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Fife
and drum bands have their roots firmly planted in African music. Long traditions
carried over by captured slaves, brought to American soil where their new owners
attempted to quell the sound, especially in the South. They kept the music alive
in their memories and passed them down through the generations. Various stringed
and wind instruments can have their origins traced directly back to Africa.
Drums in particular played a heavy part in tribal gatherings as people would
use their polyrhythmic beats to communicate as well as to sing and dance along
in a communal spirit.
The use of fifes and drums also have military backgrounds in the United States. They were used by both American and British forces during the Revolutionary War to announce cadence and marching techniques. During this time in American history, most African-Americans were denied the right to serve in conflict carrying arms. But many were permitted to participate in these musical outfits. In fact, even Thomas Jefferson had put together a fife and drum band from his own slave holdings. In other parts of the country, full brass bands were developed as the nation grew older.
At the conclusion of the Civil War, former slaves continued to perform these brands of music for a period, though the fife and drum styles began to dwindle. By the turn of the 20th century, the number of performers had decreased to the point where only a handful remained, working in limited regions of the country. You may be able to travel to Colonial Williamsburg to hear fife and drum music, but this in truth is mostly reenactments of how the music was played in the 18th century. For original, authentic fife and drum sounds, you must head to remote areas of Northern Mississippi, where the tradition has survived even to this day, creating a partial base for the development of the music now known as the Blues.
Just how long that tradition will survive is in question, though. Many of the modern day performers have recently departed this world for the hereafter and younger players are in short supply. Memories of Sid Hemphill and Napolian Strickland are starting to fade. Jessie Mae Hemphill, who carried on her grandfather's style, has been left incapacitated by a stroke and can no longer perform. And, most recently, African-rooted fife and drum music in America has taken its hardest blow, with the February 27th passing of Othar Turner.
Othar Turner lived in the small Mississippi community of Gravel Springs, located not too far from the nearby towns of Senatobia and Como, about an hour south of Memphis. He spent most of his life within these same few miles, working his farm and playing his music. He was born in Rankin County, Mississippi in 1908. His parents had separated prior to his birth and it wasn't until he was nearly four years old that he met his father. Othar always held an interest in music. As a young child he played the harmonica and would beat on a 50-gallon lard can for a drum.
He first heard the sound of a fife at age 16 from a neighbor named R.E. Williams and was enchanted from his very first listen. The neighbor gave Othar his first fife and the boy would practice it constantly. His mother disapproved and told him to stop, but Othar continued whenever she was away from home. When she discovered that he had kept up the fife, she broke the instrument. Othar had studied the fife so intently, he was able to remember where the finger-hole positioning was and began to make his own fifes from the cane he found near his home, using a fireplace poker to burn the holes. Othar continued creating his own homemade fifes throughout his entire life.
He had also heard the sounds of the fife and drum bands played at picnics and other social gatherings and eventually created his own band, known as The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band. He performed with Sid Hemphill and later with the younger Napolian Strickland, both of whom considered Turner the patriarch of the style. Still later, Othar's own family began to take part in his music, in particular, his daughter, Bernice, who played drums alongside her father.
Othar Turner had been playing his music for many years when music researcher Alan Lomax made his way through Northern Mississippi in the 1950s. While seeking guitarist Fred McDowell, Lomax chanced upon Turner and received directions from him on where to locate the Bluesman, unaware that he had just met one of the most authentic roots performers of the area.
Turner was eventually found by the music researchers in the early 1960s, though. He recorded tracks for an album titled, "Traveling Through The Jungle: Fife And Drum Bands Of The Deep South," released by George Mitchell in the latter part of that decade. He was also heard on the Arhoolie release, "Mississippi Delta Blues Jam In Memphis, Vol. 1." David Evans recorded Turner in 1969 for The Library of Congress and even Alan Lomax returned to record Turner in 1978 as part of his documentary "Land Where The Blues Began." Othar can also be heard on the 1980 German compilation, "Living Country Blues Anthology" series (recently reissued on Evidence Records), that also included his student Napolian Strickland.
Through these albums, Othar Turner's name began to circulate around the country and offers to work at various Blues and Folk festivals started to arrive. The first that he accepted was an appearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in the early 1970s. It was his first trip outside of Mississippi to perform. Other opportunities arose, including an appearance on the children's television show, "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." It is said that having watched Othar Turner on this program, a young Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi All-Stars first took up an interest in music.
One tradition that Othar Turner started in the late 1950s, continued to occur up until his recent death was his annual Labor Day picnics. Originally this began as a neighborhood and family gathering, but soon spread to include the entire community. Eventually, word got out and interested music fans started to arrive from Memphis and then from all parts of the world. Best known for Othar's personally butchering and cooking a goat in an iron kettle every year, it was the source for Othar's first full-length solo recording's title, "Everybody Hollerin' Goat," on the Birdman label in 1998. That album was selected by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the five "Essential Records of the Decade." The parties would always conclude with The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band performing for its guests.
In 1992, the National Endowment for the Arts recognized Othar Turner's lifelong commitment to the continuance of fife and drum music by honoring him with a National Heritage fellowship. This is the highest honor given to performers of traditional American music in this country.
In 1999, Birdman Records followed up the successful "Everybody Hollerin' Goat" album with "From Senegal To Senatobia." Produced by the renowned Jim Dickinson, who had also studied under Turner, it was a blend of African musicians with Othar and his band. The mix was incredible, showing just how tightly linked American and African music actually are.
Othar Turner's popularity continued throughout the 1990s and into the 21st Century. He appeared on the cover of Living Blues Magazine in 1999 and was nearly cast as the blind prophet in the highly successful Coen Brothers movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Most recently, Othar's song "Shimmie She Wobble" can be heard in the Martin Scorsese film, "Gangs Of New York."
In early February 2003, Othar Turner was hospitalized for pneumonia. He returned home, but died in Gravel Springs, Mississippi on February 27th at the age of 94. Sadly, his daughter Bernice, who had been living in a nursing home for some time suffering from cancer, died that same day. She was 48.
Funeral services were held for Othar and Bernice on Tuesday, March 4th in Como, Mississippi. A procession leading to the cemetery was led by the Rising Star and Fife Band, with 13 year-old Sharde Thomas, Othar's granddaughter, at its head playing the fife taught to her by her grandfather.
© 2003 Cascade Blues Association