Hallelujah Singers expand roster

This summer, Hallelujah Singers fans will have a chance to see the choral ensemble perform their Gullah-rooted music as they did 17 years, when the group featured almost two dozen vocalists.

The five-member chorus will add nine singers and three musicians for its summer concert series, which will be presented Wednesday evenings -- this Wednesday, Aug. 6 and 13 -- at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina.

"This is not a permanent change," said group founder and leader Marlena Smalls. "We're doing it for just these concerts to celebrate our 10th year performing at the arts center."

Originally created in 1991 for a Beaufort fundraising event, the Hallelujah Singers went on to gain national fame, appearing on "The Today Show," "Good Morning America" and in "Forrest Gump."

Over the years, the group was reduced to the current five members -- Smalls, her daughters Tracey McGhee and Sumitra Stewart, Gladys Jenkins and Jermaine Rivers.

"A lot of our original members were professionals with busy work schedules," Smalls recalled. "We couldn't be consistent with a big group, as it became impossible for everyone to make all our concert dates."

Two years ago, the Hallelujah Singers went back to the larger group format for their European concert tour -- additional vocalists were recruited from Benedict College and South Carolina State University -- and were so well received that the Singers took an expanded ensemble to Spain again last fall.

In April, the singers were asked to present the same kind of program in St. Louis. This time, Smalls reached out to vocalists she knew from the Lowcountry.

"It's a very special group of singers," Smalls said. "A lot of them are related and have been singing together for years, so they harmonize well together."

She'll take the same group -- which includes Charles Cherry, one of the original members of the Hallelujah Singers -- to the Arts Center this summer. The singers will be accompanied by a three-piece rhythm section from Atlanta led by Earl Fleming, musical director for the 2005 Tyler Perry film, "Diary of a Mad Black Woman."

Along with traditional plantation melodies and spirituals the Hallelujah Singers will perform jazz and blues standards.

"If you like the big sound we had in the early days, you won't want to miss our arts center concerts," Smalls said.