Utica Jubilee Singers

More about the man behind the evolution of the Jubilee Singers

“My love affair with this campus started in August 1972,” Cooper said. “Little did I know that that love affair would someday be turned into a building that would bear the name Bobby G. Cooper Fine Arts Center. What a thrill! I am indeed humbled by this honor.”

Dr. Cooper not only made an impact to his singers, he made an extraordinary impact on the people who intended his shows.

Those people were so pleased with Dr. Cooper that they renamed the fine arts building to Bobby G. Cooper Fine Arts Center.

Norway

Just like Fisk…

Mississippi's vocational Utica Normal & Industrial Institute for the Training of Colored Young Men and Women was founded in 1903 by Dr. William Henry Holtzclaw, the son of emancipated slaves.

How it evolved

During a period beginning in March 1927 and lasting a little over two years, the Utica’s cut some 18 sides, both sacred and secular, for the Victor record label. By this time they were also performing regularly over radio station WJZ in New York, and would be heard from coast to coast on NBC's Blue Network for several years. In a thrilling example of living history, one special guest on their program was Stephen Foster's daughter Marian Foster Welch. The group's success in broadcasting led to its appearance in the Vitaphone film short Radi-ators. They are known to have worked with various evangelists, including England's own Rodney "Gipsy" Smith. The Uticas toured Europe twice, in 1927 and 1930.

Fun Fact:

Did you know that the Utica Jubilee Singers have their own book of spirituals that they did? This was rare because not many people/musical groups, had their own book to call theirs.

The Fisk Jubilee singers

Following the example of Fisk University, Utica's own Jubilee-styled vocal group was sent on a tour of Northern cities to raise funds for the institute. The first commercially distributed recordings of a Utica Jubilee group were cut nearly a quarter century later by a unit that had been together for about a year.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American a cappella ensemble, consisting of students at Fisk University. The first group was organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for college. Their early repertoire consisted mostly of traditional spirituals, but included some Stephen Foster songs

Behind the new leader of the Jubilee Singers

What does Jubilee mean?

Dr. Cooper has been apart of the Jubilee Singers, being the lead instructor for 42 years.

Some places that his singers have been to over the years was Norway in Europe, and the famous Apollo.

Dr. Bobby Lee Cooper

a special anniversary of an event, especially one celebrating twenty-five or fifty years of a reign or activity.

Utica Jubilee Singers

By: Hope Ragan and Tyler Pearson

Did you know that Utica

On the second tour they visited Scandinavia and the Balkans, at one point sharing the bill with Valaida Snow in Louis Douglas' Black Flowers Revue. A printed compendium of Utica Jubilee Singers spirituals was published in 1930 with transcriptions executed by J. Rosamund Johnson. Formed in 1926, the group whose recordings were reissued by Document in the late '90s stayed together until 1939. In 1983 an elderly Marshall Cole appeared in Woody Allen's fictional documentary film Zelig.