Biography
The Supreme Jubilees emerged in the early 1970s as a gospel-R&B family band based in Fresno, California. What began as a quartet yielded a lone 45 for Song Bird, a Peacock Records subsidiary, in 1973, yet the release produced scant results. In subsequent years the lineup gradually incorporated additional relatives from the two founding households. Keyboardist and principal songwriter Leonard Sanders added his siblings Philip on drums, Tim on bass, and Melvin handling tenor vocals, while the vocal pair Joe and David Kingsby later enlisted David Jr. on guitar after he reached adulthood. Before that transition, family acquaintance Larry Price joined on guitar and remained even once David Jr. arrived. The completed seven-piece unit tracked its sole album, It'll All Be Over, in 1980. Issued on the self-run S&K imprint and produced entirely in-house, the record prompted an earnest promotional campaign that included California dates supporting fellow gospel acts followed by a Texas trek opening for the Mighty Clouds of Joy. Plagued by unreliable bookers, substandard lodging, and vehicle breakdowns, the financially strained ensemble watched its prospects dim further when most members declined a follow-up tour offer. Plans for a second album in 1981 collapsed amid dwindling momentum, and the group dissolved, though the Sanders and Kingsby families stayed close. Pressed in an edition of only five hundred copies, the LP remained forgotten until Austin retailer David Haffner unearthed one nearly thirty years later. Haffner passed the recording to Seattle reissue imprint Light in the Attic, which delivered a remastered edition of It'll All Be Over in 2015.
Albums