Jubilee

Jubilee is the African American gospel quartet style named for the *Fisk Jubilee Singers*, the university ensemble that carried spirituals to the world from 1871. Quartets of three to six voices sing in close harmony, typically a cappella or with minimal piano or guitar, blending the formal arrangements of the early university troupes with the rhythmic drive of the church. The *Golden Gate Quartet* defined the mature sound in the 1930s: a bouncing, syncopated delivery in which voices imitate instruments, trade lead lines and build songs from biblical narratives. Jubilee became the foundation of gospel quartet singing and a direct ancestor of doo-wop and soul group harmony.