]

Availability
YouTube: uploaded by KiasuKiasuKiasuKiasu on 16 February 2011.

End Notes
1. Alan Lomax, Irmagard Bartenieff, and Forrestine Paulay. "Dance Style and Culture." 222-247 in Folk Song Style and Culture. Edited by Alan Lomax. Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, 1968. 237.

2. Peggy Harper. "African Dance." Encyclopædia Britannica. 18 January 2002; last updated 26 July 2017.

3. Lomax. 237.

4. Harper.

5. Wikipedia. "List of Skeletal Muscles of the Human Body."

6. In 1972 I took a beginner’s ballet class at a small college in Ohio. Some professional football team apparently had brought in a dance specialist to help its players with flexibility, and so some of the school’s players decided to take this class. They came back surprised at how many of their muscles had ached from what seemed so simple. And, the class really was basic, what I remember doing when I was in elementary school. They simply had never used those muscles in those ways.

7. The Evereadys’ live performance was described in the post for 3 August 2017.

8. Skylar Patterson was discussed in the post for 27 October 2017.

9. The Soweto Gospel Choir performance was described in the posts for 28 August 2017 and 29 August 2017.

10. Wooden floors laid on wooden beams have some give and are easier on dancers’ ankles, calves, and knees that solid concrete or stone ones. They might be softer than bare dirt, but have a different feel: at a minimum they are level. If the women in Voices of Zimbabwe wanted to flex or arch their feet, nothing inhibited them.

11. Bessie Jones was discussed in the post for 27 October 2017.

12. "History" tab on school website.

13. "Welcome to St Nicholas’ Church Arundel." Church’s website.

14. Fadzayi Mahere. "Does the Colour Pink Imprison Women? The Case of Arundel School." Her website. 15 August 2012. She was a lawyer and running for the parliamentary seat that included the school in the 2018 elections.

15. Wikipedia. "Arundel School."

Skylar Patterson - Come by Here

Topic: Movement - Rhythm
Most of the movements accompanying the videos of "Come by Here," which so far have been discussed, used forms of stepping. Bess Lomax Hawes described the technique used by Bessie Jones.

"she would step on her right foot, bring her left foot close to her right, and "step it down" without a weight change, repeating the pattern to the left. Though each movement was done flat-footed, as though stamping, she normally kept her footfalls quiet, except when she wanted an extra drumming effect.

"As I watched, it seemed to me that this was basically a dance movement. Though restrained, it is strong; the body swings slightly with it. The movements are on the first and third beats of the measure, at the points where the dancer would probably take his strong steps." [1]

At one time regional variations no doubt existed, but mobility since World War I led to marriages and church congregations that diminished the effects of geographical barriers. Jones was born in 1902 in a southwestern Georgia county next to that of Beatrice Johnson Reagon, [2] but lived on Saint Simon in the Georgia Sea Islands when she was interviewed by Hawes in the 1960s. In between she had lived in Florida, probably Alachua County during the Depression or World War II when it had a tung-oil processing plant. [3]

Individual styles now exist, some arising from the idiosyncratic developments of bodies and some from the adoption of coordinated choreography. The women in Evelyn Turrentine-Agee’s Detroit backup group wore stable heels that still limited their movement. Their feet were spaced in what dancers called a parallel second position. They shifted their weight from side to side, but did not move their feet. Occasionally the woman on the left in the video lifted her left foot an inch, but rarely moved her right one; toward the end she began to lift the left foot higher. [4]

The backup group for the Evereadys in Detroit came closest to following the pattern described by Jones, but the two soloists walked about, lifting their feet from the knees. [5] The Bolton Brothers from southern Mississippi also used their knees: they kept their feet close together in a dancers’ parallel first position and bent both knees together rather than stepping. [6]

Hawes described a more complex foot pattern called chugging:

"The nonreligious shout step appears in several traditional children’s plays as follows: with weight on the active foot, give a little shove backward as though hopping without the foot leaving the floor; dancers sometimes call this movement a ‘chug.’ While ‘chugging’ back on the right foot, swing the left foot forward. Step on the left foot and ‘chug’ it backward while swinging the right foot forward. This is done to a count of two: step, chug. The ultimate result, by the way, is that you stay in the same place." [7]

The backup group for Skylar Patterson used a variant of this in a video posted in late August of this year, 2017. The men had their feet slightly apart, and at least the one on the right had them slightly turned out. While Patterson was talking, the four men in Predestined flexed their knees in unison, one knee at a time. When they sang, they kicked one foot out in a arc keeping the heel on the floor, brought it back, and kicked out the other. They, or at least the most visible man on the right of the screen, wore boots that constrained the feet so they remained flat while the boot tips pointed up.

Patterson was described as a pastor, probably in the Union Baptist church in Columbiana, Mississippi, [8] just south of Birmingham. Most of the performance was directed at the audience, asking if they needed the Holy Ghost to appear and asking It to do so. Verses were sung only at the beginning and end.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Skylar Patterson
Vocal Accompaniment: four men

Instrumental Accompaniment: keyboard; two strummed instruments, probably an electric guitar and electric bass; one instrument resembling a steel guitar without the pedals

Rhythm Accompaniment: drum set

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Verses: down here praying, needs you
Theme: supplication to the Holy Ghost

Vocabulary:
Pronoun: somebody
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: down here praying

Format: recitative
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Line Meter: dactyl
Line Length: 9 syllables
Ending: none
Unique Features: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Patterson sang most of it on one note
Time Signature: strong Xx
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: soloist supported by group. Patterson sang the statements in the verses and Predestined sang the refrains. When Patterson was speaking, they repeated "Oh Lord."

Singing Style:
Solo: Patterson sustained the first syllables of the Xxx dactylic feet, which aligned them with the contrasting Xx beat.

Group: chordal harmony

Notes on Performance
Occasion: no details provided

Location: stage, possibly in a high school, church hall, or gymnasium

Microphones: each had a wireless handheld mike; amplifiers or speakers were placed at the front of the stage

Clothing: the singers were wearing brown boots, black slacks, light-yellow sports jackets with black boutonnieres, white shirts, and no ties. The band members wore white shirts and light-colored tan slacks.

Notes on Movement
The men in Predestined stood still while Patterson was speaking in the beginning. As soon as the instruments began playing, they began bending their knees together. The man at the far left end sometimes bent his body forward as he moved.

Predestined members bent their arms that were not holding microphones at the elbows with their forearms extended. Their hands moved from left to right in no particular pattern.

Notes on Audience
One woman in the front row stood throughout. The rest were below the view of the camera; its microphones did not pick up any audience response.

When Patterson was introducing "Come by Here," he referred to the previous number before he started the group singing "we’re down here praying." He then said, "you remember that kind of church, don’t you?" He pointed at the standing woman and said, "You like that kinda church? I like you already." The group resumed singing, and the rest of his comments were directed to the audience in general.

Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Aj Jordan on 28 August 2017.

End Notes
1. Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes. Step it Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987 edition. 20.

2. Reagon was discussed in the post for 14 October 2016.

3. Wikipedia. "Bessie Jones." She once told an interviewer she was born in Alachua, Florida, but that may have resulted from a misunderstanding. According to G. H. Blackmon, the first tung-oil processing plant was built in Alachua in 1928, and commercial interest began developing after 1930. It became a critical crop in 1938 when supplies from China were cut by war. ("Tung Oil Production in Florida." Florida State Horticultural Society. Proceedings 58:136-143:1945.)

4. Turrentine-Agee was discussed in the post for 6 August 2017. The shoes’ heels looked to be an inch thick at the floor and no more than two-inches high. The differences in how the one woman treated her left and right feet were typical for individuals who were not trained in dance classes to overcome the body’s natural inclination to favor one side.

5. The Evereadys’ live video was discussed in the post for 3 August 2017.

6. The Bolton Brothers were discussed in the post for 12 August 2017.

7. Jones. 46.

8. The obituary for Thelma Marie Lamb said her funeral service was held at Union Baptist Church in Columbiana and that Patterson presided at the burial service. (Tributes website). On Facebook, Patterson said he came from Columbiana.

The Evereadys - Lord Come By Here (Live Version)

Topic: Live versus Recorded Versions
Gilbert Rouget surveyed the use of music in possession cults in ancient Greece, the Middle East, and Africa in Music and Trance. [1] In an academic area fraught with overlapping and contradictory terminology, he made several useful distinctions.

First there were groups who used music and those who did not. He termed the second ecstatic. [2]

He then separated possession experiences from shamanism by noting shamans were in control of their trances, made their own music, and let their spirits leave their bodies. In possession, the entranced were not in control, professionals provided the music, and spirits entered their bodies. [3] Musicians were not active participants. Instead, they watched the progression of rituals, and modified their work to fit changes or to bring about climaxes. [4]

His definition of possession was narrow. It involved a god who chose to take over a human’s body for its own purpose. [5] Rouget quoted Jean Rouch, [6] who said of the Songai religion [7] in Mali and Niger: "A deity’s supreme requirement is that one among the faithful become his ‘horse’ by means of trance, so that he can come down among mankind and dance." [8] Rouch added, "‘playing horse’ for a god is not necessarily an agreeable role." [9]

Rouget only discussed shamanism cursorily, and did not discuss contemporary American Black religious services.

The nature of the Holy Spirit and how it manifests itself has led it sectarian splits in both Black and white churches in this country that obscure an underlying agreement on the possibility of contact with the Spirit. It is rather like the early Reformation, when theologians disagreed over the presence of Christ in the Eucharist; their disputes masked their shared separation from Huldrych Zwingli who wished to demystify the ritual. The differences between transubstantiation in which Christ’s body became the wafer and wine and consubstantiation in which the elements existed along side his body are probably a useful metaphor for the continuum of beliefs about what happens in religious services when the presence of the Lord is invoked. Everyone may use the term "possession," but the meanings vary from some like Rouget that posit the Spirit initiates the encounter to ones that imply humans begin the process. I try to avoid the term "possession" as a third-party observer, but use whatever term an individual uses to describe his or her personal experience.

Performers
Vocal: two soloists and a group. One person on YouTube wrote: "Jerome had it, but Freddy took it to another level, then Jerome had to bring it back down and go up even higher." [10] Jerome was Jerome Williams, and Freddy was his brother.

Instrumental accompaniment: one man played a solid-body electric guitar with a steel plate on it; a second played another solid-body electrified guitar.

Rhythm accompaniment: drum set. Hand claps by backup singers and members of the audience.

Notes on Lyrics
Prelude Section: The soloist, Jerome, opened with a testimony that identified him as "Sanctified with the Holy Ghost." He then paraphrased the prelude verses from the recorded version described in the last post.

Denouement: two soloists, Jerome and Freddy, took turns repeating phrases like "come by here." The phrases were interspersed with testimony.

Notes on Music
Prelude Section: the soloist, Jerome, spoke, rather than sang, with no musical accompaniment.

Denouement Section: instrumental accompaniment through both the sung and spoken parts.

Notes on Performance
The concert was in a park somewhere in Detroit. The band was on a low platform, with the area in front roped off. All members wore matching, three-piece, gold-brown suits with flared bottoms on their trouser legs and no ties.

Jerome Williams defied Roget’s convention performers were agents to bring the Holy Spirit to their audiences. In the 1984 performance, he was the one who was dancing. From the beginning he was on the ground in front of the platform. He began by testifying, with lines that summarized the first verses on the recording described in the last post:

"We gonna do something right now. We gonna ask the Lord to stop by here if you don’t stay long. Somebody needs a blessing. Somebody needs a miracle. Somebody’s got pain and it won’t go nowhere."

When the band began playing, the Spirit already had descended. The men on stage sang "Oh Lord" or "come by here" or "Jesus stop by" as Jerome sang phrases and stepped around. The men on stage were stepping, and Freddy and another backup singer were clapping. Then, Freddy jumped down and took over singing while Jerome continued dancing. Toward the end they traded phrases, most of which were impossible to understand, because they were not directed to the location where the microphone was positioned.

Notes on Movement
Jerome held his microphone in his right hand, and gestured with his left. When he was not gesturing, he placed it behind his back. If he switched the mike to his left hand, then his right hand went in back. Freddy held his microphone with his right hand and let his left arm move naturally.

All the steps were done with deliberately bent knees, as distinct from the natural bends that occur when one walks. Much of the variation came from changes in the degree of the bends and the location of the raised calves during the bends. In addition, both Jerome and Freddy moved their torsos forward or arched back from the hips.

In the beginning, Jerome stood in one place and pivoted from diagonal to diagonal on his heels. Because he was in grass, he may have had to jump to complete the changes of direction.

Both Jerome and Freddy used march steps–that is walks with bent knees. Freddy especially kept his toe tips on the ground when he was marking time in place. When the two were sitting on the stage, one foot continued to keep the beat with the heel rising and falling.

The men on the stage stepped from side to side. At the end of phrases, they stepped back with one foot, stepped back with the other, shifted the weight to the other foot, stepped forward and resumed moving side to side.

Toward the end, the camera showed Jerome’s dance steps, which were done quickly. One combination involved changing from stepping forward by stepping sidewards, then shifting back, before resuming the forward movement. Several times, the right foot crossed in back of the left, then returned. These shifts were emphasized by bringing the raised feet higher in back, and occasionally a straight leg was thrust forward with the foot flexed.

Influences:
It is easy to say the group’s costumes and movements were influenced by Motown–after all The Evereadys lived in Detroit when the company was at the height of its influence. One can also point to specific things, like Jerome’s hair style or the way Freddy took off his jacket to sing.

As I watched the steps closely I detected another influence: high school marching bands. When I was in high school, our band went to Michigan State band days between 1958 and 1961. During the halftime show, the bands were massed, but in the parking lot before the game some bands demonstrated their skills. I especially remember the ones from Detroit and Flint.

The combination used by the backup artists on the stage with a bend forward as they stepped back evoked the tuba lines of those city bands. When marching, players would turn their bells from left to right, then bend forward at the end. Only someone who has tried to lift one of those instruments can appreciate the sheer athleticism of those moves.

I rewatched the section of the video where Freddy threw his jacket over his shoulder for Jerome to catch, and thought of majorettes trading batons. The way Jerome watched Freddy, and the way Freddy was aware of Jerome’s location recalled my attempt with another girl to imitate the city routines. As we quickly realized, the proper positioning took a great deal of practice.

Once I started thinking about Jerome’s moves as band moves, I saw that most of the steps he did, except when he was doing quick footwork in one place, were taken from skilled marching bands. The difference was the use of the feet. Members of high school bands stepped on every beat, did not raise their feet much, and kept them parallel to the ground. If one stepped less frequently, and that meant having a sense of multiple simultaneous rhythms, then one could execute the same moves, but with time to raise the feet higher, extend them from the legs, and bend the knees more. The other difference was most people in school bands put their weight on their heels when they stepped, not the balls of their feet. That change in balance made agility easier.

Audience Perceptions
The audience stayed outside the ropes. Several women near the rope on the stage-right side stepped from side to side and clapped by bringing their erect hands together. One man, who also moved from side to side, held one hand relatively steady, palm up, and brought his other hand down on it.

Viewers’ Perceptions
Several YouTube viewers commented on the group and their contact with the Holy Spirit.

In 2016, Rochelle wrote: "Go head Mr. Jerome with that Holy Ghost power dance." [11]

Two years before, Greg had said: "AWESOME!!! those boys got the Anointing!!" [12]

Harry made a similar comment in 2013: "The Fantastic Evereadys, taking off with the Holy Spirit !!!" [13]

And, in 2008, Tim observed: "Jerome and Freddy put a hurtin on this joint 4real !! LAWD !!!" [14]

Jeremiah made a comment on the song itself: "my church still sing dis very song...n its 2009...God is Good!!! dis is a ole song!" [15]


Availability
YouTube.  Uploaded by dshock11, 7 May 2008.

End Notes
1. Gilbert Rouget. "La musique et la transe." PhD Diss. University of Paris, 1980. Translated by Brunhilde Biebuyck as Music and Trance: A Theory of the Relations Between Music and Possession. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

2. Rouget. 7.

3. Rouget. 18-19, 23.

4. Rouget. 103-104, 112.

5. Rouget. 34.

6. Jean Rouch. La Religion et la Magie Songhay. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1960. 2nd revised edition published by Brussels: Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles, 1989.

7. The Songhai religion is not the same thing as the Songhai Empire. It is a religion that developed in an area once controlled by the empire.

8. Rouget. 116.

9. Rouget. 166.

10. Shelton. YouTube. December 2016. Last names withheld for privacy.

11. Rochelle. YouTube. 2016.

12. Greg. YouTube. 2014.

13. Harry. YouTube. 2013

14. Tim. YouTube. 2008.

15. Jeremiah. YouTube. 2009.

The Evereadys - Lord Come By Here (Recorded Version)

Topic: Live versus Recorded Versions
The differences between live and recorded versions of "Come by Here" stem from the imperatives of radio programming. Until the maturation of the internet with web sites like YouTube and artist-support organizations like CD Baby, the only way an artist could become known was through records played on radio stations, advertisements for live performances, or word of mouth. In the 1940s, stations used 78’s; in the 1950s, they were 45’s. The physical size of the records limited them to about three minutes. Station managers then scheduled their advertisements around those time slots, and maintained their scheduling ideas even after technology made longer songs possible.

"Come by Here" was used in religious services that invoked the presence of the Holy Spirit. By the early 1960s, recordings had distilled the ritual into three minutes with a three-part structure.

(a) A prelude with verses appealing to the Lord. The soloist or two alternating soloists and the group often alternated parts in a call-response pattern. Everyone used normal singing voices.

(b) A transition between the two phases that might be handled by the instrumental accompanists or by the singers.

In some versions, the second part dramatized the coming of the Spirit with solos over percussive group-chants. It might be a spoken-sung line, or one that became increasingly higher pitched until it incorporated screams. Several singers might take turns in different styles.

(c) A denouement dramatizing the presence of the Spirit. The solo-group interaction was the same, but more vocal ornamentations were used. Key words tended to used instead of phrases, and, often, testifying was done.

Performers
Vocal: solo and group sections

Instrumental accompaniment: piano, guitars, and organ were identifiable

Rhythm accompaniment: drums and a shaker were identifiable

Credit
By Jerome Williams

Notes of Lyrics
Language: English
Pronoun: somebody
General Format: ritual prelude-denouement structure.

Prelude Section:
Form: three verses with the AAAB line repetition form. The soloist sang the line with variations, and the group repeated it with fewer changes. The last line was variations of "If You don’t stay long."

Theme: a statement of a problem (somebody needs you) followed by an appeal to the Lord to solve the problem (I’m leaving a message) and then an explanation for why the Lord’s presence was needed (somebody’s sick).

Transition:
The soloist began repeating short phrases from the prelude like "somebody’s praying" and "looking for a blessing," while the group chanted variations of "stop by here."

Denouement Section:
The soloist reduced the lines to key words ("I need you," "I’m waiting") while the group continued to chant "stop by here." Toward the end, the lead simply repeated "come on" and "I need you."

Influences:
"If you don’t stay long" was used in 1952 by Lightnin’ Hopkins recording. [1]

Repetitions in the denouement of needing the Lord in the morning, in the evening appeared in a 1958 Hightowers recording. [2]

Notes on Music
I don’t know the voices of the members of the group and so I can’t be more specific. If anyone has more information, I would be glad to include it. One of the YouTube comments said: "Jerome is the bomb... I wish my tenor would stay that high. His range is dynamic!!" [3] This suggested Jerome Williams was the lead singer.

Opening Phrase: Eveready's own melody.

Prelude Section:
The first verse of the prelude was sung by one person, and the other two verses were sung by another with a higher pitched voice. In the second verse, the individual began the lines on successively higher tones. In the third verse, he added screams on the variations. Guitars and organs underscored the melodic aspects of the section.

Transition:
The first singer returned while the man with the higher voice accented the ends of lines with screams. A piano replaced the organ and guitars to emphasize the rhythm.

Denouement Section:
The first singer ended phrases with gasps at the ends of lines, while the man with the higher voice added accenting trills. Again, the piano was used.

By the way, I don’t mean scream or gasp to be pejorative; I am using them as non-technical terms to describe the vocal quality. I would be happy to incorporate better terms if someone has suggestions that refer to specific lines in the video.

Notes on Performers
The Ever Ready Gospel Singers began in Detroit in the early 1950s when Jackie Wilson was a member. The sister of one of the members encouraged her sons, Jerome and Marvin Williams to form a group and reuse the name in 1967. By the early 1980s, the members included "four sets of brothers including his [Jerome’s] own brother Marvin, Aaron Beasley, Marvin Reed and Charles and Kenny Porter." [4]

Photographs reproduced on the video showed six men. For a while, Jerome worked "with the music ministry at Pastor Marvin Winans’ Perfecting Church in Detroit," but then returned to singing. [5] In 2007, the Evereadys were a quartet composed of Bealsey, Reed, Freddy Williams and his brother Jerome. [6]


Availability
Album: Revived. Malaco Records MAL 4385. 1983. Uploaded to YouTube by Bobby Lahmon, 24 December 2008. 

Live concert: uploaded to YouTube by dshock11, 7 May 2008.

End Notes
1. Lightnin’ Hopkins [Sam John Hopkins]. "Needed Time." RPM 359. Houston, 1952.

2. Hightower Brothers. "Come By Here." Gospel 1008. New York City, 13 October 1958.

3. bigboybev. YouTube. 2008.

4. "The Evereadys - Group History." Gloryland Gospel website.

5. Same as #4.

6. Bob Marovich. "Eveready’s Aaron Beasley Dies in Detroit." Journal of Gospel Music website. 3 October 2007.