Jackson, Mahalia (1912-1972)

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Jackson, Mahalia (1912-1972)

With her magnificently powerful contralto voice, superb rhythmic control and passionate commitment to her music, the late Mahalia Jackson remains widely considered the best of all gospel singers. She added a dimension to American cultural life in reaching a wide white audience, entering territory previously crossed by black artists only in the fields of jazz and blues, and achieved the highest accolade for any performing artist: the universal reference to her by her first name only. The daughter of a preacher, she listened in secret to the records of Bessie Smith, and was influenced by them, but steadfastly eschewed the blues in her own performance, dedicating herself to gospel music. "I can't sing one thing and then live another, be saved by day and the devil undercover, I've got to live the life I sing about in my song." This line from the Tommy Dorsey composition "I've Got to Live the Life I Sing About" became Mahalia Jackson's credo.

The singer's allegiance to gospel music brought her the rewards of wealth and fame, and earned her the undisputed title of "the world's greatest gospel singer," paving the way for the acceptance and integration of gospel music into the wider American culture. In 1948, she and Theodore Frey established the National Baptist Music Convention as an auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention, and that year her recording of "Move On Up A Little Higher" was the first gospel song to sell a million copies, largely to a black record buying public. Jackson was one of the first gospel singers to use the Hammond organ and the piano as accompaniment, and one of the first to introduce gospel music into more familiar contexts. She sang for programs in support of the Civil Rights movement and, as a confi-dante of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., sang at the March on Washington as a prologue to his famous "I Have a Dream … " speech.

Jackson was born on October 26, 1911 in New Orleans. Her mother died when she was five years old, and she was raised within the Baptist religion, absorbing the church music that would prove the major influence on her life and her music. At the age of 16, she moved to Chicago to stay with an aunt, and supported herself in a variety of humble domestic jobs while, at the same time, joining the Greater Salem Baptist Church and singing with the Johnson Singers, a quintet that toured local churches. She turned down an offer from Earl Hines, but met Tommy Dorsey, with whom she forged a mutually beneficial relationship. (Some of Dorsey's songs were dedicated to Jackson). By 1938, Jackson had married, opened a beauty and floral shop, and acquired real estate. Her early performances in Chicago were in diverse venues. Not accepted in the established black churches, she had to perform at storefronts and in basement halls, and it was Studs Terkel, author and radio host, who first presented her to his largely white radio audience.

Few of Jackson's early performances were recorded but she signed with Decca, for whom she recorded "God Shall Wipe Away All Tears" (1934) and "God's Gonna Separate the Wheat…" (1937). These early recordings were artistically but not commercially successful, and her refusal to record blues music led Decca to drop her. In 1948, she signed with Apollo records and recorded her million-plus bestseller, the Rev. W. Herbert Brewster's composition, "Move On Up a Little Higher," and cut a long-playing album, No Matter How You Pray. Her early recording repertoire is mixed and the artistic quality variable—the Apollo recordings suffer from technical problems and undistinguished accompaniment, but her voice is in fine form. By 1952, her relationship with Apollo had reached an impasse and she signed with Columbia records in 1954. The Columbia sessions, consisting of early compositions previously recorded on Apollo as well as new material, generally excelled in both technical and artistic quality, and she made several albums for the label. By the 1950s, she had engaged Mildred Falls, a gem of a gospel pianist, who received neither the recognition nor the remuneration that she deserved, and organist Ralph Jones, as her accompanists. The duo was called the Falls-Jones Ensemble.

When in her finest form, Jackson's contralto swoops, dives, and easily vacillates from high declamatory shouts to low lyrical melodies, couched in the style of black preachers and executed within a single breath. She confounded musicologists by breaking all the rules while holding her audiences spellbound. Jackson and her pianist Mildred Falls also made liberal use of blues phrasing, together with the rhythmic vitality of the sanctified church. Notable and memorable recordings in her repertoire of congregational style chants, hymns, and African-American spirituals include "Amazing Grace," "No-body Knows the Trouble I've Seen," "Didn't It Rain," and "Deep River," as well as Dorsey compositions such as "Precious Lord." She recorded a small number of secular songs such as "I Believe." Jackson frequently sang parts of a song without meter and preferred songs heavily infused with the scale, chords, and modified structure of blues. "Walk Over God's Heaven," "Move On Up a Little Higher," "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well," and "I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About" fall into this category.

Jackson performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958, and is featured singing "The Lord's Prayer" at the end of the film Jazz on a Summer's Day. She sang, too, with Duke Ellington's band, both at the Festival and in the studio, explaining away her participation by saying that she considered Ellington's band "a sacred institution." The same year she appeared in the film St. Louis Blues, the biopic of W.C. Handy that starred Nat "King" Cole, and then provided the emotional climax to Douglas Sirk's remake of Imitation of Life (1959), singing "Trouble of the World" at the tear-sodden funeral of Lana Turner's black maid (Juanita Moore). By then, Jackson had given many international concert tours and was world famous. During the 1950s and 1960s she appeared frequently on television and sang at John F. Kennedy's inauguration.

By the late 1960s she commanded mostly large, white audiences in Europe and America, but by then her voice and her health were in decline. Her favorite pastime was cooking and she continued to consume the rich soul food of her home, New Orleans, including red beans, rice, and ham hocks. She weighed as much as 250 pounds at one time. Her grueling touring schedule, her entrepreneurial ventures, two failed marriages, and other personal problems had exacted a heavy toll on her health. Mahalia Jackson suffered heart failure and died in Chicago at the age of 60. Her body lay in state as thousands of mourners filed past to pay their respects to this unique performer. At her funeral, her good friend Aretha Franklin sang "Precious Lord," just as the great gospel singer herself had done at the funeral of Martin Luther King.

—Willie Collins