Rising Stars Fife & Drum

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 the nation’s military and social history. Rising Stars Fife & Drum, led by Shardé Thomas-Mallory, infuses this centuries-old tradition with a new energy and youthful spirit.

While the fife and drum music of northern Mississippi likely emerged after the Civil War, the roots of this tradition can be traced back to accounts of Black fife and drum corps serving in both Colonial and British forces in the Revolutionary War. In Mississippi’s Hill Country, Black musicians recast this military tradition into social music, taking the techniques and incorporating them with African-derived percussion, pre-blues rhythms, chants, and shouts. For over a century, the tradition survived—and thrived—at picnics and other large community gatherings, often around the 4th of July and Labor Day, when people gathered for food and camaraderie to a soundtrack of fife and drum.

Perhaps the most famous practitioner of this continuous tradition for decades was Othar “Otha” Turner, from the Gravel Springs community in Mississippi, about an hour south of Memphis. Turner was the patriarch of the local fife and drum scene, and in 1992 was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. By the time of his death in 2003 at age 95, many believed that this tradition would vanish. But today his legacy lives on with his granddaughter Shardé, who learned Turner’s songs, his fife-making craft, and now leads the band he created, which includes Shardé’s husband Chris as a drummer.

As a young child, Shardé 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.  Shardé’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 festival celebrating Mississippi music and culture, now called the G.O.A.T. Picnic, an ode to Otha’s legacy, and the Rising Stars parade between performances. Thomas also takes the Rising Stars on the road, and they have played at festivals and shows around the country and abroad.  Wherever she plays, Shardé never forgets her roots, reflecting, “I know [Otha’s] continuing watching down on us and the band, and motivating me to continue to push the band as high as I can. I’ll definitely continue to do that to keep his name living through us.”