Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson (October 29th 1911 - January 13rd 1972) is a American Chanteuse of Negro-spiritual (see negro spiritual) and of Gospel.

Biography

Childhood

Born in the district " Carrollton" of La Nouvelle-Orléans (Louisiana), Mahalia Jackson was the first star of the song evangelic (excluding any other music Afro-American from expression profane) and represents for the general public the vocal incarnation of the gospel, following the example Bessie Smith, considered as the greatest voice of the Blues.

Chicago, the city of the beginnings

Very young person, Mahalia Jackson sings in the Chorale of the church Baptist where sermon his father and listens to, in hiding-place, the discs of Bessie Smith which she admires. Installed in 1927 with Chicago, where it opens a shop of cosmetics, it becomes one of the first voices of the Great Salem Baptist Church (without to have ever taken lesson of song) before joining Robert Johnson who has just founded the first mixed group of gospel professional. It meets moreover some great figures of the gospel, records without success two discs in 1937 and joined soon Thomas A. Dorsey (initially singer of blues then true pioneer of the modern gospel at the beginning of the Années 1930), which accompanies it with the Piano during ten years.

Entirely devoted to the “music of God”, with the gasoline even of the hymn, Mahalia Jackson expresses itself with simplicity, meditation and power of conviction, a strong voice to the deep and cordial stamp, with a rare scenic presence and an attractive charisma.

Mahalia Jackson meets success

In 1946 and 1947, that which one usually calls the “queen of Gospel” records a series of titles (whose I' m Going to Such God and Move One Up has Little Higher , disc sold to more than one million specimens, and the famous anthem Baptist Amazing Grace ) which reveals it with the American public. She in addition sings Precious Lord, Take My Hand in one of the immense football stadiums of Washington in front of an enthusiastic public.

Between 1949 and 1952, it interprets great successes like Silent Night , most popular Walking to the Jerusalem and of them, In the Upper Room , work envoûtante which it sings initially arythmiquement, installing the tempo little by little. Mahalia Jackson occurs thereafter with the Carnegie Hall , celebrates concert hall of New York, carries out its first European round where it gains a triumph without precedent, obtains a Grand Prix of the disc in France and, returned in the United States, signs for the company discographic CBS.

It animates a television program before recording a version of Black, Brown and Beige (in whom it interprets sublime a Like Sunday ) with the Orchestre of Duke Ellington.

Large high-speed motorboat, managing its career perfectly but sometimes yielding to the commercial requirements producers to widen his audience, Mahalia Jackson takes part, in spite of cardiac problems, to go European such as the festival of Antibes-Juan-the-Pines in 1968 where it occurs during more than three hours, inhabited by an unforgettable sensitivity and an enthusiasm. She sings in addition with the White House during the establishment of the president John F. Kennedy. Faithful friend of Pasteur Martin Luther King, it is at her sides for the defense of the civic rights of the Blacks and sings in front of thousands of people at the time of the funeral service of the assassinated leader.

That whose voice remains one of most beautiful of this century dies in January 1972; during the funeral ceremonies celebrated with New-Orleans and Chicago, a homage moved and moving is paid to him by its colleagues of the gospel, of which Aretha Franklin.

The discs of Mahalia Jackson are republished in the form of various compilations; volume 1, 1937 - 1946 of the integral received the price of the best disc of gospel 1998 decreed each year by the Academy of the jazz.

Famous songs

Disorder off The World
Silent Night
Go Such It One The Mountain
Amazing Grace
Take My Hand, Precious Lord
Remember Me
Josuha Fought The Battle Off Jericho
Holding My Saviors Hands
Roll Jordan, Roll
The Upper Room
We Shall Overcome
I' m One My Way To Canaan

See too

External bonds

a detailed biography

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