I grew up with the voice of Mahalia, especially her Christmas Gospels. My all-time favourite is "Oh come all ye faithfull"! (But we'll listen to that on Christmas Day!)
Birth: c. Oct. 26, 1911 Death: Jan. 27, 1972 
Gospel performer and singer who had a powerful and expressive contralto voice. Her concerts and recordings gained worldwide recognition for African-American religious music. Her singing combined powerful vitality with dignity and strong religious beliefts. She disliked being identified with nonreligious music, though her singing style revealed the influence of jazz. Mahalia Jackson, the third of six children was born in poverty in a three-room "shot-gun" shack in New Orleans, Louisana in 1911. Her father John A. Jackson, was a stevedore, barber and minister and her mother Charity Clark (who died when Mahaliawas five) was a maid and laundress. Early in her life Mahalia Jackson absorbed the conservative music tradition of hymn singing at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church, where her family worshipped, and she was also attracted to the strong rhythms and emotional abandon evident in the music of a near by Holiness church. In addition, she was inspired by the secular music all around her, including jazz. Mahalia dropped out of school in the eighth grade to help support the family. As a teenager she moved to Chicago, Illinois to live with a aunt and she begin singing professionally with the choir of the Greater Salem Baptist Church (where she became a member) and with the Johnson Gospel Singers, one of the first professional touring gospel groups. In 1934 she received $25 for her first recording, "God's Gonna Seperate the Wheat from the Tares." At that time however, music was just a sideline for Mahalia who worked as a laundress (washing clothes for a $1 a day), studied beauty culture at Madam C.J. Walker'sand at the Scott Institute of Beauty Culture. She soon opened her own beauty shop, the first of her sevral business ventures. It was in 1929 that Mahalia met the composer Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the Father of Gospel Music and in the mid 1930's they began a fourteen-year association of touring, withMahalia singing Dorsey's songs at church programs and at conventions. In 1936Mahalia married Issac Hockenhull, a college-educated entrepreneur who tried to persuade her to abandon her church singing so that she could earn more money performing blues and popular music. She refused, and the marriage ended in divorce, as did a later marriage, to the muscian Sigmond Galloway. In 1946 she recorded her signature song "Move On Up a Littler Higher," which sold 100,000 copies and eventually passed the one million mark. By 1947 Mahalia had become the official soloist of the National Baptist Convention. Mahalia's other multi-million sellers included "In the Upper Room" (1952), "Didn't It Rain" (1958), "Even Me" and "Silent Night" which further extended her fame. She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career. Mahalia also appeared in the movies Imitation of Life, St. Louis Blues, The Best Man and I Remember Chicago. By the mid-1950's Mahalia had her own shortlived radio and television shows in Chicago and appeared frequently on national programs. During this time she also owned a flower shop in Chicago and toured as a concert artist, appearing more frequently in concert halls and less often in churches. In 1950 she became the first gospel singer to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall, and in 1958 the first to sing at the Newport Jazz Festival. Mahaliaalso performed in 1961 at President John F. Kennedy's inauguration and stirred a large audience with "How I Got Over" at the famous 1963 March on Washington. She first toured Europe in 1952, and was hailed by critics as the world's greatest gospel singer. In Paris she was called the Angel of Peace, and throughout the continent she sang to capacity auidences. She toured Europe again in 1962 and 1963-64, and in 1970 she performed in Africa, Japan, and India. Mahaliadevoted much of her time and energy to helping others. She was also commited to civil rights her entire life and established theMahalia Jackson Scholarship Foundation for young people who wanted to attend college. For her efforts in helping international understanding she received the Silver Dove Award. Mahalia had a spectacular singing career, winning several Grammys, including two awarded posthumously: one for her lifeachievement (1972) and for the album How I Got Over (1976). Mahalia Jackson died at age 60 in Chicago in Jan. of 1972 where she had lived for 45 years and became the greatest single success in gospel music. 50, 000 mourners filed past her mahagony, glass-topped coffin at the Greater Salem Baptist Church in tribute and 6,000 or more filled every seat and stood along the walls of the Arie Crown Theater of McCormick Place in Chicago, for her funeral which was more of a gospel music celebration than a funeral. Celebrities from all over the country attended and R&B singer Aretha Franklin paid tribute by singing "Precious Lord." Three days later in her home town of New Orleans, the scene repeated itself with thousands paying tribute, this time at the great hall of Rivergate Convention Center. Twenty four limousines later drove to Providence Memorial Park whereMahalia Jackson was finally entombed. Through her recordings she lives and leaves behind a glorious legacy- truly joyful sound. She will always be the uncontested queen of gospel music.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////Ich bin mit den Liedern von Mahalia aufgewachsen, insbesondere den Weihnachtsliedern! Mein Lieblingslied von ihr "Herbei ,oh ihr Glaeubigen" ! (Das hoeren wir aber erst Weihnachten!) 26. Oktober 1911 - Gospel-Sängerin Mahalia Jackson wird geboren:Eine Stimme für den Glauben
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Im Auftrag des Herrn unterwegs: Gospel-Königin Mahalia Jackson
Nahezu vollzählig sind die deutschen Fernseh-Zuschauer an einem Augustabend 1967 vor ihren Apparaten versammelt. Zum Start ins Farb-Zeitalter flimmert live der "Gala-Abend der Schallplatte" in die Wohnzimmer. Dann betritt der Stargast aus den USA, die legendäre "Königin des Gospel", die Bühne der Berliner Kongresshalle. Als Mahalia Jackson ihre dunkle Altstimme erhebt und mit schwungvollen Gesten ihres fülligen Körpers den Rhythmus verstärkt, hat sie nach wenigen Takten das Publikum im Saal und in den Wohnzimmern in ihren Bann geschlagen.
Mit ihrer Stimmgewalt die Menschen mitzureißen, in eine singende Gemeinde zu verwandeln, darin sieht Mahalia Jackson die Mission ihres Lebens. Sie will keine Glitter-Show liefern; ihre Songs sollen die Botschaft des Evangeliums in die Welt tragen. Doch an jenem Abend in Berlin steht die charismatische Sängerin ihren Auftritt nur noch mit letzter Kraft durch. Eine geplante Europa-Tournee muss der schwer kranke schwarze Weltstar absagen.
Papstaudienz für die singende Missionarin
In einer schäbigen Hütte am Rande von New Orleans, zwischen Bahngleisen und dem Mississippi, wird Mahalia Jackson am 26. Oktober 1911 geboren. Ihr Vater, ein Sklaven-Nachfahre, predigt in einer Baptistengemeinde. Schon dort fällt die besondere Klangfarbe von Mahalias Stimme auf. Mit 16 Jahren zieht sie nach Chicago und gründet eine kleine Gospelgruppe. Deren mitreißende Auftritte, geprägt von Mahalias dynamischem Groove, sprechen sich herum, doch finanziell muss sie sich lange als Wäscherin und Friseurin über Wasser halten. Erst 1947 gelingt ihr mit der Aufnahme von "I’ll move on up a little higher" der musikalische Durchbruch.
Bandleader wie Duke Ellington und Louis Armstrong reißen sich nun um Mahalia Jackson. Doch sie lehnt ab, will keinen reinen Blues oder Jazz singen, sondern mit ihren Liedern die Botschaft Jesu in die Welt tragen. Trotzdem elektrisiert sie mit ihrer vibrierenden Authentizität gleichermaßen die Zuhörer in Kirchen wie beim legendären Newport Jazz-Festival oder in Nightclubs. Auf langen Tourneen rund um den Globus erarbeitet sich Mahalia Jackson einen treuen Verehrerkreis. In ihrer Heimat USA dagegen bleibt sie auch als Weltstar, der von Papst Johannes XXIII. in Privataudienz empfangen wird, von den Schattenseiten der Rassendiskriminierung nicht verschont.
„Könnte ich doch reden, wie diese Frau singt“
Weiße Fanatiker beschießen ihr Haus in Chicago, in Südstaaten-Fernsehshowsdarf "die Negerin" nicht auftreten. Doch Mahalia Jackson lässt sich nicht einschüchtern. 1963 steht sie zum Abschluss des historischen Bürgerrechts-Marschs in Washington neben Martin Luther King. Nach dessen "I have a dream"- Rede singt sie vor 200.000 Menschen "How I got over". "Ach könnte ich doch reden, wie diese Frau singt", seufzt danach ihr enger Freund Luther King. In den folgenden Jahren setzt ihr allerdings ihre angegriffene Gesundheit immer häufiger zu. Mahalia Jackson erleidet mehrere Schwächeanfälle und Herzinfarkte.
So sind ihre deutschen Fans hoch erfreut, als die Gospel-Queen 1971, vier Jahre nach dem denkwürdigen Berliner Gala-Auftritt, noch einmal in die Bundesrepublik zurückkehrt. Wieder singt sie in Berlin - abgemagert, geschwächt, um Jahre gealtert, doch mit noch immer ungebrochener Willenskraft. Und wieder muss sie nach diesem Konzert alle Termine absagen. Es ist ihr letztes Comeback. Wenige Monate später, am 27. Januar 1972, stirbtMahalia Jackson mit nur 60 Jahren in Chicago. Ihre Grabrede hält Coretta King, die Witwe des ermordeten Bürgerrechtlers.
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