Sharde Thomas & the Rising Star Fife & Drum
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Performed on the cane fife accompanied by bass and snare drums, the pre-blues African American fife and drum band is one of the most fascinating American musical traditions, rooted in colonial America and both the military and social history of our nation. Sharde Thomas & the Rising Star Fife & Drum infuses a centuries-old tradition with a new energy and youthful spirit.
During the Revolutionary War, fife and drum corps were employed by both Colonial and British forces. While most blacks were denied the right to serve in armed conflict, many were allowed or forced to participate in military drum corps. Combining techniques from American military bands with African-derived percussion and flute traditions, southern blacks re-cast these war tools into social music, incorporating pre-blues rhythms, chants, and shouts. When the hand-carved fife called out the lead, the bass drum and the snare or “kill” responded in a rhythmic call-and-response.
A thriving tradition well into the 19th century, by the turn of the 20th, the number of fife and drum players had dwindled. The last master in this continuous tradition, NEA National Heritage Fellow Othar Turner, lived in the Gravel Springs community in Mississippi, about an hour south of Memphis. When Othar died in 2003 at age 95, many believed that this tradition would vanish. But today his legacy lives on with his 28-year-old granddaughter Sharde, who learned Othar’s songs, his fife-making craft, and now leads his band.
As a young child, Sharde watched her grandfather play and would often steal his fifes and practice. Her first performance was at the Turner family’s annual Labor Day picnic when she was seven. “He handmade my own fife and I’ve been playing ever since,” she recalls. Sharde’s youth, energy, and ability have given the venerable tradition a new lease on life. She has transformed the family’s annual picnic into a two-day blues festival, but has kept the much-loved goat barbeque, and the Rising Stars parade between performances. When not teaching with Head Start at home in northern Mississippi, Sharde takes fife and drum music to festivals around the country and abroad.
