Zolten, J. Jerome (Jerry Zolten)

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ZOLTEN, J. Jerome (Jerry Zolten)

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Earned Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Home—Warriors Mark, PA. Offıce—Box 108, Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, 134 Community Arts Center, Pennsylvania State University—Altoona, Altoona, PA 16601. E-mail— JJZ1@psu.edu.

CAREER: Educator and music historian. Pennsylvania State University, Altoona, assistant professor of communication arts and American studies. Promoter and record producer; producing credits include the Fair-field Four's Wreckin' the House, 1998, and Isaac Freeman and the Bluebloods' Beautiful Stars, 2002.

WRITINGS:

(With Gerald M. Phillips) Structuring Speech: A How-to-Do-It Book about Public Speaking, Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis, IN), 1976, revised and expanded edition published as Speaking to an Audience: A Practical Method of Preparing and Performing, 1985.

(As Jerry Zolten) Great God A'mighty! The DixieHummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor of music reviews and articles to periodicals, including Living Blues and Communication Education.

SIDELIGHTS: J. Jerome Zolten is an assistant professor of communication arts and American studies who has supplemented his teaching career by following his interest in jazz and blues music. In addition to working as a part-time record producer and promoter of musicians, his work writing liner-notes for the well-known blues-gospel group Dixie Hummingbirds' recordings has blossomed into the full-length book Great God A'mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music.

The Dixie Hummingbirds formed in 1928 as an a capella church quartet, its original members including James Davis and three high-school friends. Gaining the talents of vocalist Ira Tucker in 1938 and signing with Decca records to release their first single a year later, they endured the poor distribution of many black or "race" groups during the 1940s, but gained a strong fan base due to the growth of radio and their performances of their soul-imbued gospel sound in New York clubs. The Hummingbirds became nationally known after recording with singer Paul Simon on Simon's 1974 hit "Loves Me Like a Rock," and also worked with Stevie Wonder, Otis Williams, and singer/songwriter Hank Ballard of "The Twist" fame. They were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

In addition to recounting the seventy-five year history of the group, Great God A'mighty! "is also the story of black entertainment slowly entering the American pop-culture mainstream," according to Booklist contributor Mike Tribby. Tribby praised in particular Zolten's "generous discography," while in Publishers Weekly a critic commended the author's inclusion of interviews with the group's collaborators and friends, "which add personal depth to the book's amazing wealth of detail and dates." In Library Journal Dave Szatmary praised Great God A'mighty! as an "intriguing, fast-moving history," while a Kirkus reviewer noted that Zolten "conscientiously offers numerous quotes from the singers themselves."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 15, 2002, Mike Tribby, review of Great God A'mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music, p. 719.

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2002, review of GreatGod A'mighty!, p. 1605.

Library Journal, November 1, 2002, Dave Szatmary, review of Great God A'mighty!, p. 93.

Publishers Weekly, November 11, 2002, review of Great God A'mighty!, p. 47.