The sixth and final volume in Document's
Golden Gate Quartet chronology opens in 1949, not long after they signed with Mercury Records, and extends into the year 1952. Although some of the group's output from this period sounds like the neatly measured pop music purveyed by
the Mills Brothers during the
Truman era, some of these performances could make you sit up and take notice. "Seven Angels and Seven Trumpets," for example, is the most stirring performance on the entire collection. Other high points are "Lord I Want to Walk with Thee," "Didn't That Man Believe," "Ride on Moses," "Bones, Bones, Bones," and "You Better Mind." With "Nicodemus" and "Look Up!,"
the Gates adopt a smooth swinging groove, and a recurring rhythm section is most supportive on "I Just Telephone Upstairs." The strangest number from this part of their discography is "On Top of Old Smokey," in which sternly delivered "sing along" calls are provided for those who don't know the arcane lyrics. Document's 15-year
Golden Gate retrospective ends with two bonus film soundtrack excerpts that predate the rest of the material on this disc by as much as ten years. The nearly five-minute "Hit the Road to Dreamland," with
Mary Martin and
Dick Powell, comes from Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), while "The General Jumped at Dawn" was used in Hollywood Canteen (1944).
The Golden Gate Quartet also appeared with
Louis Armstrong and Virginia Mayo in A Song Is Born (1948), which starred comedian
Danny Kaye. There were decades of international success ahead for
the Gates, as they toured Europe in 1955 and made a permanent move to Paris four years later. With fresh voices appearing whenever someone left the group,
the Golden Gates endured as one of the longest-lasting definitive gospel groups of all time. ~ arwulf arwulf