Chester Witherspoon, now a semi-retiredpastor, was asinger with TheSensational Hummingbirds in mid-1960s Dumas, Ark.,when his longshoreman uncle, Benjamin, paid a visit from Milwaukee to see his musically inclinednephew.
"It was organized in 1966 or1967," Witherspoon recalls of the label. With no apparentimmodesty,he adds,"What caused him[Benjamin] to start the label was that he heard us. He always carried hisreel-to-reel.
"Our first record was recorded ina house," Witherspoon adds.
That single was for Chicago's Church Records, and the publisherassociated with that label, Sonny Bonomo, would continue to work withHummingbirduntil its mid-1980sdemise.
"He got sick, and itstopped," Witherspoon says of his uncle Benjamin'spart-timeoccupation as a mogulof sacred music.
Until the mid-1980s Hummingbirdissued45s and LPs by some ofMilwaukee'smost colorfully named gospel acts, some of which are still active.TheHoly Providers, The Holy Supremes, Gloster Williams & The Gospel Chantersand the comboregularly heard on WCGVChannel 24's “Gospel Roundup”in the ’80s, TheHeavenly Stars, number amongartists from Tennessee,Arkansas,Mississippi, Michigan and Kansas who all recordednationallydistributed releases for the label.
Though its founder didn't earn enoughto quithis longshoreman gig,"every month we had to order more material,"Witherspoonsays in reference to the vinyl that Hummingbird ordered from pressing plants.As for royalty money earned by The Sensational Hummingbirds (later known as TheSensational Birds of Harmony to avoid confusion with the more widely knownDixieHummingbirds), "we didn't earn enough to argue about it."
The biggest radio hit the imprintproduced, to Witherspoon's recollection, was by The Christian Harmonizers, anensemble originally hailing from Memphis, Tenn., who madeMilwaukeetheirbase forawhile. Their"Black Man, Keep OnDoing Your Thing" was recorded "right after the riots"thatthe Northwest Side experienced in1969,Witherspoon says.
The changing nature of black gospelmusic productionwhere synthesizers overtookmoreorganic keyboard soundscoincided with Hummingbird’s demise. An earlier culpritin diminishing theprofileoflocal and regional gospel was the rise of the same practice that some mark asthe death of rock ’n’ roll's innocence in the ’50s: payola.
"The big companies paid to havetheir stuff played," says Witherspoon, contrasting with a time in 1969-’70whenHummingbird "had five songs in the top 10 in the Midwest,"according toindividual radiostations’ playlists.
Recently retired local gospel singerJohnny Euell, who recorded for Hummingbird as a soloist and as a member ofachoircalled The Harmoniques, affirms theimportance of the label. "Mr. (Benjamin)Witherspoonrecordedquite a few of the groups out here,” he says.
Choral music and more contemporarysacred music have largelyovertaken traditionalsoulgospel sounds in the city and nation. But as the trend for reissuingsoundspost-goldenage/pre-synth gospel continues, the Hummingbird catalog is due for someexcavation.
Some ofHummingbird’sreleasescanbe heard via MP3 on the Web siteJustMovingOn.info, which also hosts a partial discography.
