A vocal ensemble of formerly enslaved and freeborn students from Fisk University in Nashville, the Fisk Jubilee Singers first toured in 1871 to raise money for their school, popularizing concert arrangements of the African American spiritual for audiences across the U.S. and Europe. Their unaccompanied, close-harmony "jubilee" style became the foundation every later jubilee and gospel quartet — secular vocal groups included — built on.

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1909

Swing Low, Sweet ChariotFisk Jubilee Singers