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Blues Trail Expands with Como Markers
Jackson, Mississippi (August 27, 2009) – For people whose
travel decisions are based solely on their love for the Blues - now
is the time to follow that passion for music as Mississippi continues
to expand the Blues Trail Saturday, August 29 at 11a.m. with dedication
ceremonies in downtown Como in honor of the late fife and drum musician
Otha Turner.
“The ceremony is being dedicated in tandem with the annual fife and
drum picnic and goat roast held on Turner‟s property in nearby Gravel
Springs, said D. Craig Ray, director of tourism for the Mississippi
Development Authority.” The unveiling will include performances by
Jimbo Mathus, Mark Massey, and the Rising Star Fife and Drum band,
featuring Turner‟s granddaughter Sharde Thomas on fife and vocals.
Visitors to the marker ceremonies are invited to attend the picnic
later in the day.”
Turner (ca. 1908 – 2003) was the most famous exponent of the north
Mississippi fife and drum tradition, which was first documented by
folklorist Alan Lomax in 1942. Although the local fife and drum tradition
is often described as sounding “African,” its origins likely stem
from African American musicians transforming the Euro-American military
fife and drum tradition with African and African-American musical
influences. The local tradition is thought to have started shortly
after the Civil War. Unlike the military groups, the north Mississippi
fife and drum bands played mostly at social events, often picnics
held around the 4th of July and Labor Day. The groups‟ repertoires
included spirituals, instrumentals, minstrel songs, and blues, such
as Sitting On Top of the World and My Babe.
Otha Turner (his name is sometimes spelled Othar or Other) was born
in Rankin County, but moved as a small child to north Mississippi.
He received his first fife from a neighbor as a boy, and was soon
making his own instruments, using a heated metal rod to bore out a
piece of cane and create mouth and finger holes. Turner worked as
a farmer for most of his life, and for many years hosted annual fife
and drum picnics and goat roasts on his property in Gravel Springs.
For many years he played drums together with fife player Napolian
Strickland, and later formed his own group, which featured members
of his family including his daughter Bernice Turner Pratcher and granddaughter
Sharde Thomas. Turner was first recorded in the late „60s, and in
the 1990s recorded two CDs under his own name, Everybody Hollerin’
Goat and Otha Turner and the Afrosssippi Allstars, both of which were
produced by Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars.
In the early 1970s Turner was profiled in the short documentary Gravel
Springs Fife and Drum, and he later became a regular performer at
events including the Delta Blues Festival and the Sunflower River
Blues and Gospel Festival. In 2003 Turner was featured in the Martin
Scorsese blues film Feel Like Going Home, and his music was also used
in Scorsese‟s film Gangs of New York. Upon Turner‟s death in 2003
his then thirteen-year-old granddaughter and protégé Sharde Thomas
took over leadership of his Rising Star Fife and Drum Band.
Mississippi is a destination for music lovers. Gov. Haley Barbour
created the Mississippi Blues Trail to recognize the talents of the
state‟s countless musicians in the Birthplace of America‟s Music.
Since December 11, 2006, the Mississippi Blues Commission and the
Mississippi Development Authority have erected and celebrated the
heritage of over 80 sites around the state. For further information
on the Mississippi Blues Trail, go to www.msbluestrail.org
or visitor information at the official tourism website www.visitmississippi.org.
