Edward C. Deas

Edward C. Deas (unknown – 1944) was a hymnist, arranger of spirituals, music publisher, and music authority for the AME Church. Deas’s hymns, such as “Big Business in Glory” (1921) and “Shine for Jesus” (1925), reflect the simplicity and usage of common language characteristic of the 19th-century revival hymn. Deas also wrote the book Songs and Spirituals of Negro Composition (1928).

--Encyclopedia of African American Music, Volume 3, edited by Emmett George Price