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The National Quartet Convention (NQC) is an annual gathering of Southern Gospel quartets and musicians. It is currently held at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
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The first National Quartet Convention was held in 1957. J. D. Sumner, Cecil Blackwood and James Blackwood of The Blackwood Brothers were the founders of the famous National Quartet Convention formerly held in Memphis, Tennessee. The National Quartet Convention featured all the major gospel groups at a three-day event at the Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, Tennessee. After breaking even the first couple of years, the NQC was moved to Birmingham, Alabama in 1959 and Atlanta, Georgia in 1960. It returned to Memphis in 1961 and was drawing annual crowds of 20,000 by the mid-1960s. Sumner bought the convention in 1971 and moved it to Nashville, Tennessee, where it remained until 1993. Since then, the convention has made its home in Louisville.
J. G. Whitfield owned the convention from 1980-1982. A group of industry-member investors then bought the convention from Whitfield. A board of directors currently operates NQC.
2007 marked the 50th edition of the National Quartet Convention. NQC is still marketed and described in the words of its founder J. D. Sumner as "the Granddaddy of them all".
Over the years, the National Quartet Convention grew from three days of concerts to a six-day multi-purpose event. A main attraction at Louisville is the exhibit hall with approximately 500 booths where artists, record labels, CD duplication plants, media entities, booking agents, Christian bookstores, and other industry related organizations display their products and offer their services. The week is by largely attended by the older generation but lately due to the popularity of groups such as the Booth Brothers, Signature Sound, The Collingsworth Family and the Gaither Vocal Band, the fans are becoming younger. Fans have an ample opportunity to meet personally their favorite artists in the exhibit area.
A concert is held each evening in Freedom Hall, typically approaches sellout numbers for the weekend concerts. These concerts years past ran for approximately six hours but in 2009 they have shortened the evening to five hours, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. and feature non-stop music from the major Southern Gospel artists spaced at 10-20 minute intervals. The Singing News used to present the Fan Award on the Thursday night of the week but they are changing it to Saturday night in 2009. Afternoons are devoted to showcases, some for new talent and others for conceptual events. For example, a couple of popular showcases in recent years have been Mike Speck’s "Choral Music Extravaganza." and "Glorious Piano Extravaganza" featuring the best in southern gospel music piano players. These are usually the highlights of the afternoons. There is a talent competition during the week as well.
In addition to the events for the fans, industry members routinely schedule meetings and even recording sessions to coincide with the convention. Groups needing to replace a member make new contacts at NQC and sometimes conduct auditions during the week. Various business deals are made or renegotiated. Hoping to gain exposure, up and coming artists schedule showcases at nearby hotels. Record labels court radio and media by feeding them meals, taking them on riverboat cruises and facilitating access for interviews with the artists.
In the late 1990s, the convention added three additional events designed to take the Southern Gospel convention experience to regions distant from Louisville. These new events were the Great Western Convention in Fresno, California; the Canadian Quartet Convention in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada; and the Central Canada Gospel Quartet Convention in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Within a few years, though, they had sold or abandoned those events in favor of focusing on the main event in Louisville.
The National Quartet Convention may be a factor in the sense development of the word "quartet" in Southern Gospel music. In music in general, "quartet" refers to any group of four vocalists singing four different parts simultaneously. In Southern Gospel music, the original definition of a quartet was an all-male group of four vocalists, each filling one of the four roles: first tenor, lead tenor (called "second tenor" in general music), baritone, and bass. The accompanist, as a rule, while in the group, is never referred as a "member" of the quartet. Since the inception of the NQC, the word "quartet" in Southern gospel has come to mean any (usually all male) group containing a bass vocalist and either four vocalists altogether with the accompanist. Although a departure from the root word of quartet meaning "four", the word is increasingly used to describe so-called "quartets of five". The Dove Brothers and Legacy Five are two examples of Southern gospel groups that have five members but are still referred to as quartets, with the fifth member an accompanist. The Singing News uses the term "traditional male quartet" to describe all-male quartets having a first tenor, a lead tenor, a baritone, a bass, and no other vocalists.
1965: James Blackwood sneezed into the bass microphone just before JD Sumner and the Stamps took the stage. When JD sang "Blessed Assurance", the audience laughed.
2005: Lauren Talley, Jason Crabb, and several other young Southern Gospel vocalists joined together to record an album called "The Torch". "The Race", a song from the album, was voted #1 on some local charts in late 2005.
2007: Ivan Parker became the first soloist to take the Convention stage in 25 years.