Autobiography edit
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Chapter 1 pp. 11--28
Why I cry when I'm singing, I am not sad the way people think. I look back and see where I came from, and I rejoice. 11 the only social life for the colored people was in their church 14 My disposition, he says, is mixed and the best side of it comes from Mother 16 Porter led the young people "out of the wilderness of the sharecropping existence" 16 It's easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent who you haven't got a thing--that's the Lord's test. 17 Either you were a Christian and acted like it or you were put out of the church. 20 My strength has always been in the church and I'll never leave it. 20 There are times when I think back about growing up there (NOLA) and it moves me so much I could cry. 23 A good meal seems to bring a warm feeling harmony among people. You begin eating and laughing and time goes by and soon you realize that you've had a pleasant time together and the day seems bright to you all. 28
Chapter 2 pp. 29--38 Raised with music, "always had a big voice", brass bands in NOLA showboat music cabarets, hearing Jelly Roll Morton King Oliver ragtime blues jazz, heard blues everywhere even through walls of houses, fish fry parties only diversion for black ppl outside church, second line parades from burials would be brass band jazz, disliked Carnival Day during Mardi Gras bc it brought violence, narrowly escaped being in the middle of a fight as a child, spent more time at church bc Aunt Duke so strict (to get away from her), baptisms held in the Miss. River, church ppl made sure you weren't sinning, kept track of attendance, MJ loved singing best, attended Baptist church but Sanctified church next door to their house, white ppl don't clap right MJ asks them not to, cousin Fred older and more worldly bought blues and jazz records home, MJ played records while Aunt Duke working, blues gave relief from burdens and courage, MJ felt restlessness yearning to get away, Aunt Duke "held her down" and took her to society meetings where MJ took notes as secretary, dropped out of McDonough School after 8th grade, did laundry worked 10 hrs day, best dreaming of becoming teacher or nurse, Fred died out of town, MJ heartbroken A song must do something for me as well as for the people that hear it. I can't sing a song that doesn't have a message. 29 There's bad in all of us and most of us can't save ourselves without help. 32 All those old anthems are too dead 32 No choir and no organ/rhythm from slavery days 32-33 Bessie vs Mamie Smith 36
Chapter 3 pp. 39--50 Importance of trains and railroads, Uncle Porter worked on a train, Pullman Porters, describing Great Migration, heard stories about Chicago and wanted to go, at 16 left with aunt Hannah with $$ saved from laundry and nursemaid, arrived in December v. cold, rode in a taxi for the first time, huge black neighborhoods in Chicago, most blacks migrated from LA, MS, AK, and KY, life good in the 1920s for black Chicago, church huge in everyone's lives, attended 2 0r 3 times on Sunday, jazz huge in Chicago, both aunts were cooks in white households, necessary to start doing laundry when aunt Hannah bedridden, stayed 15 years before visiting NOLA again, inspired by all the black owned businesses on the South Side, aunt Alice attended Greater Salem, Rev Johnson, invited to choir (50 ppl), participated so much in church forgot she was homesick in Chicago the Negro found the open door 48 It was after I got to Chicago that I realized for the first time that the southern whites had a chain on the colored people. It reminded me of how they grazed a mule on the levee from a stake--he could eat the grass in a circle all around an no further. When I looked back on it, I realized I was simple-minded about accepting it. 49 Greater Salem "the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me" 49
Depression hit black Chicago hard, men who had cars became illegal taxi drivers, riots during eviction times, gambling (dice) became widespread, bootlegging, Prince, Robert, Wilbur Johnson, (sons of preacher) Louise Barry and MJ formed entertainment group, put on skits for church socials, added songs, first Negro gospel group in Chicago, first performed only at Greater Salem, but then invited to other churches, performances helped support the church as offerings went way down many churches new recently bought from white congregations had left from white flight, good night could bring $1.50 in offerings, saved some money from performing, went to see operatic tenor Prof. Dubois who chastised her, she paid $4 and left, only singing lesson MJ ever had the Depression became responsible for my whole career in gospel singing 56 You've got to learn to stop hollering. It will take time to build up your voice. The way you sing is nto a credit to the Negro race. You've got to learn to sing songs so that white people can understand them. 59 I felt it was too polished and I didn't feel good about it. 59
Began to earn money outside of Johnson singers, $10 a week singing a funerals and churches, known all over South Side, always a church in need of a singer, by mid 30s traveling to NY and CA to churches after singing at Nat Bap Conv, made up to $50 a week singing and traveling, worked at a factory packing dates for a week, became a maid at a hotel, met Dorsey bc they attended the same conventions and church meetings, Dorsey's songs, called herself a fish-and-bread singer bc she sang for income, ministers didn't like gospel, undignified, criticism came from society Negroes, felt deep down she was being called by god to sing, sacrificed her vaudeville and theater time when gfather took ill in the heat, prayed to save him, he recovered, hasn't been to a theater since, not interested in finery or jewelry, only owns a wedding ring and diamond crucifix gifted by Harry Belafonte, would rather have a busy kitchen (Gospel) was the kind of music colored people had left behind them down South and they liked it because it was just like a letter from home. 60 Gospel singing is an expression of the way people feel and it's older than jazz or the blues. 61 I told him (a preacher who spoke against her style of singing) I was born to sing gospel music. Nobody had to teach me... If it was undignified, it was what the Bible told me to do. 63 Don't let the devil steal the beat from the lord 66
Met Isaac Hockenhull H O C K E N H U L L studied chemistry, worked as a postman during Depression, MJ working as hotel maid 24 yrs old, wanted to make her concert artist, married him after courting for a year, Ike's mother made lotions and creams before the Depression, Ike knew how to make them (chemist) they'd make them and Ike would try to sell in Chic., while MJ took jars on the road while she sang to sell at churches and revivals, Ike didn't like MJ traveled, thought she could make more money singing secular, didn't think gospel was sophisticated, not art, invited to join Earl Hines and Louis Armstrong, both lost their jobs at the same time (MJ out of town all the time got fired), told her to audition for Mikado, she went but it was painful, miserable, bought sheet music she couldn't read, left the audition after completing the song, got home to learn she won the part also to learn Ike got a job so she quit, also he liked to bet on horses, divorced amicably They'd tell me, "Girl, you could become a great blues singer." I'd answer, "What Negro couldn't become a blues singer!" 72 Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel... 72 People sometimes ask me how I feel about being divorced when my life is so close to the church. I answer that it's because I feel that I was meant to give my life to the church hat it had to be that way, and I'm not ashamed of it. 79
After marriage ended and Depression lightening, made enough money that she didn't have to be a maid, saved up to go to Scott Institute of Beauty Culture to be a hairdresser, bought a beauty parlor in 1939 Mahalia's Beauty Salon, employed 5 women, sang on weekends, studied floral design, opened Mahalia's House of Flowers, customers wouldn't buy flowers unless MJ promised she would sing at the funerals, didn't know anyone white, sang in tents, storefront churches, ballrooms, took tickets and admission to her own shows, learned to get paid up front after being tricked by promoters, once got tricked into appearing in Phila/Newark refused to perform until she got paid, sang, then promoter demanded a cut, she refused, he waved a pistol at her, she left he hauled her into court (she won), made "Move On Up A Little Higher" (this part of the narrative seems out of sync with other histories of MJ) after Bess "Burma" heard her in a studio, MJ claims she didn't know who wrote it and she'd been singing it as a child (Brewster), sold nearly 2 million copies, 1950 Marshall Stearns invited her to Music Inn to perform and lecture about jazz and gospel, slept in a horse stall, after she performed next day big argument lasted all week about origins of gospel music, they recorded her
Professors from Music Inn took their recordings and word spread about MJ, invited by Ed Sullivan, made official soloist at Nat Bap Conv, and invited to Carnegie Hall, traffic and crowds around Carnegie Hall packed, house sold out, SRO sold out, audience stood on the stage, broke attendance records, great reviews, "I Can Put My Trust In Jesus" won award from French Academy of Music in 1952 leading to European tour, England, France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, French and Danes "made me dizzy", swarmed by crowds in Paris, 50K orders of Silent Night in Copenhagen, lost 90 lbs in 3 months, weak unable to stand, fainted on stage in France, 1954 radio program in Chicago, unable to get national sponsors despite whites attending her shows even in South, similarities to Nat King Cole, forgot about discrimination until she came home, able to shield herself from discrimination in mostly black Chicago, but now whites approached her as lawyers and agents, received letters from whites, ordered ushers to integrate audiences, traveling was brutal unable to stop, get gas, eat, sleep, got angry looks by whites bc black in a nice car, black social life perfectly ok without whites, interracial marriage ok but who will make black women feel important if black men marry white women?, black women have the greatest burden raising good children when being actively humiliated, education for black children is high priority Now we'd best remember we're in Carnegie Hall and if we cut up too much, they might put us out. 91 If they're Christians, how in the world can they object to me singing hymns? How in the world can they take offense to that? In the name of the Lord, what kind of people could feel that way? 95 It's gotten so I spend part of almost every day with a white person, yet when I come down off that concert stage they're still likely to treat me as if I had leprosy 96 when you move back and forth between the white and colored worlds every day, the stupidity and cruelty of some white people toward the Negro hits you so hard you don;t know whether to explode or pray for someone who has such hatred in his soul. 96 living on bags of fresh fruit/dizzy 97 education is super important long paragraph 102
Black people stick to their own churches, white churches offer something different, many white churches too formal and sedate, no emotion, MJ gets letters and calls from whites who have been moved to tears by her songs, sees whites in her audiences weeping, since 1956 200 CONCERTS A YEAR WTF, wants to build an evangelist temple in Chicago integrated and nondenominational, disgusted by people who exploit gospel to make money (cultural appropriation too, but not in these terms), Dinah Shore more gracious to MJ than anyone else on TV, explained time constraints but esp. no one could follow MJ, uncomfortable with TV and theater producers who try to jam her into slots with mixed billing like revues cutting her time short or worrying that her material was too sad, Dave Garroway Wide Wide World TV show asked her to sing on Xmas from NOLA, first time she'd been in 13 years, visited her old friends, lots of good food, racial tensions in NOLA from new whites, (2 sisters Pearl and Yvonne), Xmas service turned out quite well lots of attendees, good music all her friends showed up to sing, Aunt Duke finally ok with MJ in show business, day after Xmas show receiving congrats over telegraph and phone still couldn't get served in a restaurant or get a taxi Real gospel singing lifts people up and brings understanding and strength of religious faith back to those who hear it. It's not supposed to be just an entertainment. 109 I could come back down to New Orleans for wonderful visits with my own people, but I couldn't stay. Chicago and the North, where I was used to Negroes being more free, was where I belonged. 117
Chapter 10 pp. 118--131 Bought a house in Chicago in a white neighborhood, used to get yelled at to quiet down when she lived in apartments and sang as loud as she liked, even when she owned the building, unable to buy a house by asking herself, surgeon who knew her sold directly to her, even before she moved threatened to blow up her house with dynamite, front windows shot at, required security for a year, Ed Murrow Person to Person interview, white flight started, met Ralph Abernathy and MLK at Nat Bap Conv in 1955, MLK "not a big man in size, but he was a giant in spirit", sang at a benefit for Montgomery Bus Boycott, MJ and Mildred stayed with Abernathy, 2 days after she and Mildred left Abernathy's house was bombed, MLK came to Chicago to raise money, MJ realizes history is being made, witnesses formation of SCLC and sit-ins and non-violence, likes the nonviolent Christian approach,
The more I saw of Reverend King, the more it seemed to me that the Lord had specially prepared this one man with the education and the warmth of spirit to do His work. 128 Yes, honey, it *is* our country, too! We colored folks were brought here long ago and we've been born here and raised by our families here. We're Americans as much as anybody else. What we're going through now means better days ahead for you younger people. 129 |
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Chapter 11 pp. 132--139
On JFK: I feel that I'm a part of this man's hopes. he lifts my spirit and makes me feel a part of the land I live in. 139
Went on tour with Mildred, one-night stands grueling, MJ drives her Cadillac, tour was 2 months, immediately embarks on a trip to Europe sailing, feels terrible aboard ship but gets better over time, meets and likes Jackie Gleason, really likes the water, arrives in England plays at Royal Albert Hall, felt bad about previous visit in 1952 when she felt ill and couldn't sing as well, got a huge noisy stomping reception police called, got knocked down at the stage door afterwards and had to crawl to the car, received poorly in Frankfurt by stage manager, police called again, Germans surprised that her live shows different from records, MJ agrees some of it is overproduced (Columbia), Hamburg was able to buy crystal, concert in Hamburg went well, multiple encores Some of those studio engineers have made me sound like a pig squealing under a gate. 153
Didn't like to fly and preferred trains until East German trains, Berlin show went well, Copenhagen then Paris disliked the conditions at the Olympia Theater and chewed out her concert manager, dislikes gospel music used for purposes other than lifting up God i.e. Gospel Twist, Munich and Essen, sang in Essen so many encores the stage hands took mikes away so people would leave, they called her back anyway to sing Lord's Prayer, MJ sang it without a mike, traveled as a tourist through Rome, heard the pope give a speech Gospel songs and spirituals are more than just Negro music. There are no slaves in Europe, but people love the music. Why is that, unless it's because it stirs a spiritual need within them? 157
That's all gospel music is--just an expression of joy and hope That's the way the songs have always seemed to me all the years that I've been singing them. 167
Freedom Riders, tense situation in Anniston?? AL with US marshals needed to protect a church full of black people w/ MLK and Abernathy, MLK asks RFK to intervene, MJ dislikes lack of unity among black ppl, loyal to MLK, had Tgiving dinner with MLK and CSK, religious music and spirituals a major part of energy behind civil rights movement i.e. We Shall Overcome, music reaches people when words and actions cannot It has meant so much to me that a great part of the brave fight for freedom down South now is coming from inside the church and from the hymns and gospel songs the people are singing. 181 And it is to the everlasting shame of the white Baptist preachers in the South that hey have no spoken out loud against these cowardly attacks on a sanctified place. 185
Another one night stand tour, exhaustion tour cut short, gets put in the hospital, diagnosis heart trouble, tour canceled, but was able to attend March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, v impressive, crowds, film stars, activists, sang I Been Buked and I Been Scorned by MLK request, accompanied by Mildred Falls, later in November Falls informs JFK shot, MJ heartbroken, believed he died for Negro cause you'd have thought the Russians were coming 191 I thought back on how in the fifty years since I was a child on the Mississippi levee I had seen my people and my country move forward in so many ways until now we were at the threshold of salvation. 197
Introduces Sigmund Galloway, marriage to Hackenhull ended when MJ was 30, "Minters" Sigmund's family nickname, MJ feeling lonely recently, married Galloway in her living room by Leon Jenkins pastor at Greater Salem BC, upset by race riots in Detroit and Chicago, white and black people work together though, MLK and RFK killed, sings Precious Lord at MLK funeral The Negro churches in the South began as meeting-houses for slaves. There they could sing. There they could renew their spiritual strength. There they could plan. 215 Why is information in this book about MLK funeral in 1968 when published 1966? - Me
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Boyer edit
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p. 83 Only child, grew up singing in Baptist church (Plymouth Rock), singing lined hymns, standard Protestant hymns (Dr. Watts), Negro spirituals, at 12 sang in the junior choir at Mt Moriah, most important influence on her style was the sanctified church she lived next to p. 85 tendency to sing in sanctified style grew as she aged, took recordings of Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey and combined with sanctified style, by 16 she had developed her style: "from Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey she borrowed a deep and dark resonance that complemented her own timbre; from the Baptist church she inherited the moaning and bending of final notes in phrases (what W. C. Handy called 'worrying over a note"); and from the sanctified church she adopted a full-throated tone, delivered with a holy beat and body rhythm to accent that beat." gospel music arrived in NOLA as Jackson left it: her influences were all outside gospel p. 86 MJ joined Greater Salem because of the Johnson Singers p. 87 MJ style "bending a note here, chopping off a note there, singing through rest spots and ornamenting the melodic line at will, confused pianists but fascinated those who played by ear". soloist for politicians, sang at rallies, met Dorsey in '28, Boyer: MJ "never a Baptist singer" except when lining out hymns, "If Jackson sang a song that had a solid beat serving as the rhythmic foundation, she exhibited the aggressive style and rhythmic ascension that was found only among the Pentacostal singers." in opposition to Dorsey, a Baptist who preferred a more solemn style, toured with Dorsey between 1937 and 1951, relationship with Dorsey warm but she didn't like that he claimed he taught her everything she knew p. 88 recorded four songs with Decca in 1937, none sold well, Decca dropped her did not record another gospel singer until Tharpe in 1938, attended Madame CJ Walker's beauty school when singing didn't bring enough income, was doing hair when she was invited to Golden Gate Auditorium p. 89 where Bess Berman heard her, signed her, recorded 4 songs in 1946 but no traction, interview with Terkel created some interest, Berman recorded MJ again from publicity, Art Freeman recorded "Move On Up A Little Higher" in two parts bc 78 rpm records only lasted 3 mins 30 secs at the most, accompanied by James Francis and James Lee, September 12, 1947 p. 90 No piano on record allows organ to take the role of a choir in a call and response (there is piano in this recording, unsure why Boyer is saying this), Boyer says organ-only accompaniment was first in gospel music, "She employs a scooping technique so that there is no clear movement from one note to the other; instead, she connects each note to the other by sliding through all the notes of the melody." rhythm intricate, many rhythmic strains combined, similar to birds chirping, Boyer calls it a "masterpiece", Boyer says it led to her 1954 radio show p. 91 Radio show had a quartet behind MJ, praises "Just Over the Hill", "These Are They", and "In the Upper Room", signed with Columbia in 1954 but many black fans felt the music was different, song choices had more crossover appeal, more bland? (more urbane maybe, less down-home), MJ developed two distinct styles: sedate one for recording and another more exuberant for live performances p. 188 1950s gospel singers began to spread the Word to non-believers performing outside of churches i.e. Newport Jazz Fest and MJ on Dinah Shore. Boyer dislikes the duet, says Shore tried too hard, MJ not given enough room to be herself, led to Ed Sullivan |
Branch edit
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p. 693 May 17, 1957 MJ sings at Prayer Pilgrimage Breakfast p. 1055 MJ arrives in Phila for Nat Bap Conv meeting 1960 neutral party in battle for president of Nat Bap Conv b/w Joseph H. Jackson and Gardner Taylor, MLk supports Taylor, Branch on MJ: “As the queen of gospel, she personified much of the Convention’s identity"(1055) MJ teaches Chauncey Eskridge how to be neutral p. 1204 CSK in hosptial giving birth to 3rd child MLK in chic with MJ tells MLK to name it Mahalia but it's boy Dexter p. 1209 MJ sings for sharecroppers in TN facing evictions for voting, sings over phone to PA system, sharecroppers name mud street Mahalia Jackson Avenue (source: “Mahalia Jackson Avenue”: Jet, Jan. 12, 1961, p. 8.) pp. 2524--2525 MJ attends rally for MLK and other ministers triumphant after Bham 1963, Branch: "Franklin herself was so moved by the privilege of singing at King’s rally that she slipped four $100 bills into Mahalia Jackson’s hand on stage." p. 2758 March on Washington, Marian Anderson sings He's Got The Whole World In His Hands, MJ I Been Buked, v emotional p. 2761-63 MLK giving address as main speaker sticks to written speech until he stops and pauses then goes off text and starts preaching, Branch: "Mahalia Jackson piped up as though in church, “Tell ’em about the dream, Martin.” Whether her words reached him is not known. Later, King said only that he forgot the rest of the speech and took up the first run of oratory that "came to me." After the word “despair,” he temporized for an instant: “I say to you today, my friends, and so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream…" "After an interlude of merely one sentence—“And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true”—he took it up again: “So let freedom ring.” By then, Mahalia Jackson was happy, chanting “My Lord! My Lord!" |
Broughton edit
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p. 51 Inspired by Thomas A. Dorsey and Willie Mae Ford Smith, in the Greater Salem Baptist Church Choir Chicago, Johnson Gospel Singers an offshoot of this choir, arrived in Chicago at 16 "Hers was the most heavily blues-drenched background of any of the major gospel singers of the time and anyone who heard her said she could be Bessie Smith number two." (Broughton)(p. 51-52) p. 52. Interview with Studs Terkel: "When did I begin to sing? You might as well ask me when did I first begin to walk and talk. In New Orleans where I lived as a child, I remember singing as I scrubbed the floors. It would make the work go easier. When the old people weren't home, I'd turn on Bessie Smith record. And play it over and over... Bessie was my favorite, but I never let people know I listed to her. Mamie Smith has a prettier voice, but Bessie's had more soul in it. She dug right down and kept it in you. Her music haunted you even when she stopped singing." Jackson: "Blues are the songs of despair. Gospel songs are the songs of hope. When you sing gospel you have a feeling there's a cure for what's wrong. When you're through with the blues you've got nothing to rest on." Mount Moriah Baptist Church, home church in New Orleans, "endlessly fascinated with the Holiness manner of worship" (Broughton) Jackson: "These people had no choir or no organ. They used the drum, the cymbal, the tambourine, and the steel triangle. Everybody in there sang, and they clapped and stomped their feet, and sang with their whole bodies. They had a beat, a rhythm we held on to from slavery days, and their music was so strong and expressive. It used to bring tears to my eyes." (p. 52-53) p. 53 Jackson: "I loved best to sing in the congregation. All around me I could hear the foot-tapping and hand-clapping. That gave me the bounce. I liked it better than being up in the choir singing anthems. I liked to sing songs which testify to the glory of the Lord. Those anthems are too dead and cold for me. As David said in the Bible, 'Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.' That's me." Jackson: "Don't let the Devil steal the beat from the Lord! The Lord don't like us to act dead. If you feel it, tap your feet a little -- dance to the glory of the Lord!" Broughton: "took the Holiness fervor and she matched it with these hymns of old Dr. Watts that were still so popular with black Baptists." Jackson: "Dr. Watts? Now you're talking about the power. Those songs, hmmmm, they come out of conviction and suffering." Willie Mae Ford Smith: "I liked her right off, she was more like me, a mover and a go-getter." Broughton: took the elements of Ford's style and stirred it with her own into a potent brew of down-home shouting. Holiness "excesses" shouts and moans retrogressive to urban blacks. Professor Dubois(?), tenor: "You've got to learn to stop hollerin' The way you sing is not a credit to the Negro race. You've got to learn to sing songs so that white people can understand them." Thomas Dorsey: "I tried to show Mahalia how to breathe and phrase, but she wouldn't listen. She said I was trying to make a sterotyped singer out of her. She may have been right." (see also, Living Blues ref in Dorsey) May 21, 1937 first recordings for Decca-Coral accompanied by Estelle Allen on piano and organ God's Gonna Separate the Wheat From the Tares, "Keep Me Every Day" a "gospel masterpiece" (Broughton) Didn't record again until 1946, meantime toured with Dorsey, Jackson "his perfect musical foil" p. 54 An attendee to a Dorsey/Jackson event: "It was amazing. Mr. Dorsey would just keep handing Mahalia these ballads and she'd stand there reading the words while she sang. She'd do fifteen, twenty songs a night like that." "flirtatious entertainer" know for "snake-hips" and lifting her robe inches off the ground (Broughton) Broughton: "She roared like a pentacostal preacher, she moaned and growled like the old southern mothers, she hollered the gospel blues like a sanctified Bessie Smith and she cried into the Watts' hymns like she was back in a slave cabin. They say that, in her time, Mahalia Jackson could wreck a church in minutes flat and keep it that way for hours on end." October 3, 1946 began recording with Apollo Mildred Falls piano accompanist for another 20 years, Herbert Frances on organ September 12, 1946 recorded "Move On Up A Little Higher", gospel's first million seller, Jackson's too, "Dig A Little Deeper" sold half a million, "first super-star of black gospel", transition to national recognition happened in the 1950s, 1950 appeared at Carnegie Hall solo in front of National Baptist Convention choir, song "I Can Put My Trust In Jesus" won a French award led to European tour, her appearance in London 1952 was the first gospel singer since Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1872. Max Jones of Melody Maker: "And she has charm, so that when she dances those little church steps at the end of a rocking number, you need a heart of stone to remain unsmiling." 1954 hosted Chicago WBBM TV program, signed to Columbia the same year (royalty dispute with Apollo) John Hammond: "Mahalia was recording for Apollo Records and getting gypped, like all the artists. She called me in the early fifties to tell me that she had got an offer from Columbia. This was before I was working for Columbia. I told her: 'Mahalia, if you want ads in Life, and to be known by the white audience, do it. But if you want to keep on singing for the black audience, forget signing with Columbia, because they don't know the black market at all."... "She took up the offer from Columbia then... and lost the black market to a horrifying degree. I'd say that by her death she was playing to a 75 percent white audience, maybe as high as 90 percent. Columbia gave her the fancy accompaniments and the choirs, but the wonderful drive and looseness from the Apollo recordings was missing. Did Mahalia miss the black audience? Mahalia was only interested in money, to be specific with you." (p. 54-56) p. 56. Broughton: "Mahalia Jackson was weaned on poverty and raised on exploitation and she was one of the first gospel singers to apply business acumen as a line of first defence against the parasites who attached themselves to black religious music. Many are the gospel singers today who'll pay tribute to the shrewd good business sense they learnt from Mahalia Jackson. It's a romantic, and ultimately demeaning, notion to hold that a gospel artist should simply stand and sing the Lord's praises while leaving to others the distasteful business of calculating the profits." chain of restaurants Mahalia Jackson Chicken Dinners, rivaled KFC, Jackson: "He calls his finger-licking good... I call mine tongue-licking good." Broughton: "By the time she was earning huge sums on the international concert circuit, she'd set up a string of property deals which generated an estate worth more than a million dollars at her death." Jackson: "I don't work for money. I sing because I love to sing. I don't care for luxuries like jewelry. This is the only diamond I ever kept..." (same ring she had 17 years earlier) established the Mahalia Jackson Scholarship Foundation (still active?) with her own funds MLK "adored" Jackson, she helped him in Chicago, favors with the mayor, Broughton: her rendition of "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at MLK funeral at Morehouse College "the ultimate that gospel music could ever, and can ever, become -- a work of the most profound hymnody conjoined to an awe-inspiring public witness during a single moment at the greatest depth of human experience. It was then impossible not to be touched by it." |
Burford Field 2019 edit
- I have less than 3 days with this book bc ILL so I am only summarizing anything relevant to MJ's and this article.
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Ch. 1 pp. 1-32 MJ appears on Toast of the Town with Ed Sullivan January 20, 1952, spawns 30-date tour with MJ and Ward Singers, Sullivan already had black acts on show, Burford: "As was so often the case throughout her early career when she was invited to appear in pop-cultural settings, Jackson was presented as both an outstanding individual artist and as a stand-in for the entire black gospel field. Accordingly, her performances bridged members of black church communities for whom gospel singing was a virtual daily presence, those in the broader public who experienced gospel as a piquant musical and cultural curiosity, and all positions in between."(3), sang These Are They on Sullivan by Brewster, staple of MJ performance at the time, Sullivan appearance a dividing line between before and after for MJ career where before among a sea of good gospel singers after became black star MJ on Sullivan first gospel singer, These Are They typical of early gospel singing for MJ curious that she chose this instead of something more polished acc. to Heilbut Burford: "Holding up Jackson's Toast of the Town performance as a rare instance of the real Jackson singing real gospel where you would least expect to find either--thus distinguishing the black-cultural Jackson known among Chicago church folk from the pop-cultural Jckson "everyone knew" -- Heilbut calls attention to the persistent question of how to assess Jackson's performances over the course of a near half-century-long career within the broader field of gospel."(13) Burford: "Yet over time, the rub of Jackson's church roots and pop-cultural celebrity made her a field-straddling anomaly: a singer who was recognized as an extraordinary artist and marketed as the premier exemplar of black gospel music yet whose commercially successful religious albums for Columbia often featured a production style and arepertory of middle-of-the-road religious pop that made some dyed-in-the-wool gospel lovers, and at times even Jackson herself, long for the good old days."(13) Pastor Stephen Hawkins: "Mahalia Jackson when she would be on television every year, we would stay up late to see her sing. She would be singing on TV and you could see the seriousness of it and how she would handle it and the way she would move... So, you know, when you;re looking and you;re studying different people, you not only study what they do but you study what causes them to do it."(29) |
Burford Reader 2020 edit
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Chs 1--6 pp. 6--32 Gparents Paul and Celia Clark from central LA parish Pointe Coupee township of Legonier, Gumstump Plantation owned by David T. Merrick son of Edwin T. Merrick chief justice of the LA supreme court, Uncle Porter name Porterfield, Goreau identified self as MJ "personally chosen biographer" interviewed 100+ family members, friends, associates, Burford agrees that GOREAU IS UNNECESSARILY DIFFICULT TO READ THANK YOU tho v detailed, "Mahala" derived from Mahalath granddaughter of King David, Goreau believed MJ aunts that MJ born in 1912 but Burford thinks 1911 is correct would have had to be misrecorded several places, MJ might not have left for Chicago until 1931 bc shows up in 1930 census in Duke's house image of census p. 32 (other histories Harris p. 258, Marovich p. 80, say she met Dorsey in 1928 when he was still blues player), pp. 8-11 is first chapter in Autobiography, pp. 12-22 is first chapter in Goreau pp. 23--31 is Schwerin transcribed interview w/ MJ 1952 re: childhood memories, grew up Water St + Audubon across river from Algiers (Westwego), near docks great ships bananas coal all owned by super rich Bissos employed many blacks whiskey distillery gov't fleet, houses shabby rent $8 mo, picked up driftwood for fires, walked along the river to think of future thinks better along Miss. River., got coal by picking it up along train tracks, church only place for recreation children sing and play games on RR tracks make fires make sweet potatoes, only trade for black barber restaurateur seamstress bricklaying most blacks servants heard singing from fruit peddlers food everywhere and cheap, McDonough 24 only went to 9th grade MJ secretary to social groups made to go bc Aunt Duke MJ: "That's why I always had this sad feeling, because I had to be with the old people to be the secretary, and of course it gave me a little deeper mind than the average kid."(26), never liked Mardi Gras bc violence and wasting money on costumes law didn't care about tribes murdering each other, explains Blue Monday for recovering from hedonistic weekend tho everyone was poor they were merry "wonderful spirit", NOLA most catholic, "I have always loved the church because of its powerful music and type of service that went on in the church. I would always find myself drawn to the church. And it's because I liked the songs and I liked the way that the preacher, the old preacher, would preach in his method....there was a way that he would preach, would have a singing tone in his voice that was sad. And it done something to me. Really, it was the basic way--it is the basic way--that I sing today, from hearing the way the preacher would sort of preach in a cry, in a moan, would sort of like in a chant way, a groaning sound, which would penetrate to my heart."(27), programs in church ministers only get $20 wk had to have love of God to survive making a living not promised, heard Dixieland/jazz on the street used to be saloon music called "indecent", big funerals in NOLA rich important ppl hire a band for funeral play hymns and slow spirituals on the way to cemetery on the way back (second line) band played more uptempo if Mj sounds jazzy bc she grew up hearing jazz, black men and teens harassed by police no trust in police or justice system preacher intervened w/ cops or brothels if girl went astray, blacks couldn't get life insurance bc poor unhealthy conditions
First significant jazz promotion , Bucklin Moon big jazz fan also progressive race relations, Burford says be cautious about claims MJ heard jazz at church in NOLA probably not as jazz was Devil's music Bucklin Moon in Record Changer (April 1949): eager to interview "wonderful personality. Words like direct, sincere, and friendly come to mind" (35) Coral a subsidiary of Decca "low priced", MJ says Decca recordings "not very good", MJ got $25 for Decca probably won't get anything after re-release doesn't think it's fair, MJ likes all music, says she learned to sing w/ Bessie Smith records, Moon: "hers was the greatest untrained voice, with the possible exception of Bessie's, that I had ever heard."(35), MJ went to Iberville Theatre to hear Bessie Smith, Mj says racism not a reason she moved to Chic just wanted to better herself, intrested in being classical singer when first moved to Chic but no $$, Moon: "It was almost, she told me, as though she had two voices. Her outer voice, the one that she used most, was the lower register; the other voice, the one that she had hoped to develop, was at the upper end of her vocal range."(37) MJ saved $ to get records Roland Hayes "and especially those of Grace Moore and Lawrence Tibbett. It was from them I learned diction, the correct way to breathe, and what little I know of technique."(37) Moon: "Her voice has gotten deeper with the years, and anyone who hears it cannot help but feel its depth and richness."(37), MJ always wanted to do church work Decca promised her money for turning to blues then signed Tharpe, Bill Russell (violinist in Goreau): "'Even Me' is pretty amazing record, I think. I'm not so sure that I wouldn't go you one better and say Mahalia has a better voice than Bessie."(38)
Oct 19 1951 MJ 25th anniv as a gospel singer big show held at Chicago Coliseum Bernice Bass radio presenter: MJ tells a rags to riches story, v humble beginnings, moved to Chic opened beauty shop employed 6 then Mahalia's House of Flowers "thriving ans proving highly successful"(40), despite businesses MJ always busy singing revivals, jails, reform schools, hospitals, at one revival sang from 11 am to "wee hours of the next morning", "people who were helped by Mahalia through the healing ministry of song"(40), MJ the first gospel singer to sing/record with organ plus piano organ in "God Shall Wipe Away All Tears" "created quite a stir in religious circles everywhere. Today, in every town and hamlet the country over, singers are striving vainly to capture and carbon copy the elusive, haunting, loveliness of Mahalia's voice. the tone and the depth of her voice may someday be captured but none can imitate the soulful expression and phrasing that come from the rich store-house treasury of Mahalia's day-to-day experience through the years."(41), 2nd carnegie hall appearance busloads of ppl came from other states all turned away, Bass: "With tears raining down their hceeks, and that simple beautiful refrain ringing simultaneously in their hearts and ears, the audience crowned Mahalia-- "The Empress."(41) MJ empress bc regular church, concerts, app at Columbia Univ, Music Inn
Evelyn Cunningham Pittsburgh Courier Oct 9 1954 Mahalia the Mystery: gospel makes Cunning. ashamed of heritage but MJ proved wrong: "Mahalia Jackson, you may have heard, is the greatest gospel singer of them all." "Only this time, when she sang, she made me choke up and feel wondrously proud of my people and my heritage. She made me drop my bonds and become really emancipated." MJ at a reception for her radio program big Park Avenue deal MJ hope fans don't think she changed bc CBS radio deal, Cunning: "And then she sang, She made them think of God. She made them ashamed of themselves. She made them uncertain. She yanked every person at that reception up by the roots. Most of them had never in life heard anything like the way Mahalia Jackson sings."(44) "Directly or indirectly, most of them expressed great amazement at the 'mystery' of gospel singing and of Mahalia's voice. She told them, 'I can't understand what you're mystified about. I don't have a voice. It's something else besides a voice that's needed.'" story once MJ sang for whites 1 black lady in the back reading newspaper whites offended but Mj defends newspaper reader bc she knows what I'm singing about, many black ppl reluctant or ashamed to talk about God MJ carries God around always tho not church has sense of humor, wit, ability to laugh at herself, "She's one of the few human beings who has made me ashamed of being ashamed."
Music Inn and jazz commentary Marshall Stearns The Story of Jazz (book) 1956 Ppl learn rhythm no one is born with it, black music has rhythmic spark w/ blue note and blues scale, MJ creates "an almost solid wall of blue tonality. It's not a matter of tempo. She'll sing a slow tune that we all know by heart, 'Silent Night', for example--adding embellishments that take your breath away. As a member of a Sanctified Church in Mount Vernon once told me: 'Mahalia, she add more flowers and feathers than anybody, and they all is exactly right.' She breaks every rule of concert singing, taking breaths in the middle of a word and sometimes garbling the words altogether, but the full-throated feeling and expression are seraphic."(48)
Europe takes spirituals seriously, "to many European students of music, the spiritual was this country's first major accomplishment in the creation of a body of important music that was indigenous to America." "It is generally agreed that the greatest spirtual singer now alive is Mahalia Jackson. It is true that extraordinary vocalists like Marian Anderson, Mattwilda Dobbs, and Carole Brice occasionally sing spirituals as part of their art song recitals, but these vocalists no longer sing the spiritual as it was, and still is, sung in its home, the church."(48), brief history of MJ roots, school ended in 8th grade (read Goreau again for this), "her 1952 tour of Europe was one of the most remarkable, in terms of audience reaction, ever undertaken by an American artist."(49) MJ only will record songs with meaning at Columbia, MJ when asked if Columbia songs will be recorded in churches: "I don't think so. Sometimes our churches become highly emotional, and if a record of that were released to people who didn;t understand, that record might look like it was making a mockery of religion. I wouldn't want that to happen." everyone worships differently, "a program of mine isn't considered successful unless the audience has become highly emotional and filled with the joyful spirit. When that doesn't happen as fully as I feel it ought to, why, I consider that an off night, and I'm sick about it.", gets 25-30 newly written songs to consider a month older gospel songs and spirituals reinvented by different singers, MJ decides which songs to sing when Mildred plays them and MJ "can catch the message of the song... But the songs have to have a message because I like to sing things that are real and that are uplifting." Mildred wrote "I'm On My Way to Canaan Land"? great reception during 1952 tour, jazz and gospel don't take well to being written down (51)
Meets MJ at Columbia function at fancy hotel, MJ doesn't like modern bebop jazz bc it has no meaning unlike the NOLA jazz she grew up hearing, says blues and spirituals related "but the big difference i that a spiritual has hope, wheras the blues is sad all the way through and stays that way. Another thing about jazz--it makes people happy on the surface, but when it's over, it's through. But a gospel song lasts--it penetrates much deeper and stays with you."(53) both gospel and jazz dependent on emotional improvisation: "when I sing I don't go by the score. I lose something when I do. I don't want to be told I can sing just so long. I make it till that passion is passed. When I become conscious, I can't do it good." "You don't really get my feeling till you hear me in person." MJ likes a lot of modern blues and jazz singers Jo Stafford and Tennessee Ernie Ford too, Simon: "She didn't say it, but the implication was obvious. Mahalia Jackson doesn't sing to fracture any cats, or to capture any Billboard polls, or because she wants her recording contract renewed. She sings the way she does for the most basic of singing reasons, for the most honest of them all, without any frills, flourishes, or phoniness."(54)
"the most commanding gospel singer of her generation"(55) MJ not trying to be anything but a church singer "she could be the most compelling blues singer since Bessie Smith", often sings for benefits at churches, variations on a folk theme concert with Martial Singher NYT: "Always there was an underlying beat so insistent that it continued through the silences", Hentoff: "The conviction and strength of her rendition had a strange effect on the secularists present, who were won over to Mahalia if not to her message. Most of them were amazed at the length of time after the concert during which the sound of her voice remained active in the mind."(56) gospel hit can sell 250K, jubilees are "outbursts of the freedom idea into song", Bostic credits COGIC with started gospel music, MJ: "Why, rock'n'roll was stolen from teh Holiness people and the Church of God in Christ! They're more emotional than the Baptists and the Methodists. The Holiness people sing strictly like they feel--on the beat, off the beat, between the beat."(57) feels resposnsible for more bounce in gospel recently, doesn't like to arrange programs or list songs for concerts beforehand will change songs based on what she's feeling doesn't sing the same way twice MJ: "There's something the public reaches into me for, and there seems to be something in each audience that I can feel. I can feel whether there;s a low spirit. Some places I go, up-tempo songs don't go, and other places, sad songs aren't right."(57)
compares MJ to Bessie Smith, "Mahalia is at once the greatest and the most widely accepted interpreter of the gospel songs used in teh churches of the American Negro."(59) MJ performance like cake top layer relationship w/ public Mj "responsible for an even greater number of conversions purely to gospel singing. People who hold different religious beliefs to her own, and even people who have no religious beliefs whatsoever, are impressed by and give their immediate attention to her singing. She has, almost singlehandedly, brought about a wide, and often non-religious interest in the gospel singing of the Negro."(60) layer 2 is artistry instead of saying God is real, "Mahalia, wisely, avoids doing this. Instead, she uses her exceptional powers as a singer to condition her audience until it no longer feels uneasy about the content of her songs." ("Brother John Sellers believes she has a greater dramatic intensity than any other singer alive, and I am inclined to agree with him.") "... she adds qualities to this basic intensity with the ease of a hostess adding leaves to her table, a jazz-like sense of rhythm; a liberty with phrasing and pronunciation no European religious singer would even consider taking; and a warm, but modest communication with her audience." ... "deliberate attitude on the stage" "Mahalia insists on sharing (her religious experiences) with the audiences, and she communicates this fact to them, immediately and directly, and making it difficult for them to turn away."(61) layer 2 is deep sincerity adds depth and purpose to everything she does "her sincerity is so deeply a part of her singing that it resists any attempt by outsiders to exploit her tremendous ability in the wrong context."(61) always turning down requests to sing blues (calls Black Brown Beige a prominent failure says it was Columbia's idea)
Ralph Ellison and Langston Hughes both fans of MJ
MJ not given a royal name (Duke, Count, Princess) but titled Queen of the Gospel Singers, rich, deep contralto innate feeling for rhythm Bessie Smith "slurred and slid and curved from one note to another in a way that made it impossible to put down in musical notation exactly what she was singing in a blues."(63) just like MJ "She explains her way of projecting a song as simply 'accelerating the beat of the music, and putting joy into the voice. Sort of 'making a joyful noise until the lord,' as David said.'"(63) don't confuse gospel with spirituals made by great body of unknown singers gospel songs modern composed songs e.g. Dorsey, Roberta Martin, Theodore Frye, Jobe Huntley, Clara Ward, Hughes saw a service with MJ woman came up to say mother sick might not hear MJ again MJ went to woman's apt in snow sang several songs prayed with her, when signed to Columbia stood firm that she wouldn't stray outside gospel but picked up inspirational songs Danny Boy Battle Hymn of the Republic Hughes: "she refused to do any number of a crassly worldly nature or purely for the sake of entertainment"(65) brief history of MJ super popular, humble still living in apt despite having money
Mj provokes love beyond just admiration, groups MJ with Marian Anderson Mme Ernestine Schumann-Heink Kathleen Ferrier Pastoria Pavon, brief history (little inaccurate) on MJ, has profound religious conviction, dignity, sincerity "Miss Jackson is the master of an art of singing which is as complex and of an even older origin than that of jazz."(68) "It is an art which employs a broad rhythmic freedom and accents the lyric line to reinforce the emotional impact. It utilizes half-tones, glissandi, blue notes, humming, and moaning. Or again, it calls upon the most lyrical, floating tones of which the voice is capable. Its diction ranges from the most precise to the near liquidation of word-meaning in the sound; a pronunciation which is almost of the academy one instant, and of the broadest cotton field dialect the next."(68) gospel big business since 1940s "So popular has the music become that there is a growing tendency to exploit its generic relationship to jazz and so-called rock-and-roll."(69) "... for all her concert appearances about the world she is not primarily a concert singer but a high priestess in the religious ceremony of her church.", Ellison didn't like MJ in Black Brown Beige?? praises Bless This House album (where is it?) "Mahalia and Mildred Falls, her pianiste, create a rhythmical drive such as is expected of the entire Basie band. It is all joy and exultation and swing, but it is nonetheless religious music."(70)
Alex Haley and Malcolm X big fans
"low, rich impassioned voice" cries on stage audience cries too, history of MJ not much of it seems accurate
Mj the first Negro that Negroes made famous, selling 100Ks records before whites heard of her, MJ slips into strefront churches to sing unknown calling it "my filling station"
Chs 19--20 pp. 77--82 Duke Ellington founds Artists Society of America for young black artists named MJ VP 1970 New Orleans Suite composition final movement "Portrait of Mahalia Jackson", Burford asserts Dorsey is incorrect in remembering Jackson in the twenties...
MJ the best cook, sings Come Sunday 1958
Studs Terkel Thomas A Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey 2005 Terkel hears MJ Move On Up in record shop loves her, goes to Greater Salem "For a stupid moment, I had thought that "I" discovered Mahalia Jackson."(79) MJ: "I nursed little Jimmy like he was my own. Do you think he was in that mob that threw rocks at Dr. King?"(80), v fond of Broonzy who helped in 1952 when she was nervous to go on state at Roayl Albrt hall, good sense of humor could hsve been a comedienne, Terkel @ MJ house during interview lots of traffic in and out phone ringing all the time too, Terkel on Mildred: "She knows every breath the singer takes. What Paul Ulankowsky is to Lotte Lehmann, what gerald Moore is to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Mildred is to Mahlai. And more."(81) TErkel: "And yet, Mahalia is discontented. There is a plaintive note to her voice as she calls late at night. What's the trouble? She cant put her finger on it. Something about not being 'successful'...She can't explain, she, who is usually so deft with the telling phrase, so quick at getting to the heart of th ematter. It is something she is reaching out for that may not be there. But it is. And it appears quite suddenly."(82)
Burford: Hammond, Balliet, Heilbut have paternialistic attitude toward MJ and the price of her fame
Hans visits Greater Salem, MJ invites him to her house discuss choirs at Greater Salem one sings traditional hymns others sing newer gospel "We must understand that there are hordes of singers like her in the black churches in the USA. She is not a unique or novel phenomenon. What is strange, however, is that even in America white audiences seem completely oblivious to this thriving gospel singing in black churches. They simply do not know the first thing about it. It may be as a result of the exceptional quality of her voice and rendition--she is certainly a class apart--that she has traversed acrross the boundaries separating the world of the black from that of the whites, and she now sings almost eclusively for white audeinces. This demands quite a different apporach, namely a controlled perofmrnace with little movement, quite different from what black audiences want...Because Mahalia has adjusted to the behavior of white audiences and performs with distinguished restraint, black audiences do not favor her so much anymore. Mahalia has thankfully made no concessions in her style of singing."(86-87), Dorsey lived 10 blocks from MJ house Indiana Ave
Dorsey, Prof DuBois in 1932? Dorsey tries to train MJ resists, stopped dancing in front of white audiences (dignity)"sometimes build a song up and up, singing the words over and over to increase their intensity"(89) much room for improv in gospel "Like Bessie, she would slide up or slur down to a note. She would also break up a word into as many syllables as she cared to, or repeat and prolong an ending to make it more effective: 'His love is deeper and deeper, yes deeper and deeper, it's deeper! and deeper, Lord! deeper and deeper, Lord! it's deeper than the se-e-e-e-a, yeah, oh my lordy, yeah deeper than the sea, Lord.' And the last two words would be a dozen syllables each. When someone asked her how she managed the moans and incredible tones, the answer was, 'Child, I don't know how I do it myself."(89) ... "The words she was singing didn't matter; those who listened to her responded because she made the depth of her feeling available to them, drew them into her belief and took them along."(89) gospel an entirely black genre created by segregation, private, after jazz critics found MJ and signed to Columbia "after a while orchestras, choirs, and harps began to appear in the background. Mahalia invariable was at her best with only Mildred Falls, her accompanist for many years, at the piano"(90), MJ had white audiences, fame, money but refused to sing in nightclubs sang for civil rights instead murders of MLK and JFK "confused and saddened her", church not outlived usefulness was a place of friendship help consolation community, late 60s mixed blessings for MJ returned to church work, "Mahalia banished her image as a solid, solemn, dignified old lady by skipping an dstrutting both on television and at the Newport Jazz Festival." thought soul was exploitation MJ: "It was bound to be picked up and used just the way the white people have used other music that came out of the black people's world, like jazz and blues." MJ chastised ministers too scared to bring MLK to Chicago
Obituary "MJ died yesterday" (but also mentions Goreau's biography 1975??) , MJ the only mirror "we" had to Bessie Smith woman of paradoxes black woman sang for white audiences jazz singer who never sang jazz black hero to whites white traitor to blacks, "conspicuously charitable woman who never lost her New Orelans 'evil'."(92) Goreau a "giant engagement calendar swarming with people who are not always introduced and who do not always have surnames"<<--- GURL YES THIS BOOK DROVE ME NUTS Goreau made MJ seem as if she spoke about herself in 3rd person (did she not?)... "But by the time she died she was no longer just a gospel singer. She was a black American star, but Goreau doesn't tell us whether, in reaching that eminence, she considered herself to have risen or fallen."(94)
Chs 24--27 pp 95--
MJ: "I don't know all these rock'n'roll singers, but I do know that Ray Charles took an old gospel quartet song, 'I got a home way over in Beaulah, and ain't that good news...' and he changed it into 'I got a woman.'... Ray Charles ain't doin' nothin' but singin' those old quartet arrangements and gospel music. Everybody's doing it. They took 'Yield Not to Temptation' and they done made a blues out of that."(97) No one wants to sing Saints Go Marching anymore... "I know they're going around saying Mahalia's getting too far on the pop side; but there never was a bigger lie. The songs that I'm singin' now, if they can get it to be played on the pop records, all right, but we sung all this in church. I'm singing 'The Rosary', which is a Catholic song. 'My Path' that's another Catholic song. I sing 'Danny Boy' becuase there's love in there, and if you don't love individuals, you can't love God... But I don't mind being criticized. I pass my opinion on folks too."(97)
Sold 8-10 million records with Apollo, on Ed Sullivan 1952 MJ: "they didn't even rehearse me, because the arrangement was complicated way back then. I suppose it was the embellishments and the flurries that I take--and too much liberty."(98) likes original NOLA jazz, not Dizzy Gillespie, likes jazz from NOLA, back in the day jazz was for black ppl whites didn't like it no such thing as fame among jazz musicians just a job like anything else fame started when recording/records became available, never heard a white jazz or Dixieland band in NOLA MJ: "Negro spirtuals has always been a song of his hope and of a better tday tomorrow. So the white man categorized it as a Negro spiritual; they didn't say it was a divine spiritual. He strictly put it that it wasn't a universal spiritual; he did say it was a Negro spiritual...[the Negro] created his songs to lift his burden."(99), "We have taken the white man's culture, because that's all we could see, and we have made up our own." Baptists used organ in church Holiness ppl used percussion, studied Fisk Jubilee Singers "the beginning of coming out of the minor key or the wailing of the spirtuals"(100), emphatic she never sings the blues, won't accept parts in theaters or nightclubs, "Along that time, I was coming up in Chicago; and we have pioneeered this field, Dorsey selling the little dime sheets and was one of the great writers of our gospel music."(103)
Weight: was 260 but lost 90 lbs w/ heart attack in 1964, Feather: "she has fanned out her repertoire, recording a variety of suitable secular material (Sunrise Sunset, Crying in the Chapel, Danny Boy, Trees)" just recorded Sings the Gospel Right Out of the Church, European audiences liked pure American music of spirituals instead of Marian Anderson singing European music back at them, back in the day black ppl wanted MJ to sing opera, this article a promo for the long beach/compton show
Owns a building in Los Ang? guess so, 3 weeks in Japan 12 days in India, "I was never treated so royally in all my life."(107) saw Japanese choir singing English hymns on TV, had a translator in Japan translate her songs live, had 4 concerts in one day sold out every house, sang before imperial family sang Who Made the Great Plan Japanese translation put on scroll given to emperor invited to private conference "(an almost unheard of honor for a Westerner, especially an entertainer)" got 600 year old vase as gift, Goreau wrote Who Made the Great Plan, Goreau: "Everywhere we went in japan, the emotional reaction was devastating. On them up-tempo tunes Mahalia had them shouting 'Hallelujah,' and you'd have sworn she was back home in New Orleans. On some of the more solemn numbers you could see tears streaming down their faces."(108) US State Department sponsors trip to India everyone surprised at unplanned meeting with Indira Gandhi performed Calcutta, New Delhi, Madras, Bombay all sold out in 2 hours, St Thomas cathedral in Bombay, Gandhi only supposed to watch 3 songs then leave but invited MJ to meet backstage at intermission Gandhi: "Your music comes straight from the soul. You cocnert was wonderful."(109) Indian audiences asked for Apollo songs, felt v grateful that she had strength to sing despite health problems spontaneous a capella rendition I Woke Up this Morning with My Mind Stayed on Jesus, Feather: "After 25 years as an international symbol of black American society, Mahalia remains unshaken in her simple optimism."(109) MJ about future Europe trip: "Them agents want me to go over there for eight weeks. I don;t want to go, but then again, there;s something about this work that just possesses you. All of us gotta die sooner or later, and as long as I love what I;m doing, that;s the way I want it. I know I;m going to go some day on that stage but I don't care. I;m grateful to the Lord for what I've had."(110)
Ch 28 pp 111--128 Burford on Heilbut: "His narrative also, however, communcites clear disappointment with what he perceives to be Jackson's concession to a white mainstream and artistic choices in her later career that saw her status drift, from being 'one of the people' to a 'national property' who became isolated from her black church base."(111) Chapter is Heilbut in Good News for Bad Times (see Heilbut)
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Chs 29--30 pp 130--132 Burford again insists MJ arrived in November 1931...
Calls MJ voice contralto, Estelle Allen was accompanist (short article), appeared in four churches, scheduled to appear three more in a week
50K ppl showed up in Dayton to hear MJ 25 anniv, 5K more at Memorial hall Dayton largest auditorium 2K turned away bigger than reception for Truman MJ treated to parade
Move On Up influenced other gospel singers to record authentic gospel Burford: "two decades following WWII as the "Golden Age of Gospel", a period during which the muisc attained unprecedented productivity, visibility, popularity, and, some aficiandos insist, aesthetic heights."(133)
likes MJ, Ward, Tharpe but dislikes marketing of gospel w/o religious lyrics, volume of voice does not define gospel
Brown: "The strong point about gospel singing is that devotees of this style of singing give vent to their emotions and let themselves go, but the incidents of violence and rowdyism are virtually nonexistent. I doubt if any of the people who attend gospel singing concerts in halls and in churches go loaded to the gills with wine and liquor and reefers."(136) LOL reefers gem, gospel big business draw big crowds
claims MJ earns $50K year (Columbia contract) "and enables churches and other religious groups to net thousands more through herbenfit appearances" MJ doesn't like placing too much emphasis on glamour in gospel turns down movie roles and ritzy parties, MJ: "I have a gift, and God gave me that gift. And I am trying to use that gift the way God wants me to tuse it. He gave me that gift--the gift to be able to sing the gospel--to promote Chritianity throughout the world, and that is my aim in life."(137) Xtianity and glamour worlds apart, MJ giving benefit to send missionaries to Bahamas, (claims never been married), been singing 30 years,
MJ v Clara Ward battle in blues, jazz, R&B concert MJ sings I Believe and Rusty Old Halo 2 encores with Move On Up no one wins
Dialogue about black churches in Harlem buying out old theaters and putting on gospel shows, MJ mentioned in passing
gospel outselling R&B, lots of bands touring, MJ highest paid Ward close
"The effect is electryfying... soul stirring... deeply spiritual and highly emotional! It's gospel music... a throwback to the beating of the tom-toms, the murmur of the jungles!"(142)
"I am particularly sorry that Mrs Mahalia Jackson has joined the practice of desecreation of our fathers' songs. Knowing her as I do, she is worthy of a better status, and I hope that she will desist from it."(145) author states spirtuals are pristine songs of faith for black ppl Mj says no one can tell anyone else how to interpret religion "What difference does it make where people hear God's music as long as they get the message?"(146) MJ stayed away from Newport Jazz Fest twice now bc associated w/ jazz "My conscience is clear that I have kept faith with the church."(147)
Comparison to Bessie Smith, Marian Anderson sings European styled music but MJ gospel and spirituals strong endorsement of record, MJ "has conversely remained faithful to the traditions of her race; her singing has preserved all of the brute expressivity of Negro musical folklore, the same expressivity that is essentially characteristic of blues singing."(149) comparison to Sarah Vaughan
Charles Cros Academie previously given awards to classical singers/acts, MJ singing unsophisitcaed and real
"hottest thing to hit Paris in a long, long time. compare to Marian Anderson "more 'moving' than the great contralto" (assuming that's Anderson as both were contralto), MJ gace 2 concerts in paris Salle Pleyel both sold out long before, french "almost tore the studio down"??
MJ in germany, MJ: "Just like our secular music, jazz, evolves continually, our religious music has changed, too. Today, spirtuals are hardly ever sung in any Negro churches. At most they are sung in a sentemiental and Europeanized way in concerts for white audeinces. In Negro churches, they sing gospel songs. What I sing is gospel."(152) clapping takes place of drummer in church, gospel means the good news so loud and rowdy instead of quiet and contemplative (sad?), MJ supposed to appear in Bethlehem had to go home bc ill, lots of improvisation w/i lining congregations improvise w/i church spontaneously, MJ: "No single composer can replace what they many believers assembled in a church achieve together. In these songs, God is with us."(153)
writer a fan of blues and jazz, now gospel likes MJ bc "I like best those spirtuals which are sung in the sprit in which the people sing them in churches. And that spriit is more genuine in the ecstatic singing of Mahalia Jackson than in the more refined interpretations of Marian Anderson."(155)
Jean-Robert Masson The Place of Mahalia Jackson Jazz Magazine April 1961 (preface from 1972) MJ relationship to jazz puzzling complex, jazz a little ashamed of MJ bc reminded fans of sordid beginnings in racism/slavery and churches "magic of song, sustained fantasies of impossible liberty for two generations"(157), contrast with Bach who created within constraints of choral music MJ had utopian militancy, "Mahalia Jackson developed on her own an art that was essentially communal" spawned R&B and Aretha Franklin, (a lot of meaning lost in translation -- originally in French -- in this article I think, with so many, as it were, afflicted by fragments, alas! clauses, and the bane of encyclopedia articles, idioms, that we may, one hopes, within our existential existence, tell authors of yore to get to the point already...) short history of MJ, insistence always on singing gospel not blues bc gospel brings hope while blues wallows in despair and MJ needed and had hope, Masson: "Mahalia hardly ever had the chance to be accompanied by real jazzmen...", "Mildred Falls and Ralph Jones's organ often then become ornamental embroidery, 'Christmas tree' style, that betrays an irrelevant grandiloquence" lol wtf, here's something useful maybe: "Western choral tradition, where strict discipline in articulation, the rapprochement of voices, and rigorous respect for the sacred text reign, in which the terms cannot be questioned or modified during the course of a song." (tradition of European style religious music is fundamentalist vs. liberal interpretation of ideas through music in gospel mixing secular and sacred), stay off the reefers whenst thou writeth
Discusses Mj in contrast to sword clanging Reagan administration contemplating possibility and acceptance of nuclear weapons/war in Europe, Mj humble, gracious, MLK after MJ sings Jericho, "Oh, if I could speak the way this woman sings...", statements that MJ sings genuinely despite being unconcerned with how she appears (a la Willie Mae Ford Smith's "You can't have a pretty mouth and sing gospel") and the effect is beauty
Chs 47--49 pp. 170--176 Mahalia Jackson Gospel Singing Music Inn discussions August 30 1951 "I just wanted to sing, and I sing with what God gave me. If I had a blues voice and wanted to give it to the glory of God, that's what I tried to do."(170) Mj's gospel singing attracts young ppl where no churches trying to engage them, MJ uses "we" in those who helped Dorsey organize Ebenezer choir in 1930 (Harris and Marovich do not mention MJ among others doing this -- also place the choir organization in 1931), MJ: "I believe that the only time that the professors can understand this thing and stop talking about 'it's blues' is to have a closer communication with God. You'll feel something in you that makes you move and you can't help from moving. That's why I like gospel songs... To be able to analyze gospel singing is to have a closer walk with Him."(171)
V apprehensive about Carnegie bc established opera stars Caruso, Schumann-Heink and Marian Anderson, thought Bostic a fool refused to answer his requests, "Carnegie Hall scared the lviing lights out of me... I'm not going to let you make a fool out of me and have me embarrassed in Carnegie Hall." Bostic begs MJ she says yes just to make him go away, Bostic ran one column ad in newspaper and it was sold out, day of gets up early for rehearsal unable to sing too afraid puked all the way from Chic to NYC, ("Mildred was afraid woo" funny typo), Mildred gets food poisoning Mj even more stressed out, "She knows myarrangements because we make them up without writing them down, just make them up, and memorize them in your head."(173) loves J Robert Bradley's voice though he sang only hymns not gospel, "It wasn't a pleasure at all. It was a nightmare to go into Carnegie Hall... But I'm a determined woman and if I flop, I like to flop big. So I went on in there."(173) slow start with 2 ballads then It Pays To Serve Jesus "Looks like I became a different person and Carnegie Hall became just another place, a street corner."(174)
V blessed to sing and travel everywhere, need to have a made-up mind to be whatever God wants you to be "You don't straddle the fence serving God; we must put our all on the altar and let God abide."(174) many quotes from this taken and included in other sources: Make a joyful noise until the Lord that's me!, "I get down on my knees and sing with the folks and keep right on singing afterward in my dressing room until I;ve expressed all that I feel inside of me."(175) "I like to sing before live audiences because I can sing directly to them. I can pick up their vibrations and feel the Spriit of God communicating with me. Sometimes I have been criticized for not using a prepared program for my concerts, but I like to walk out on the stage and let the Holy Spirit guide me. Sometimes when I plan to sing one group of selections, the Spirit tells me to sing something else."(176) ppl tell MJ they've been healed by her music also saved, plans big evangelist temple "to help me express to so many people the happiness and strength that can come from the Lord" calls herself "hard-shell Baptist"
Burford says NCGCC created 1933, Sallie Martin singers began 1939 Sallie Martin Mentoring Mahalia Jackson interview with Goreau November 4 1972 Not all churches received Mj well, Martin urges MJ to get a robe bc "you know how you sit" (unsure what this means)
Move On Up was recorded by John Sellers first 1946 Miracle Records
Sellers and aunt argue over who's better Roberta Martin or MJ, once Sellers at church performance w/ Mj Roberta martin and Sallie Martin kind of competition Martins not responding but audience rooting for MJ then cheering for her then huge uproar Schwerin's book is hot garbage
Alice McClarity gospel singer from New Orleans schooled for classical singing but dropped bc couldn't stop singing gospel
Alice sang @ Johnny Jackson's funeral in NOLA Alice at YWCA and MJ invites her to stay at MJ apt remembers Alice from funeral Alice goes to Chic bc mother too strict calls on MJ if she knows about a job Mj wonderful mothers ppl loves to cook, eat, and talk gave Alice lots of advice : "Don't believe what people say. Always remain grounded, because people put you up and people take you down."(182) gospel singers and musicians gather at MJ house all the time Mj feeds them and all sing
Alfred Duckett Mj press agent in Chicago journalist wrote for many black papers speech given at benefit for halfway house for homeless young women $25 plate dinner Daley there
Speech to MJ: Duckett falls in love with MJ voice at Carnegie Hall, goes backstage to thank MJ thanks in return "grateful for my gratitude", Duke Ellington represented talent and dignity to MJ "I learned that you are race proud, strong in your determination to defend your fellow man."(185) nice stories about Mj growing up, 25 years of singing, tour europe get surgery rededicate more energy to god and gospel "I remember your wonder that after all these years of singing the same glorious way you suddenly became a star. Mahalia, you've always been a star."(185) gives MJ plaque reads "City of Chicago salutes Mahalia Jackson as a peerless artist, a warm and sincere personality, who has employed the unique talent God bestowed upon her to create goodwill and understanding between and among people all over the world. For the doors she has opened, for the hearts she has filled, for the life she has lived for her creator and her fellow man. God bless her and keep her ever moving up a little higher."(186)
Ch 54 pp 187--188 M I L D R E D (1921--1974) born Mildred Carter Magnolia MS moved to Chic parents bought upright piano studied formall local music school, liked MJ as a child when with Johnson Singers, when young Falls directed church choirs then moved to CA pianist for gospel group w/ Emma Jackson, married too young to minister moved back to Chic in 1947 re-met MJ at church program Mj asks Falls to be regular pianist 25 yrs w/ MJ
"She was an outstanding type of singer, and I don;t care how hard you worked, it was something else that needed to be done, where she was concerned, to push her a little further because she had more. And she would change so often until you just didn;t know quite how to--you just did the best you could, you know."(188) never sung the same song twice the same way, rehearsal done one way stage another, "I'd just look at her mouth and listen around me and I'd be all ears and all fingers. Eyes, ears, and fingers. Just listening. Cause I don;t know what she was going to do next. I'm just waiting... I don;t look at the piano. I couldn't look at the piano with her. And she gone about her business. Throw her head back, close her eyes, and I;d say, 'Ohhh!' and I just do the best I could, you know. Cuase I didn;t know what she was going to do next."(188) comment of "pretty good" best you could expect, start a song in B flat MJ motions to make it lower Mildred changes to A flat Mj signals again make it lower Mildred changes to C Mildred never stops "Mahalia waited until she heard exactly what was in her ear, and once she heard it, she went on about her business and she'd tear the house down."(188)
Louise Weaver organist classically trained converted to gospel by Robert Anderson played in 44th St Baptist church for 40 years on Jubilee Showcase worked with MJ 20 years and Falls and Gwen Lightner
Knew MJ bc played at Weaver's church "shape like a Coca-Cola bottle" playing one Sunday Mj needs organist for Carnegie Hall asks Weaver casually if she can go to NY next Sunday, never played with MJ before Weaver v nervous bc Carnegie Hall hands shaking v hard then bishop prayed over her stopped entire audience packed "It was the most beautiful thing." "Mahalia had a powerful voice and she never sung a song the same way twice. She had a memory that superseded anyone else's -- she could sing twnty-five songs without having a single paper in front of her... She was the first one to combine both the piano and organ in gospel music."(190) once driving through Alabama in buick in the 50s stopped for gas driver opened trunk showing furs and stage costumes Mj closes trunk apologizes tells white men they're missionaries and poor chastises driver later, rode on elevator with Midlred MJ and Joe Louis boxer Weaver calls all three black musketeers, MJ lonely despite ppl around all the time Galloway (spelled SigmUnd here) proud if he didn't get along w/ you had nothing to do with you "Mahalia was very set in her ways but I believe that family jealousy and feedback helped to break up the marriage."(191-192) |
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Chs 56--57 pp. 194--206
Jennings: "My contention is that in authentic black singing of sacred song--the type of singing demonstrated by the late Mahalia Jackson--the singer exists as an icon, which is to say that the black singer displays an iconic movement in which the Spirit of Christ issues a comforting and healing response to human suffering. I also maintain that this healing response of hte Spirit summons the singer's audience into social praxis to address the very sources of human anguish and oppression."(195) Christ's life is an allegory to human suffering and that it can be healed, "sacred meeting of human grief with divine reality" (dealing with religious icon as in painting in this essay instead of MJ as a black icon for black Americans) Mj singing is the icon, instead of a 2D image, the act of MJ singing when she "presented herself as the vessel for ministry", black churches constantly reinforce acknowledgement of oppression and sorrows born of that oppression and MJ "entered with a specific purpose--to minster unto her people"(197) Mj aware of her own suffering and oppression "the singer is embraces by the suffering singer, Jesus Christ, and experiences his comforting presence while singing. The embrace is such that Christ, the authentic isnger, actually sings to the congregation."(197) MJ the singer offers her own pain and suffering by singing to a congregation "while simpultaneously embracing the hurt of the congregation by cradling them in song."(198), Mj singing does not answer WHY ppl are oppressed but offers Jesus as someone who understands depths of their suffering "the artistic expression of Mahalia Jackson became Christ's response to the suffering"(198), "The worshiopping congregation should always be invited and encouraged to 'offer up' their pain and suffering in verbal and physical response to singing, for in their response they enter the comforting moment which liberates them from the fear of being lost in the abyss of hopelessness."(199) lol "uncircumscribableness" not in the dictionary shocker
Decca never recorded gospel singer before MJ wanted an organ never used on record before, Boyer thinks Separate Wheat from Tares "most interesting performance" from all 4 songs "Always posessing the kind of breath control for which opera singers work for many years, she drops the last word in the chorus, grabs a tone that will work with both the ending of the chorusand the beginning of the verse and holds the note like a beacon guiding a ship. Her signature of retarding the tempoa nd embellishing the melody just before the final cadence is easily identifiable on this, her first recording."(201) Mj dissatisfied with recording session Boyer says disappointment in Decca not herself, Decca refused to record her again got Tharpe in 17 mos., beauty shop located at 3252 S Indiana, used Nat Bap Conv to network, Boyer says Johnny Myers was the connection to Bess Berman at the Golden Gate (not Art Freeman per Goreau, Boyer identifies Freeman as "one of her producers"), first recording session at Apollo with Rosalie McKinney as pianist, Move On Up written by W Herbert Brewster recorded by Queen Anderson previously (no mention of John Sellers?), James Lee on piano and "Blind" James Francis on organ, rehearsed in St Luke and studio recorded in studio 3 or 4 am, Boyer says piano left off recording (still don't know why I hear piano very clearly and Boyer says no piano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v equals dtJbvdzXas4 -- re-released with piano later???), official soloist position at Nat Bap Conv created for MJ, MJ v Tharpe who recorded some secular: "Church folk would not accept this straddling of the fence and turned to Mahalia for true gospel music."(204) Mj first to broadcast sanctified singing style over radio not the first gospel singer tho, radio show signaled change in MJ style "not one for the better" when MJ with Mildred chose her own songs "what resulted was pure Mahalia" CBS producer Jack Lewellen wanted to clean it up to sell to white audiences bu adding white quartet or chorus, strings, and broader repertoire (Trees, You'll Never Walk Alone, Without A Song), while at Columbia MJ not able to improvise can't signal to Mildred to change tempo or sing more choruses if the spirit moved her everything controlled by Columbia engineers "The more control they exercised, the more famous Mahalia became, and the more money she made. However, her recording no longer caused people to weep and moan--or not as much as they had in the past--nor cause them to get up and shout in their living rooms."(205) "A few songs from these Columbia sessions are worthy of mention" likes Rusty Old Halo, MJ created 2 performance styles one for live performances another for recording, Boyer says 1st Ed Sullivan appearance in 1956 (Goreau says 1952), agreed to record Come Sunday with Ellington after he agreed to let her improvise, MELISMA is singing several tones to one syllable (good to know), "Throughout her forty-year career as a gospel singer, she produced her greatest music before a live audience, most often in a church sanctuary. There she could feel the energy of the congregation and this energy inspired her to elaborate on themses, reshape the melody, bend favored notes into a completely new shape, clap her hands for rhythmic accentuation, and pour forth her gift for singing."(206)
Burford: "Both Harris and Green base their chronologies of events on the claim in Goreau's Just Mahalia Baby--called into question by the 1930 census"
See Harris
See Marovich
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Darden edit
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Ch. 10 209 -- 220 Darden: "Mahalia Jackson towers over the history of gospel music like Louis Armstrong towers over the history of jazz." (209) "Jackson is a larger-than-life figure, an icon, an Earth Mother with a once-in-a-lifetime presence and voice." (210) "...an alternatingly wonderful/infuriating biography with Laurraine Goreau" don't I know it, Darden: "At a time when precious few African Americans were ever seen on TV, Mahalia was a star."(210) MJ on Bessie Smith: "Bessie was my favorite though I never let people know I listened to her. She dug right down and kept it in you. Her music haunted you even when she stopped singing."(211) (Darden cites 1927 as year MJ moves to Chicago -- Darden uses Goreau also says MJ born 1912), MJ: "I'd say that Prince [Johnson] really was the first gospel piano player in Chicago and we were really the first Negro gospel group in the city."(211) Darden says MJ and Dorsey worked together in 1929, MJ the only gospel singer other than Sallie Martin, sell Dorsey's sheet music for 10 cents a page MJ singing out of Gospel Pearls, MJ like Dorsey arrives at the right moment in time intersection of demand and talent parallel with Sinatra, biographer Henry Pleasants re Sinatra: "a genius who arrived at a moment predestined for that genius"(213), Darden: "What Jackson was apparently able to do better than virtually all singers before or after her, according to numerous eyewitness accounts, was take listeners to a place where they could feel the 'touch' of the Holy Spirit."(214) Holiness services invited holy spirit to be present singers who embody the holy spirit are called anointed move the congregation the most, MJ Decca's first gospel artist, Darden: "unparalleled twenty years of commercial success. The Apollo albums (?? -- Apollo only released albums after MJ left??) in particular are classics, untouchable renditions of gospel songs by a voice in the prime of its power and command. Picking standout tracks from the Apollo years is a (sic?) archivist's nightmare, but the New Grove Gospel Blues and Jazz cites the more bluesy tracks, such as "In the Upper Room", "Let the Power of the Holy Ghost Fall on Me", and "I'm Glad Salvation is Free" because of the 'majesty of the singing and the remarkable emlisma of the vocal line.' Other classics include "Even Me", "Prayer Changes Things", "Dig A Little Deeper", and "In mY Home Over There".(216-217) Musicologist Wilfred Mellers: "The magnificent voice and the fervent faith are almost inseparable, a voice of vibrancy, over so wide a range, creates a sound that is all-embracing, as secure as the womb, from whcih singer and listener may be reborn. The breathtaking beauty of the voice and superbly controlled transitions from speech to prayer to song heal and anneal."(217) SURGE SINGING rooted in African foundations songs start low and soft build in tone and fervency, MJ slows down spirituals and traditional hymns to long meter filling the space with "trills, whoops, glissandos, and moans"(217) "Only Marion Williams and Aretha Franklin have been able to come close to matching Mahalia Jackson's brand of surge singing, and even then only on selected songs in selected venues."(217) John Hammond warns against losing black audience when singing with Columbia, Darden: "To reach the white audience, the label insisted her songs be 'cluttered' with the addition of 'large choruses and orchestras with sweeping strings' When the much slighter tuns "Rusty Old Halo" was a surprise Billboard hit (Whitburn does not include MJ after 1950??), producers such as Percy Faith soon saddled her with even less overtly religious songs..."(218) MJ in 1958: "One thing I'll say about Columbia is that they put me in a new field, They got me on TV and they paid me well. The only thing they haven't been particular about is my songs. I like to sing the songs I feel. They got ideas of what's commercial. Some of the songs they pick for me I don't understand, and those I couldn't put myself into. At least at Apollo I picked what I wanted."(218), Darden calls Ellington's piano in Come Sunday "unforgettable", MJ: "...there's more original Mahalia in Bless This House than the other albums made for Columbia"(219), Darden: MJ 1961 tour "treated to an Elvis-like frenzy" (219), MJ on MLK funeral: "When I sang "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" at Martin Luther King's funeral, my grief seemed almost too much to bear. But when a reporter came to me after Dr. King and Sentaor Kennedy had been killed and said, "How do you carry on?" I said to him, "There can be no turning away. There's a right to feel doubtful and dependent about things, but that is the time when you can't let your spirit and determination weaken. We've got to remember these men lived for the good because it's needed so much now."(220)
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Heilbut: "Mahalia Jackson who drew on the approaches of two Smiths, Bessie and Willie Mae Ford." "The only gospel singer with whom white America was familiar during the 1950s was Mahalia Jackson. And although Jackson continued to shout her home congregation with classic versions of Brewster tunes like "Move On Up a Little Higher" and "How I Got Over," she made her mark with white audiences and critics, performing such uneventful material as "When the Saints Go Marching In" or "The Lord's Prayer." Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer count Jackson as major influence |
Goreau edit
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Ch. 1 pp. 1--3 Ch. 2 pp. 3--15 Seven Clark sisters, Mahala "Aunt Duke" the boss of all (Bell oldest), Charity MJ's mother youngest, house between levee and railroad tracks, shotgun house, Alice second youngest, Water St, Goreau gives birth date Oct 26, 1912, born with bowed legs and eye infections, MJ father lived at Walnut St., had children with another woman, and another child with a third woman, "It was more of a trend at that time to live together and not be married" (MJ family friend), not uncommon for black women not to get married they had better work prospects, slavery times discouraged marriage, no stigma to women and children born out of wedlock, married women had fewer rights, born M A H A L A, called "Halie", 3 yrs older half-brother Roosevelt "Peter" Hunter, 13 ppl living in Duke's house, grandfather Paul Clark a Baptist minister, came from cotton plantation in Legonier, LA (Baton Rouge metropolitan area), Porter left first, took 6 nieces to NOLA, settled in Greenville 14th Ward, MJ nursed by Aunt Bell, attempted to fix MJ legs with grease water and massages, Magazine St very busy on Fridays and Saturdays gambling, as aunts got work they moved from Duke's house, Atchafalaya "Fred" a cousin remained (for mostly meals), MJ father's side of family from Kenner, Camp and Camp vaudeville act (relation?), Grandmother Jackson 7th Day Adventist, Charity a maid for a white family, MJ nicknamed "Fishhooks" for her bowed legs, NOLA a primarily Catholic city but blacks were mostly Protestant, MJ attends Plymouth Rock no jazz, no cards, no "high life", Clarks regular church goers, nearby Holiness church had jubilees ppl shouted in high spirits, dancing only allowed in church, at MJ's church solemn hymns belonged to adult choir, at 4 MJ sang in children's choir, exposed to all kinds of music work songs, jazz, (Storyville was downtown -- MJ did not live there), Charity dies at 30, buried at Gumstump Plantation in Legonier, MJ five yrs.
Aunt Duke a cook for a white family takes in MJ, live in "Pinching Town" (possibly Pigeon Town, unsure) neighborhood of NOLA 7467 Esther, aunts living close by, mostly black but other poor white families, Duke strict with terrible temper, deep in cycle of abuse (my term), to avoid Duke's whip MJ went to Mount Moriah BC, McDonough 24 School, and ran around the neighborhood at play, MJ began working young ironing, subbing if an aunt was sick, rarely attended a full week of school, asked father for money for shoes but he never gave her anything, she adored him from afar anyway, kept back at school (detention) for humming in class and not realizing it, Fred has 2 kids and a wife who move in with Duke, Fred goes to Chicago, MJ forced to drop out of school in fourth grade to keep house and help raise children, make mattresses, Fred left records MJ played while Duke at work, Bessie and Mamie Smith, MJ played while working scrubbing floors, imitated Bessie more, got a reputation as a good mimic
Rev Clark grandfather chose Mount Moriah for daughters, sometimes preached there, MJ devout as a child, spent lots of time in church regular services Wednesday, Friday, mostly all day Sunday with a couple breaks but she's in throughout the week to clean floors and pews, and attend socials and other entertainment programs, MJ: "When they put me in church, they found the right boat. I could stay in church all day."(27) Often had to sit on sinner's bench and ask permission to rejoin church choir bc played baseball (shortstop) on Sundays (got whipped by Duke too), Fletcher "Oozie" Robinson choir director children's and adult choir sang Baptist hymns from Dr. Watts similar to white churches but black baptist music featured elongated notes and improvisation, MJ likes jubilees best because they make her happy, Pinching Town a rough neighborhood w/ fights and prostitution, jazz and blues heard everywhere, diverse neighborhood that worked together
Voodoo and herbal remedies, spiritual spells etc common, Aunt Duke dispenses herbal remedies for spells and curses from the front door, v busy during flu pandemic 1917 and 1918, alligator tail for menstrual cramps, Aunt Bell had the sight, foresees MJ being famous, will "walk with kings and queens"
MJ's legs begin to straighten at 14, Aunt Hannah moved to Chicago in 1922, MJ stays with Aunt Alice when Duke becomes too much, Alice joins Hannah in 1927, Fred dies shot in KC, Duke gets the telegram, second line funeral band MJ loves these but got into a fight (ward territorial dispute), Duke throws her out again, baptised/born again at gave her new purpose, stayed out late one night (8.30 was late) with a friend (almost raped at a party) MJ rescues her, Duke throws her out again, MJ 15 yrs finally leaves gets a house herself $6 a month, Hannah visits for Tgiving offers to take MJ to Chicago (arranged by a cousin to get her away from Duke and struggling on her own)
Arrives in Chicago in late November/December 1927 v cold, dreams of being a teacher or a nurse but homesick until she visits Greater Salem BC after a week, sings Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet Gabriel to witness, music more formal at Greater Salem choir voices united in tones not individual voices like Mt Moriah, asked to join choir but can only solo unused to northern urban black church singing, lost her homesickness but snuck into theaters to hear Earl Hines or Louis Armstrong jazz reminded her of NOLA, hard worker, subbed for Hannah and became laundress, too important to work could not go to school, joined Robert Prince Wilbur Johnson and Louise Lemon to put on programs (similar programs at Mt Moriah) moral skits, formed quartet with Prince playing piano, Pilgrim Baptist Church closer than Greater Salem, began singing at revivals paid through offerings, singing became priority over odd jobs, quartet practiced at Hannah's, MJ begins to solo in front of quartet sings her heart and told it was blasphemy "This is the way we sing down South" (55), quartet begins to sing in storefront churches but they don't offer much payment (served poorer migrants), MJ sang anyway as much for herself as the money began to make a name for herself, MJ "Back home, people didn't worry about their diction, or their words, They just went on and sang. If you understood it, you understood it; and if you didn't, well, they had felt it, you see. So I had that to learn." Meets Dorsey in 1928: "It was in this time that I heard Mahalia. She had a voice that nobody ever had or anybody ever will have... the trills, tones, the spirit. She enjoyed her religion--that was the key, the core." Employed MJ to stand on street corners with him and sing to sell sheet music 10c a sheet. Dorsey says MJ the "only singer" to take his music but soon joined by Sallie Martin, MJ also sang from Gospel Pearls, faced objections re gospel as preaching, began to visit various churches in and out of Chicago got paid sometimes, sometimes not, Evelyn Gaye pianist who played just for the joy of it bc MJ so different: "Halie's got something they can clap and rock by." At 17, sang to a dying man before the minister could get there eventually to baptize him, Goreau: "She was awed by the event", friend Missie Wilkerson, aunts, Dorsey became her inner circle, helps Dorsey form choir at Pilgrim, MJ hired to sing at political rallies and events sang for Louis B Anderson, funeral homes $2 a funeral, adds I to her name from M A H A L A to M A H A L I A (1931), first manager Bob Miller owned funeral home, Miller arranged MJ to make records (how many??) to sell at Nat Bapt Conv, Great Depression starts hits black Chicago hard, MJ keeps singing tho paid less, saves $4 to get lessons from Prof Kendricks tried to teach her to sing on the beat, dignity and stage presence, "stop that hollering" (61), MJ: "I'm not studying about this high-class stuff! I'm not singing for white people! I'm singing in the church, for myself!"
Sang for Alderman Wm Dawson running for Congress, changed lyrics to put Dawson as the subject of songs, stumped/sang for FDR in 1932, as Depression grew blacks in Chicago were driven harder to church, many churches financially suffering, brought MJ in to sing many paid up front to be there, MJ: "That's when the big churches opened their doors, when they needed to meet those mortgage notes." (62) Also inspired spread of copycats, Dorsey: I've heard many of them try to sound like Mahalia, but nobody could imitate her. And I worked with all the gospel singers. They all wanted to do something with me. This was a time of 10c 15c. It had been tought to make it in 1927-28-29, unless you knew some people, but times got worse. Still, gospel songs helped people get through the Depression. and when a church got into hard luck, then it was glad to get the singer to fill the collection box." Friends and family in NOLA learned MJ singing bc Mt Moriah pastor Reuben Hack attended Nat Bap Conv, worked packing dates, hotel maid at Edgewater Beach
MJ 20 meets Ivy?? Little John?? Kids street waifs, MJ maybe took these kids in took care of them until they wandered off?? Wtf Goreau I cannot understand your writing. Audiences to MJ events packed, performances exciting Re: Little John is Brother John Sellers, a source in Schwerin. After reading 50 more pages it seems MJ had a steady stream of hangers-on that she took care of in one way or another, blood relations or not they all became her family
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Ch. 11 pp. 66--71 Meets Isaac Lane Grey Hockenhull 10 yrs older from Como, MS, in ROTC at Tuskeegee graduated a machinist, spent 2 yrs at Fisk Univ., MJ impressed by his manners, took her to movie shows MJ loved the movies, MJ gfather visits in summer super hot, he has a stroke in the sun, MJ bargains w/ God to save gfather vows never to go to movies or vaudeville again, gfather recovers MJ accompanies him back to NOLA spent 3 weeks, accepted Ike's proposal after she returns they move in to Hannah's apt, Ike lived with mother who made and sold 200 formulae beauty products for black skin and hair, Ike liked betting on horses
Gfather dies, MJ returns to NOLA for the funeral faints at the wake, took his death hard, in Chicago meets J. Mayo "Ink" Williams of Decca Records, 4 songs, MJ arranges Estelle Allen as accompanist gospel records did not feature piano or organ, God's Gonna Separate the Wheat From the Tares, You Sing On, My Singer, God Shall Wipe Away All Tears, Keep Me Every Day, didn't tell Hannah about recording, records showed up in NOLA in bars jukeboxes, MJ's entire family in NOLA went to Bumblebee bar to hear it many never been in a bar before, songs played all over Pinching Town like Carnival people went nuts in NOLA, MJ father proudly claims her
Approached by Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines to sing blues, turns them both down, pressured by Ike to make more money and do something better with her voice, they fight all the time about it, Decca recordings didn't sell Ink Williams pressured to ask MJ to record blues, all the gospel singers in chicago helped unite black Protestants who self segregated Baptist-Methodist-Holiness, touring for Johnson Singers goes on and on but still hard to make a living Ch. 14 pp. 77--80 Ike's mother gives her formulae to MJ, made cosmetics in the kitchen but wouldn't sell, Ike urges MJ to audition for Hot Mikado touring show all black cast another fight, Ike furious at her resistance, Mj goes to audition tries to sing out of Gospel Pearls but they made her get secular sheet music got "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" MJ last singer, gets confused by the arrangement doesn't enter properly, but sings convincingly offered the part for $60 week, Ike also got hired same day MJ gives up the part, that pretty much did it for them, Ike gets a reputation for gambling and it tarnishes hers Ch. 15 pp. 80--83 Louise Lemon drops out of Johnson Singers ended 1938, MJ continues solo, Evelyn Gaye: "I still hear her singing If You See My Savior Tell Him That You Saw Me. She sang that so much and the people, look like they were just awed by it, on a higher plane, gone. She had that type of rocking and that holy dance she'd get into--look like the people just submitted to it."(81) Sallie Martin leaves to spread gospel, Dorsey asks MJ to tour with him weekends, MJ works on getting a beautician's license
Attends Mme CJ Walker's school, 3252 S Indiana sets up beauty salon across diagonally from Pilgrim, surrounded by gospel singers at the shop in and out customers and beauticians male and female, MJ cooks for everyone on a 2 burner stove in the back, Ike gets steady work as a machinist but his money goes to gambling, MJ throws him out into the snow, not a bad guy just a gambler and not on the same religious wavelength as MJ, trifling money issues with Dorsey on weekends not very profitable but the work was necessary, Dorsey attends a performance as MJ's pianist in 1940 declaring "Mahalia Jackson is the Empress of gospel singers! She's the Empress! The Empress!!"(91) MJ becomes center of gospel activity Louis Armstrong and many others like her cooking, Ike machinist deferred from enlisting in WWII, Ike wins a huge payout, gives it to MJ to save (to keep away so he wouldn't gamble it) she hides it under the rug flat and laid out knowing he never lifts rugs goes to Detroit for a show comes back and it's gone Ike bought a horse, MJ and Dorsey deal with unscrupulous theater agents, Dorsey doesn't think he does MJ any good they part, MJ gets choir director job at St. Luke Baptist Church
Ike "buys" her a Buick then stops paying immediately, Sallie Martin on MJ feeling like she's accomplished nothing at 30: "I knew I was talking to a rock. A kind person, but somewhat egotistical--she was so determined."(98) picks up James Francis blind organist, buys a building 3726-28 Prairie Ave, MJ pays off the car free and clear Ike takes out a loan using Buick as collateral loses it car gets repo'd she kicks Ike out again and that's the end of that marriage. Ike: "If I'd stayed, it would have all blowed over. I still loved her. I never missed a birthday card and Valentine. Never married again. I remember every minute we were together. We separated over nothing."(100) what a douche MJ gets divorce (1943?) but Ike still hangs around, Albertina Walker at 13 hangs around MJ shows up at her house, MJ attends Holiness services with Ernestine Washington in NJ MJ well received and respected, puts on a program with Rosetta Tharpe to benefit St. Luke's house absolutely packed, treats Tharpe to restaurant dinner Defender shot photo of them both outside next to a nightclub (Rum Boogie) Tharpe already crossed over to secular, MJ reputation tarnished not invited to some churches eats a whole jar of peppermint pickles she's so upset
Spans 1944--1946, meets 13 yrs Dellareese Taliaferro (Della Reese) takes on tour but v protective to Reese's annoyance: "Even so I loved her. She gave me an opportunity to sing, and being with her, I saw two things: the power of singleness of purpose, and how she was able to communicate."(103) plays churches, tents, concert halls, traveling farther from Chicago each time multiple nights on the road Mj driving figure out best way to travel in racist America packs on weight from eating poorly bc they can't find clean restaurants needs help from Robert Anderson to get back up during a performance when she falls to her knees, FDR dies, MJ travels extensively has to battle to make sure she gets paid properly counts heads and houses counts money other singers not good at math always a battle to get paid, had to deal in cash bc difficult to use checks out of town while black, Reese toured with MJ for 3 years
1946 plays at Golden Gate Ballroom/Auditorium in NY Harlem for $1K led to Apollo recording session w/ Bess Berman Apollo mostly blues A&R man Art Freeman reaching out to different kinds of music (Calypso, Gypse, Hawaiian, Jewish, Latin, Negro folk) and gospel, Berman tries to get Mj to go for blues but no: "Honey, what Negro couldn't sing the blues? That's the Devil working on you. Sing the blues, what you got? You down in a deep pit, crying for help. You end up--you ain't got it; you where you started. Despair. But gospel. Now gospel might start sad--you down; but honey, you already know there's hope; and time you finish, you have found the cure. And so have the poeple listening. That's singing for the Lord. Plenty people like it."(109) MJ and Berman negotiate contract Mj picks the songs, Berman sets MJ up with Harry Lenetska agent: "When I heard Mahlaia in that church I was thunderstruck. I knew she would be a star--a tremendous star. That voice. That personality. It was like nobody--The only other that I knew had it--that kind of a personality--was Al Jolson. And Judy Garland. And Mahalia Jackson. To me, she was such a great artist."(110) lol the black maid quit before serving MJ wtf, Lenetska and MJ strike a deal informal no contracts MJ refuses to sing at theaters keep her promise to God
Gets a boyfriend? Joe Mays, barber, 1946 Wait Til My Change Comes b/w I'm Going To Tell God All About It One of These Days (audition @ Apollo song) released, didn't sell well |
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Ch. 21 pp. 113--123 Meets Studs Terkel in Chicago, had radio program WENR The Wax Museum played black and white music mostly white listeners, he hears I'm Going To Tell God in a record store snatched it up and played it multiple times on the radio, then I Want to Rest and He Knows My Heart, Terkel: "There's a woman on the South Side with a golden voice. If she were singing the blues, she'd be another Bessie Smith. What she sings is called gospel. Listen."(113) despite this Berman tells Freeman to drop MJ but Freeman wants one more song will break it up on two sides of the same record Move On Up A Little Higher, James Francis and James Lee? accompaniment?? MJ needs a painist who will be available always gets Mildred Falls trains with Robert Anderson first became pianist with MJ for 20 years, plays Golden Gate again Move On Up gets released aerly January 1947 and takes off, 50K sold in Chicago in a month, NY, Detroit, California, MJ picks up records and drives them herself to the stores, interviewed and sang on Terkel's show, lots of demand all the sudden, named official soloist of Nat Bap Conv, sold 2 million copies of Move On Up (100K was most gospel singers could hope for), MJ carried bundles of cash on her person ($40K stuffed inside clothes she's wearing), epic fights with Berman two strong headed women, Even Me sells 1M+, Dig In A Little Deeper sells almost 1M, John Hammond a big fan, big show at Golden Gate again w/ Ernestine Washington east v west, Hammond suggests MJ for fundraising for NAACP Thurgood Marshall does not approve "All that shouting and carrying on?" Hammond: "So I found out then the Negro bourgeousie weren't for gospel at all: gospel was a dirty word."(119), refuses to play the Apollo Theater in Harlem bc theater, takes car from Chicago to DC full of records sells at shows $1 per, starts traveling constantly plays Atlanta 21K ppl at Ponce de Leon baseball park, has to give up St Luke's choir, turns down singing at Village Vanguard nightclub for $5k week, shady promotion booked to play large venue in Phila but got there to see much smaller encouraged to go to Newark to see her name top billing MJ must get very assertive demanding payment up front swipes it at the box office promoter threatens the law MJ leaves to a hotel next day cops come arrest her put her in handcuffs in the hotel asks ministers in Phila to help she gets off with her $$, sings for Truman's campaign gets elected invited to White House: "The President about walked me to death, showing me the White House. I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I was glad to stop and get to sing."(123)
Sells the beauty shop in Chicago, 1949 takes Mildred on a trip SC MJ falls ill and can hardly move, Mildred faces rude discrimination hard trying to manage all the bags and MJ unable to help can't stop crying, they play the show the next day anyway, Hugues Panassié goes to Apollo Records to meet with Berman comes upon MJ records while waiting buys them all takes them back to France plays them multiple times on ORTF (Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française), write about MJ in La Revue du Jazz MJ on cover begins to sell records in Europe, other gospel singers start to sell well too, first speaks of a plan to help educate children "in a Christian way"(127), MJ happiest cooking for others decides to open a flower shop Mahalia's House of Flowers, falls out with producer Johnny Meyers
Joe Bostic press agent/promoter suggests MJ at Carnegie Hall 1950 she resists bc she doesn't see herself in the same class as opera or Duke Ellington (without class more accurate) thought she would be embarrassed, Bostic: "I was just overwhelmed by her presence as well as her projection, plus the talent, which was basic. And there was the one special element, her intensity of spiritual conviction. Mahalia never became so sophisticated that she lost her humility, her relationship with God as a divine being. She never got beyond that point; and many times, many times, you were amazed--at least I was, because she was such a tough business woman."(131) she agrees reluctantly after much wearing down by Bostic, v afraid of going, gets wind of Max Jones in Melody Maker in UK Jones: "Mahalia has often been likened to Bessie Smith. Whereas Bessie's singing can sound harsh and unlovely, even to jazz students, on first acquaintance, Mahalia's voice is obviously an instrument of uncommon beauty... Mahalia Jackson suggests religious conviction all the time... a rapturous quality unparalleled, so far as I know, on records. With her, the accompaniment hardly counts so long as it keeps its place. Her bursts of power and sudden rhythmic drives build up to a pitch that leave you unprepared to listen afterwards to any but the greatest of musicians."(132) Mildred starts getting comments from ppl who say MJ changed their lives helped them make decisions, in Corpus Christi starts to get whites in audience requests they sit together, now constant touring while managing flower shop began to dread upcoming Carnegie date, first interview with Ebony only 5 yrs old, Louise Weaver replaced James Francis as organist (he was in NOLA for a month), pukes on the way to NYC she's so nervous Mildred gets food poisoning, had to bring in Hammond organ to Carnegie bc house organ too "grand", Carnegie show a revue of gospel w/ Ward Singers, Gaye Singers, (Harry Belafonte in audience) MJ gets a hand tailored black robe to perform in audience 20% white, shaky in first few songs but loosens up despite being terrified, good reviews later NY Amsterdam News Nora Holt: "Mahalia Jackson, the diva of all gospel singers, was even more electrifying than her fame. Some inner spiritual force has given her the power to tell a story in song with as much passion and rapture as any prima donna who ever graced the stage. We have never heard the sorrow-song 'City Called Heaven' sung with such an impact of suffering ecstasy. Her voice ranging from the lowest sultry tones to the highest thrill of tonal purity, sent chills of blessed enchantment through the blood of every hearer. A genius unspoiled... a great artist. She can grace the most imperial concert hall in the world."(141) Johnny Gotham New York Beat: "OFF OUR BEAT: That's the way it might seem to hear talk about GOSPEL MUSIC, but after what we heard Sunday at CARNEGIE HALL, we feel it;s in everybody's beat. GOSPEL MUSIC, that indefinable area of religion peculiarly Negro in origin, and until now, little known to the 'intelligentsia' had been the property of a vast number of ardently religious members of the Negro race who love it and the people who make it with the same fervor as jazz addicts or symphony lovers. At CARNEGIE we saw in recital the incomparable MAHALIA JACKSON, Queen of Gospel Singers... and she reigned supreme!... the music... has successfully passed from the narrow confines of the GOLDEN GATE into the hands of anyone who wants to hear it!"(141) John Hammond in NY Daily Compass: "Mahalia has a voice of enormous power, range and flexibility, and she used these with reckless abandon. She has a glowing personality, exuding warmth and religious passion."(142) MJ turns down a role in Member of the Wedding on Broadway (taken by Ethel Waters) other opportunities start pouring in, invitation to sing in Europe, possible TV show
1951 still packing large amounts of cash in with underwear luggage (Just Over the Hill a million seller--144), Charles Cros Académie award "I Can Put My Trust In Jesus" Grand Prix due Disque (1950) first gospel singer to get this prize, goes to Reidsville NC for a show took a train arrived 15 mins late venue (armory) across the street promoter dismissed the audience, MJ comes in and says she'll sing for free anywhere but the armory (to stick it to the promoter?), someone opens a baptist church she sings all offerings go to the church, promoter tries to impound James Lee/Allen Clark, Jr.'s? car to pay for refunds MJ: "Baby, black promoters oppressed me before white promoters ever got hold of me to do it. Don't talk skin to me."(146), gets car back w/ help of local minister, travels to NOLA Johnny Jackson MJ dad expressed remorse for ignoring MJ as a child says it weighs heavy on his mind all the time, occurs to MJ she can buy herself a doll now couldn't afford one as a child, pays for Jodie Strawther young seminary student way through seminary
Marhsall Stearns Music Inn Lenox, MA, stayed in a refurbished horse stall, Stearns prof of Medieval English at Hunter College big fan of jazz, John Hammond attends as VP of Institute of Jazz Studies founded by Stearns, ran from Aug 26 to Sep 3 goal to define jazz, John Lee Hooker also attends and plays, (Willis James from Spelman, all other profs are white), Mildred also attends, MJ confused by academic jargon but holds that she knows what she's doing she's the expert, musicologist asks her what gospel owes to jazz, MJ: "Baby, don't you kow the Devil stole the beat form the Lord?"(150) sings at 25th anniversary concnert of her singing in Chic. w/ Big Bill Broonzy, sings @ Carnegie Hall again, Walter Winchell clls MJ "She's merely the world's greatest gospel canary!"(151), second Carnegie Hall performance Bostic had 300 folding chairs on the stage to fit ticket holders w/ 3700 in line hoping to get in, performed w/ J Earle HInes, James Cleveland, Norsalus McKissick, People Today: "When Mahalia sings, audiences do more than just listen--they undergo a profoundly moving emotional experience."(151) broke attendance records set by Benny Goodman and Toscanini
Appears on Toast Of The Town Ed Sullivan show, crew neglected to obtain an organ MJ barges into Sullivan's dressing room in his underwear demands an organ, she got it, Sullivan later, laughing: "She was mad as hell. I didn't want to give her my only organ." sang Dig A Little Deeper Sullivan and Lenetska disagree about performance Lenetska thought it the wrong song for her, Sullivan: "After Mahaia's first number you know she could take them all--anybody--and she did. My personal reaction was that she should be in opera, because she was tremendous--tremendous. The audiences liked her instantly. We tried to make sure that we'd have Negro representation on the show and we had, since our second show--June 27, 1948, when we had the Ink Spots. This was a time the Negroes were in an uproar: they said the whites were monopolizing TV, that producers of TV shows were apparently scared to put a Negro on because of the Southern reaction. Well, the Southern reaction was as great as the Northern reaction. We got a lot of mail response and they loved her. We loved her CBS--all the networks are always very careful to examine the mail from their outlying stations: There wasn't one letter from any station that didn't exult that we had had her on the show. Not a single damned thing. She was just so natural; she didn't give a damn whether they were black or white or yellow, she was just so darned kind of everybody. When Mahalia sang, she took command. The band, the stage crew, the other performers, the ushers--they were all rooting for her. When she came out, she could be your mother or your sister. I mean, she wasn't obsequious, you know; she was a star among other stars. Other people may not have wanted to be deferential, but they couldn't help it. This woman was just great. The name that keeps coming to mind with me is Paul Robeson. He was the same type--and they didn't come into the theater with any inferiority complex. They knew that once the music started playing and they started singing, that was it. If there were any problems she'd never come out on stage in front of the band or the audience at rehearsal. She'd just come down to your dressing room and say, 'Ed, I think the band--' and I'd say, 'Now wait a moment, wait 'til I get Ray Block'; the two of them got along like old chums. She and I became very great friends. A very deep friendship. For Mahalia, the single word I have is power.""(153-154) relationship with Mays souring?? gets word her apartment burning minutes before going on stage @ Danville, VA, sings anyway goes home to Chicago next day, tour again through OK with another shady promoter cops involved again pull her offstage during a song to settle dispute in "court" a hardware store, MJ had to pay $1K??? can't understand this, but kept $20K out of sight in luggage something about the Nashville police and Louisville, KY I can't understand this writing...
1952 Mildred falls ill, MJ plans for Euopre, something about Mays??, MJ starts having breathing problems told by dr she's too heavy also excessive menstrual bleeding, needs to get birth certificate for passport finds out her birth year might be 1911 instead of 1912 aunts swear it was 1912 but certificate says 1911, drs recommend hysterectomy diagnosed with sarcoidosis nodules shown in lungs by xray, Mildred takes boat to Europe but MJ can't travel goes late takes plane gets to France plays first show Paris ill but well received, Lyon, Bordeaux, London, Max Jones: "Mahalia didn't pull her punches, yet she had a simplicity, an innocence; and I feel sure her soul was never loused up."(166), plays Royal Albert Hall despite cold and technical problems seats half empty, Southampton, Oxford, Birmingham, Copenhagen, plays shows and collapses backstage in exhaustion pain difficulty breathing, 20K orders of Silent Night in Denmark lost 90 lbs since arriving in Europe gets sent home before arriving in Italy, gets hysterectomy drs find sarcoid lymph nodes in abdomen removed kidney basis full of them, responds with good humor about it (Nat Bapt Conv has 4 million members?), Duke Ellington sends huge fruit basket during recovery, In The Upper Room a million seller(171), hires Polly/Cylestine as personal secretary, parts amicably with Lenetsky, meets Samuel S. I. Hayakawa became fast friends, offered $5K week to star on Broadway MJ turns it down, produced Robert Anderson's recording session with Apollo, 1953 Johnny Jackson dies, turns down Joe Glaser Louis Armstrong's agent, performs Carnegie Hall again (4th time) Ed Sullivan again, Mitch Miller at Columbia interested
1954 First gospel singer signed to Columbia, Miller: "She was a very imposing figure, but she had that little-girl quality about her too."(177), though she was making good money Berman at Apollo was still cheating her typical in music industry, Miller offers $50K year, John Hammond tells her she'll make money at Columbia and be well promoted but will lose her black audience, Miller wants her to reach into ballads, classical, MJ: "Mr Miller, we better get one thing straight at the start. What I got to say I say in gospel. Period."(178), $50k for 4 years w/ 4 recordings per year, sarcoidosis in her eyes now, Bess Berman forgets? to renew MJ contract leaves her available to go to Columbia, Berman tries to coerce her back fires Art Freeman for telling MJ Berman is taking too much from MJ, buys a sky blue Cadillac, takes on Ralph Jones as organist, offered a network radio show on CBS 1/2 hour from Chicago The Mahalia Jackson Show insisted Studs Terkel head writer, meets Duke Ellington MJ loved him they played/sang together, Richard Gleason, Russel Roberts, violinist William Russell general assistant?, sang so frenetically her wig fell off, in NY with Robert Anderson supposed to get 2 hotel rooms but only 1 Anderson wants his own room MJ says no she doesn't want to pay for it gets called by Life magazine with Anderson in her room Anderson thinks it's a great prank, Ellington calls MJ "World's greatest cook"(189) MJ has to teach white audiences how to clap for first radio show, great response now need sponsors, MJ: "Gospel music rhythms are not African in origin, although I know that's what the jazz experts say."(191) "How can you sing of amazing grace, how can you sing prayerfully of heaven and earth and all God's wonders without using your hands? My hands, my feet, I throw my whole body to say all that is within me. The mind and the voice by themselves are ot sufficient."(191) Mason Sargent in Downbeat: "the greatest spirtual singer now alive is Mahalia Jackson".(192) gets fans they love each other, white press starts to learn about gospel music, Chicago Harvest Moon Festival only gospel artist there 22,500 audience multiple encores, first recording session with Columbia Miller suggests Rusty Old Halo Columbia recording studio larger more of everything, eyes bothering her gall bladder too
1955 gets fan mail from all over due to radio show, lots of TV appearances in Chicago, CBS cuts radio show from 30 to 10 minutes then canceled entirely no sponsors probably because South wouldn't take a black star, Rusty Old Halo a hit, gospel hits usually sell 20K avg between 7,500 and 12,500, MJ gets so into the spirit during church service one night she jumps and breaks both heels on her shoes, gets another TV show in Chicago Mahalia Jackson Show with Terkel as host but off camera (bc his supposed commie ties during red scare) great response re: show, MJ used to improvising had to learn timing for TV got a system where producer showed fingers for how many minutes left to sing she never was off by more than 20 seconds, Mahalia Jackson Sings first LP for Columbia Downbeat 5 stars, on Arthur Godfrey show books many dates after successful first performance, turns down nightclub gig, Miller wants her to sing more popular songs Mj open to anything inspirational, 300K at Harvest Moon Festival again show stopper, gets friendly with Richard Daley, split billing with Eddie Fisher at Chicagoland Festival, interview with Clay Gowran reporter first time MJ on record about temple for gospel in Chicago, suggested MJ to Ike Eisenhower a U.S. amabassador for song through Iron Curtain, MJ collapses Sept 10 gall bladder colic (Biliary colic) and gallstones, gall bladder removed, several TV shows possible but no sponsors so now shows, Miller allows her to record Precious Lord, good friends with Belafonte
Lou Mindling at William Morris get represented without a contract leading to TV appearances, show in Toronto first time in Canada, pop song writers began to write inspirational gospel-like songs for Ink Spots, Frankie Laine, Al Hibbler, MJ dismayed to see gospel exploited, watered down sung by non-believers (part-time believers), Bob Ming lawyer, shows are segregated in the South, sometimes makes a comment about Christian brothers and sisters and people self integrate in audience, sings for Mamie Eisenhower birthday lunch (at white house? doesn't say), Mamie writes a nice letter about it |
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Ch. 31 pp. 210--226 1956 Starts looking for a house in the burbs Chatham Village, likes the quiet and the trees, pays $40K for a house sold directly to her by dr., starts getting angry calls refuses to answer the phone, at closing starts getting death threats, picture window shot, calls Mayor Daley gets police guard on the street, moves in anyway makes herself at home, white neighbors start leaving, gets visits from Harry Belafonte, Louis Armstrong, Granville White, benefit for United Negro College Fund, v generous gives J Robert Bradley $25K, Daley gets her to sing for Nat Democratic Convention, sings I See God middle of rowdy convention becomes silent Mitch Miller: "You were absolutely in a--didn't dare breathe, it was such a tremendous moment. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when she got through."(215) meets MLK at Nat Baptist Conv in Denver, sings for Catholic Interracial Council, Belafonte gives her diamond crucifix, Carnegie Hall 6th appearance MC by Duke Ellington, disagreeing with Mitch Miller about getting back to old gospel vs new pop direction "sweetened-water stuff"(217) others concerned Miller will turn her into not gospel, rock and roll MJ: "They took the church music and the church rhythms and perverted it to make money."(217) still seeing Russell Roberts not sure if he's genuine Mildred doesn't think they're compatible Robert Anderson: "a woman that independent, and forceful, and dynamic; a woman that self-secure. Couldn't no man equal her."(218) Ralph Abernathy calls MJ to sing at undraiser for Montgomery Bus Boycott Mildred nervous about going fearing violence MJ warned about it too, Juanita Abernathy insists they stay at her house, successful fundraiser MJ: "The Lord has blessed me. I was nothing and He lifted me up. But the success of one Negro doesn't mean anything if every Negro isn't completely free."(221) encourages MLK to keep going, 4 weeks later bomb blows up Abernathy's house same room she and Mildred shared, in NOLA for Dave Garroway Xmas show soulnd't shop or get a cab in NOLA bc black (Goreau: all NOLA street names changed "to everlasting confusion" 222), big TV production at Mount Morah audience forgets to be quiet for TV, Xernona and Ed?? Clayton??
1957 MJ at Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom Lincoln Memorial with MLK, NY Town Hall sings The Good You Do Comes Back To You Nat Hentoff in The Reporter: "She had a strange effect on the secularists present. Most of them were amazed at the length of time after the concert during which the sound of her voice remained active in the mind."(231), Russell proposes, Newport Jazz Festival "When you stop singing free in church in Sunday, you not a real gospel singer any more."(232) Ward Singers, Marion Williams, Drinkard Singers Back Home Choir appeared w/ MJ, great success, MJ not happy being grouped w/ jazz singers, plans Europe tour again, mentions youth temple idea to reporters in Los Ang, meets Paul Robeson puts his photo next to Marian Anderson and Liberace, MJ on Liberace: "His fingers are like little silver fish."(235) plans to make Europe trip honeymoon with Russell
Appears in St Louis Blues film w/ Nat Cole as missionary 1958, appears on Cole's TV show, Dinah Shore again, Shore: "There's nothing so enlightened as an enlightened Southerner, and Mahalia was one. As for me, when you're young, that's the way things are. Then there comes a day when you have to examine the rules and you say hey! that's wrong; people are not different and they shouldn't be treated that way. With this ability of Mahalia's to forget, and the inability to hate, there we were, sitting up there both loving the South. We both agreed we felt hate and resentment are shriveling. Mahalia just couldn't be shriveled. She was too big for that."(237), meets with half brother Johnny Jackson v generous with money with him, hangs out with MLK, MJ still gets the spirit and dances during services, Nettie Irving suggests Mahalia Jackson Foundation took 3 years to put in motion, Columbia starts courting rock and roll artists Clive Davis new president new contact/producer @ Columbia Irv Townsend never worked w/ gospel before, Nat Cole gifts her color TV, Russell is ill
MJ likes Townsend allows her input in recordings John Hammond now at Columbia: "To make great reacords with Mehalia, it is necessary for her to be in complete musical charge of the sessions. She has to believe in the message... feel the sincerity of the accompanying choir... be moved by the beat of the instrumentalists... Attempts have been made in the past to recruit polished and sophistiacaed background voices and studio musicians, but it was soon apparent that Miss Jackson could not then perform with... conviction and vitality."(248-249), MJ turns down role as Poitier's mother in Broadway Raisin In the Sun bc theater, Townsend suggest Ellington's Black Brown and Beige but MJ refuses but gets the music anyway to practice?, first gospel singer at NY Philharmonic Hall, MJ never performs a song the same way twice Mildred always looking at MJ lips instead of the piano to anticipate what she's going to do, MJ having breathing problems again but sends friends to dr (William R Barclay) she offers to pay all their bills and does, hesitant to record Black Brown Beige bc jazz bc orchestra improvises singing 23rd Psalm, Townsend: "Seldom in music has such an impovisation been accomplished. Seldom in Duke's career has composition and performance been so simultaneous."(251) in KC all whites are ejected by police from audience at Municipal Auditorium to avoid integrating incl. Bill Russell, MJ: "The law should speed integration in the South, but the only way the white people are going to accept it is to learn about the Negro and his princiiples. But you can't learn about anyone unless he's near you."(252) Re her songs, "If people like them, that will help them understand."(252), some people claim to be healed when MJ sings Mj says it's god doing the healing: "I don't claim to be a healer, that can only be done by God; each one must know his own faith, within; but this is a moving experience of my life and only emphasizes the mystery as well as the power of God."(252), temple idea: nondenomnational temple for all races singers teachers teach music, Ed Murrow Person to Person interview last white family moves out of Chatham Village, Jules Schwerin proposes making movie of her life Kinfolk, Newort Jazz 1958 during downpour, Bostic: "It was the most fantastic tribute to the hypnotic power of great artistry I have ever encountered. Nothing like have I ever seen in my life. Those people sat... they forgot... they were completely entranced."(256) soundtrack Old Man and the Sea?
Ralph Ellison in Saturday Review (see Mahalia Jackson Reader p. 66), Russell fiance has cancer, Imitation of Life w/ Lana Turner, Bing Crosby TV show with Dean Martin, MLK stabbed in Harlem MJ senses from Calif, Farmerville VA black kids not allowed to attend school MJ sponsors Xmas party for them from afar can't make it but gets them ice cream and cake, sings Xmas carols to kids over phone to PA system
Townend urges MJ to get a proper business manager, Townsend: "Mahalia involved me in every aspect of her life. Her finances, her emotions, her personal life, her accompanists, every single thing she had. Mahalia used people, to be frank. Used them to the hilt. She had no compunction about asking me for any kind of help conceivable. My job wasn't managing Mahalia, or handling her tours, or handling her finances, or finding her an apartment building, or getting her lawyers, or finding her houses to rent, or getting her bills paid, or a thousand other things. And yet I was invovled in all these things over the years because she just called on you to do it... She felt she was the hub that the rest of us reovlve around and it's what she wants, not what anyone else wants or feels that matters."(260) nothing easy about recording MJ overrehearsing sometimes can't get arrangements exhaust herself trying but always singing somehow worked out ok in the end, Russell dies of cancer, Orchestra Hall appearance in Chicago, mourns Russell for months can't sleep asks Nettie to come over 2 am for months
1959 MJ wanted to be loved most of all, more famous she got the more people depended and took from her (not money necessarily), gave tasks to multiple people to make sure they would get done, split tasks for same reason, never told a full story to one person, bought two sections of plots at Providence Memorial cemetery, brother Peter very ill, willing to give her money away but won't spend it on herself, traveling constantly singing promoting for Imitation of Life, Madison Square Garden first Gospel Spiritual and Folk Music Festival, tours South integrates more audiences, integrated a Miami Beach dining room all waitresses wanted autographs but kicked out of the hotel, nervous to stay at Waldorf Astoria in NYC, weird about depositing checks sometimes held onto them for months, split her money into many banks some of them not sound, Mindling feels protective of her, Peter dies MJ senses it, more touring
called an "American institution", contant touring, booked to play Constitution Hall DAR Marian Anderson her hero once, MLK: "Another great milestone in human relations."(272) MLK indicted for tax evasion in AL MJ lawyer Ming defends him, booked to record with Percy Faith orchestra 40 members hard to improvise includes My Country 'Tis of Thee on personal request Power And the Glory, works hard to avoid going back to ironing, even now refuses to go on stage unless she gets paid fairly, Const Hall concert a triumph Irving Lowens in Evening Star: "In less polite civilizations than ours, music was one step in the ladder to ecstasy, the mystic's food. More than 3,800 people felt this frightening power last night... the craving to partiipate, to be a part of this enormous, inspired woman gets too big to contain."(275) so many bouquets she donates them to hospitals, spoke to both houses of Congress, taped show on Voice of America, sings for Republican Jumbo Jamboree gets letter of thanks from Ike Eisenhower, Ed Sullivan Easter show, refused to go to a banquet for her bc hosted in a dining room that sold liquor out of an attached storefront, talks about temple idea often to press got Daley involved, Jazz On A Summer's Day concert film of 58 Newport appearance accused of singing jazz again turns down Newport appearences, sings before MLK speech Forbes Field Pittsburgh, MJ's train derailed topples Mildred and Beal but MJ car last on train left upright, turns down Langston Hughes play Tambourines For Glory bc theater, JFK approaches her to campaign, buys Aunt Duke a house, Aretha Franklin says MJ an inspiration since a child, Mahalia Jackson Foundation created, meets kng and queen of Denmark lots of TV stars, endorses JFK, Peter Lawford invites her to JFK inaugural ball, gets home one night with $5K in her purse and a group of people finds the money gone locks all the doors and gives everyone 10 mins to return the money before calling cops money comes back, gives away money anyway, Gallup Poll calls her one of the most admired women in the world, sings at a Catholic benefit for Cardinal Spellman asks to meet the pope
JFK inaugural ball sings Star Spangled Banner, pestered by Kay Thompson not singing right in rehearsal Sinatra throws Thompson out, star studded, carnegie hall again with mlk raised $50k for SCLC, hosts bday dinner for MLK, Audrey P Franklyn, collapses at show at Shrine Auditorium in Los Ang stays in $8 motels, on Steve Allen show singing get in the zone breaks a tooth "And that's the first time I knew I sang with my teeth."(289) |
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Ch. 41 pp. 289--302 1961 trip to Europe sails gets incredibly seasick, arrives Southampton then London Mahalia Jackson Show on BBC, Columbia reocrding live, 6K ppl in audience at Royal Albert Hall, David Haber, thrilled that UK audiences can clap right, Princess Alexandra: "absolutely brilliant", told MJ not to stand for her, huge push of crowds outside stage door, Neil Goodwin of Express: "Mahalia jackson sang to ME last night."(292) Mike Nevard Daily Herald: "The sheer beauty of her voice, the feeling she puts into every word, make the hair tingle on the back of your neck--whether you be Christian, atheist, or agnostic."(292) Frankfurt wouldn't let her stop encores all dates in Germany sold out weeks in advance, Daley names her Chicago's Ambassador of Good Will extremely popular in Europe, insisted on taking trains -- in her contract not to fly, absolutely mobbed at Sportspalast in Berlin, Copenhagen the same, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Paris unrest re: Algerian rebellion bomb threats sings anyways mobbed again, Essen wouldn't let her stop after multiple encores changed into street clothes still demanded she sing, audience with Pope John XXIII
Continuing tour in Holy Land, Egypt, Syria, Israel, MJ when asked by David Haber if she truly believes trumpets brought down the walls of Jericho: "I believe Joshua did pray to God, and the sun stood still. I believe everything."(306) MJ traveling with Mildred, Haber, Arabic driver named Fez and a young woman writing now realizing this is the author first meeting MJ
1961 Mindling leaves Wm Morris, MJ owns 51% of Songs of Praise Inc, films 85 TV segments in 2 weeks 8 songs a day, MJ on being an opera singer: "People keep telling me that, babe. But Halie got her marching orders from the Lord."(311), has to teach session musicians a gospel beat, Dorothy Simmons Doris Akers, plays mean ping pong, feels she's being visited by Russell fiance spirit (not haunting, just that he's there), gets laryngitis from filming schedule, feels Russell finally leave her, Leonard Feather: MJ "at an unprecedented level of world acceptance".(314) Madison Square Garden again gospel revue with Albertina and Ernestine MLK too MSG closes beer sales for the night on MJ request, new godchild of Jack Wallace Wendy, SCLC benefit in Los Ang w/ Sammy Davis Jr and Dick Gregory, MJ Chicago house headquarters for MLK and Abernathy, checks herself into hospital low energy short breath Dx hypertensive cardiac problems leaves immediately possibly afraid of consequences from Dx, Barclay says it's sarcoidosis, Chicago TV show Mahalia Jackson Sings result of 85 segments WBKB 5-min segments 3x day Variety: "Miss Jackson's songs are the stuff that goosebumps are made on."(319) Frye gets arrested for driving MJ on expired learner's permit MJ pays the fine, Mindling gets fired from job becomes Mj agent, spends Tgiving w/ MLK Atlanta, benefit for black community center Chattanooga Russell Goode, MJ gets speeding ticket $!00 fine driving to NOLA,
Mahalia Jackson Sings wins Silver Dove award grand ball Monaco, first ever Grammy for gospel, breaks a foot tripping on mike wire records anyway, still cant get a hotel room in TX Negro hotel at least still makes sure audience is integrated performs on crutches, POLLY CYLESTINE FLETCHER secretary for 20 years, awarded Chicago Medal of Merit, NAACP benefit tried to wreck the house older members tried to pull curtain on her and lost, Soviet cultural exchange? JFK wants for Emanc Proc 100 yr aniv, lots of engagements and proposals v busy
On Red Skelton show can't stop laughing at Skelton, Harpo Marx a big fan, adored by LA Press Club, introduced to Minters Sigmond Galloway, buys apartment building for half bro Johnny jackson 20 units, sings at party for nat Cole offered $25K week @ Flamingo Room in Vegas turns it down, Emancipation Proclamation event big hit sings Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful, Jackie Kennedy asks MJ to record for Nat Cult Ctr??, MJ and Mildred fight, dislikes gospel used for entertainment accompanying drinking in nightclubs, still being hard about getting paid right this time concert at Madison Square Garden, lonely for a companion though she's almost always with an entourage lots of ppl asking money and other favors of her, good friends with Carl Sandburg he gives her a brooch femily heirloom, Gallup most admired woman in the world again
1963 Bday party for Sandburg 85th she writes? sings a song for him I'm Grateful, invited to white house (doesn't go? too busy??), Jackie K loves MJ, MJ supports MLK in nonviolence lots of criticism for MLK re Birmingham, goes to Hawaii at appearance with Billy Graham, MJ on another civil rights benefit: "I'm ready to join a picket line or anything else. Not For Dr. King--for me. Because I have walked all over this world and I'm not free enough to have a decent TV show."(347)
1963 Helps organize fundraisers to bail out protesters in B'ham, goes to White House, phone number still listed in the book ppl call her all the time, gets Daley to help with organzing funds big party MLK there with other Bham ministers (Shuttlesworth, etc) Aretha Franklin sings Precious Lord, $50K donated but $5K short MJ makes it up personally someone stole it?? disapproves of Clara Ward's Vegas appearances, wins another Grammy for Great Songs of Love & Faith, sees Galloway again used to play sax in a band
MJ: "I don't support every so-called freedom organizaiton. I'm not about to help any cause that would destroy our country."(354) Theodore Frye dies, March on Washington Aug 63 210K attend, MJ sings before MLK speaks, I Been Buked and I Been Scorned then How I Got Over
Frequently tired can't catch her breath, gets honorary doctorate of humane letters from Lincoln College wants to shake all graduates hands 400 in all, young woman back stage at show tells her MJ helped through loss of baby by playing records over and over
Danny Kaye special show rehearsing gets notified JFK dead MJ inconsolable sobbing but goes on TV sings Nearer My God To Thee, Deep River next day at Danny Kaye studio (for album?) didn't like to sing it again for years
Gets award (name?) for participating in civil rights movement presented by MLK, integrated audience at NOLA Municipal Auditorium, finally able to stay at Roosevelt Hotel and shop on Canal St, visits McDonough school again MJ: "Education is for keeps. When you can count, and when you keep up with current events--the things that are heppening--then you can be somebody. You have to have within you certain kind of things that make you want to learn."(365), Aunt Bell tells MJ a woman in her inner circle is an enemy, Bell dies MJ attends wake considers Bell 2nd mother
Appears in film The Best Man, 1964 does a benefit for Townsend's daughter (marble bones disease -- Osteopetrosis), hanging out with Galloway more frequently ideas of marriage
Tours Europe again, got mobbed by kids in Utrecht "I thought I was the Beatles"(379), bridgework falls out on stage in Sweden, returns to U.S. attends not-inauguration for LBJ, Galloway proposes MJ unsure asks Dr Barclay: "She was a lonely woman. She had the adulation of many friends, but she didn't feel she had a real close identity with someone. She hoped for a mate who would repssect her as a woman as well as an aritst; she wanted a home to be head of, with a man. It was just a kind of impossible American dream. Given her seases, and the demands upon her, I was simply apprehensive that it wouldn't work out."(381), MJ asks everyone's opinions everyone split Barclay doesn't think Galoway can care for MJ others think he's in it for the money others want MJ's money, MJ says yes Mindling offers to tear up the license doesn't think it's right marries him in her living room?? Galloway in building contracting business from Gary IN mostly broke though, wedding a surprise to public and many of MJ's friends and family, fans deluge with letters of dismay thinking she's going to be distracted now, Goreau writes gospel songs, Aunt Alice doesn't like Galloway, Galloway offers whiskey to visiting ministers faux pas (Galloway has young daughter Sigma from first marriage wife died breast cancer, MJ loves Sigma)
Galloway starts turning away nonfamous friends and family doesn't want ppl mooching, old friend of Galloway's thinks he's too much of a partier to be with MJ, Galloway sticks v close to MJ even among women also drinks a lot, trip to NY corrected MJ grammar in the middle of interviews ugh, he goes clubbing she refuses all the sudden he's a party guy, Polly doesn't like Galloway maybe because Galloway took her role
1964 Can't catch her breath at a show in St Louis begins coughing badly later for hours, drives to Chic checks herself in to Little Company of Mary just because she was passing by and felt terrible, Mj and nuns love each other, lots of telegrams and letters from famous ppl and fans LBJ sends nice note, public Dx slight heart strain and exhaustion, medical Dx hypertensive heart disease manifested by acute coronary insufficiency probably myocardial infarction, MJ calls Joe Bostic from NY to come (Ike Hockenhull visits too), writes cmapaign song for LBJ to tune of Onward Christian Soldiers, discharged from hospital for bed rest
1965 Aunt Duke dies MJ takes train to NOLA Galloway stays home, MJ rests for 2+ months still sick Galloway says there's nothing wrong with her and she needs to get up, MJ checks herself into the hospital (Emma Bell says to get away from Galloway), Barclay says sarcoidosis in heart and lungs now, Galloway goes to DC for Johnson inauguration stays in MJ hotel suite without her comes back says sarcoidosis isn't real, MJ not recovering starts to think Galloway poisoning her (NOLA flashbacks some talk that Charity poisoned) but gets over it and starts recovering
MJ in bed another month Galloway really gatekeeping Mj enrolled Sigma in private Howalton school, LBJ wins MJ congratulates and he sends nice note back, Galloway carousing at night MJ has to call Aunt Alice to stay with her at night, gets depressed she's not recovering, friends think Galloway looks just like Russell, Nettie Irving says Galloway belittled MJ for being sick Irving's kids hate Galloway immediately, Xmas a little depressing house not full of people MJ makes egg nog for visiting ministers and Galloway spikes it MJ dispelased
Visit from MLK Uncle Porter still kicking, Galloway continues to be a pain in the ass, Evelyn Gaye and mother pray for MJ at her house MJ feels better, Nat Cole dies, Galloway insists MJ see psych in Gary, psych says nothing wrong low BP esp when standing from seated, Galloway urges her to get outside of gospel, MJ sees Bloody Sunday Selma on TV dictates telegram to LBJ: "In the name of the Lord, please send protection to Dr Martin Luther King and the civil rights marchers in Selma Ala. Don't let him get killed. God has given you the power to free us and all people. I ask you this in the name of the Lord to send protection to the civil rights workers tomorrow Tuesday March 9th, Selma ALA. Thanking you for the consideration you might give this message, Yours in Christ Mahalia Jackson."(406)
Celie Taylor (cousin Aunt Bell's daughter) comes to stay for a month Galloway gone off somewhere, rumors of MJ death, Celie tells MJ to stop overpaying help that doesn't help, Polly throwing away mail unopened addressed to MJ Celie dislikes her, fights between Alice and Hannah and Galloway, Polly also gatekeeping, Jean Childers, Celie goes home after a month
Russell Goode takes MJ to Lake Michigan every day to picnic by the lake for 6 weeks, Galloway comes home for 1 year anniversary still says she's not sick, big dinner at a restaurant for anniv. with friends, galloway drops MJ name to get service, MLK visits, race riots in chicago, MJ now an entire year off of touring and recording |
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Ch. 61 pp 414--417 1965 Hurricane Betsy in NOLA washes out Celie and her husband's house MJ pays for most of their possessios, MJ gives 2 hour concert in Port Huron, Galloway the MC, MJ lost 50 lbs, at white house sings Precious Lord for LBJ and lady bird MJ felt a bond with LBJ lady bird snubs Galloway
1966 Easing back into TV and concerts still weak and unsure, Galloway says he's MJ manager but Lou Mindling disagrees: "We had a constant run-in because to me, he was cruel to Mahalia and I couldn't stand by and see that. He acted as if he were the star and she, the hireling. And she let him get away with it."(418), MJ business ppl think she's lost her spirit appeal to Dinah Shore to help but can't, MLK says MJ house his favorite place to relax, still has plans for temple but not fleshed out more like a dream, MJ plans to buy Galloway a business borrows $100K from her next album, MLK gives Freedom Rally to turn around slums in Chic, MJ looks forward to a tour but with hesitation Galloway as MC (he plays flute), Celie gets a vision MJ wants her to live with MJ in Chic, Galloway taking cash out of MJ purse (MJ still insists on using cash), World Festival of Negro Arts awards Grand Prix du Disque to MJ (which song or album?), MLK visits MJ house again great fun, MJ at Constitution Hall again MJ unsure about her performances afterwards Galloway missing Bostic tells MJ she's great Galloway comes back and is just a classless gaping asshole by this point embarrassing her, MJ doing benefits again goes to NOLA treated to limo and red carpet idea to put Aunt Bessie up in a cafe, Galloway says he had FBI investigate Elliott Beal, MJ mortified (I can't remember Beal's role in MJ business) Ch 63 pp 426--430 MJ says no to Galloway's hotel bc purpose of it not virtuous (hotel for men? brothel??) Galloway furious swings at MJ, Galloway wants to produce album made at Greater Salem, rallies with MLK in Chic tho Daley typical politics, checks herself into hospital again few days, march with MLK in Chic Nazis show up hostile ugliness MJ pleads to Daley for protection Daley ignores plea MLK hit in head with brick, everyone back at MJ house later MLK laughing but everyone pretty shook up
1966 still?? Everyone pestering MJ bc no one is getting along now Galloway keeps a gun in the bedstand, Greater Salem recording sessions not going well Galloway producing Townsend losing his mind A Mighty Fortress album, MJ trips in the studio breaks her wrist in a cast, possible tour to Europe again, MJ: "'Course what Europeans really like is that I'm an American product, I believe in being completely natural. That's why I sing spirituals in dialect."(432) could do perfect diction if she wanted to, something about Mildred betraying MJ??, MJ: "If you don't have friends, you don't have anything. This is the very heritage of New Orleans, my heritage, and it is dear to my heart; that's the way I was brought up."(433), MJ tired and depressed, Galloway trying to hit on MJ friends and family
Tgiving dinner Galloway vanishes MJ calls him back home (through a network of friends) he comes back furious and swings at her she ducks he breaks his hand, MJ frantic goes to Sheraton, award from American Friendship Club Ambassador of Friendship, announcement of intention to divorce Galloway tries to evict Galloway fails, Jet prints about MJ finances bc divorce paperwork maybe Galloway leak too, publci response to divorce, judge issues financial restraining order on Galloway, MJ depressed for days/weeks upset she'll lose her house and all her money to alimony, gaunt lost weight tired, Lincoln Academy Illinois Regents Award, Galloway wants to settle for $150K MJ offers $10K instead turns it down wants a jury trial, picks up Charles Clency organist, Easter 1967 NY Philharmonic somehow performs as normal on stage (so exceptionally well) despite chaos in personal life, Whitney Balliet New Yorker: "Miss Jackson does not give concerts; she creates an experience... She expresses in her gospel songs and spirituals an order... that no saint has surpoassed... All were stirring, but one, Were You There, was nearly unbearable. It was... full of graceful ascending steps... deep, aching, bent notes. She pushed the beat around to suit herself... she used husky tones and shouting silences. She became the words and music."(444) MLK at concert, Townsend wants MJ to stop doing 3-hour concerts MJ just sings til the Lord comes, MIndling sends paperwork to Polly not MJ, Galloway gets a job as a bailiff, completes autobiography but Galloway changes the dedication to himself instead of Aunt Duke (is Duke [Aunt Mahalia Paul and all children everywhere] in the book), discrepancies in autobiography due to Galloway Uncle Porter major source
Divorce trial, testimony of Galloway charging jewelry to MJ affairs MJ lawyers call former prostitute to testify about Galloway, MJ wins, Galloway blames MJ's entourage says he's going to write a book, MJ gets house back scared Galloway might kill her, Ike Hockenhull still protective, MJ advice to young singers: "I am famous through being disappointed. Accept your disappointments, let them make you wise and help you work. There is plenty of room at the top. New singers come up like fine grass. But you must study your music. There are no more Mahalias. I am the last and my success is the work of the Lord."(451), cousins pester MJ for money MJ can't say no, lawyer fees cost $20K, Columbia becomes CBS, still lanning Europe tour Ch. 67 pp. 453--467 Still dealing in suitcases of cash, Goreau often in narrative as a friend and gospel music writer, 22 million singles and albums sold figures MJ, sarcoids in her left eye, still sad about marriage still afraid of Galloway, Europe plans (not taking Mildred?), Berlin, often has rapid heartbeat, goes to hospital in Germany chest pains tour postponed, tells Barclay she's afraid of dying, Polly posessive ruling MJ?, replaces Mindling with Allen Clark (2nd cousin), gets rid of Polly, Jean Lastname Childers? becomes secretary, Polly sends over all books and files Aunt Alice cleanses them of bad vibes Polly made Mj take meds on time Mj associates bad vibes of Polly with Barclay, MJ buys buildings, Bob Phillips manager referred by Joe Glaser
MJ still not feeling well cancels some engagements, black powder (Voodoo?) found outside MJ bedroom, still wants temple idea
Mahalia Jackson Foundation music scholarship $900 year, starts to raise funds for temple through foundation solicits Rockefellers, MJ gives Ike $1,000 he's still gambling, MJ still lonely for Russell, spends NYE with MLK and friends sang together MJ sings Precious Lord for him MLK fave song, MLK at midnight: "This is going to be a terrible year."(473)
1968 MJ chicken franchise idea, Aldus Mitchell (lawyer who assisted MJ divorce) |
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Ch. 71 pp 476--480 MJ name enough to stop plane takeoff, goes to Los Ang learns she has diabetes MJ losing clumps of hair planning big benefit for temple, asks a bunch of stars for help many don't commit Elvis says she's like his mother
Possible tour of Japan, tours Florida and Bahamas Sidney Poitier MC show in airplane hangar no venue large enough concert great, next night sings benefit super popular, still wrangling with promoters in U.S. about being paid fairly on time insists on counting the house
Partners with Minnie Pearl in Mahalia Jckson's Chicken System, Inc. all franchises to be black owned and managed, in Nashville?? when word of MLK assassination she was aupposed to be with him promised him to go to Memphis decided not to fly that day drives to Atlanta from Chattanooga CSK sends MJ roses at Hyatt Regency (CSK likes MJ), meets RFK nervous, MJ sings at funeral (few details -- 5 sentences nothing of the performance itself), MJ meets Marlon Brando on plane
Big emotional catharsis at show 10 days later (everyone got over nuclear style), gets a full line-up for foundation benefit Dinah Shore 1st to commit, gospel acts too Staples Singers Caravans, Harry Dale??, attends rally for RFK for President RFK killed 10 days later, foundation benefit falling apart MJ goes to see Daley (just walks in lol), Gene Shapiro new secret lawyer for business MJ finances are a mess
Benefit pretty much chaos but somehow comes together Jimmy Durante MC Galloway attends Dinah Shore forgets Elijah Rock (not performed it in years) MJ heart racing and grey before show but performs like an ace w/Shore, Galloway gets to dressing room MJ happy benefit great success
1968 MJ still working traveling, troubles with race problems in Chic., MJ looks for condo, Antibes Music Festival Princess Grace big fan, condo 2601 S Lakeshore, touring recording with Mormon Tabernacle??, Galloway asking favors, designs for Galloway and Sigma in MJ new condo, attends democratic convention to support Humphrey, meets George Foreman, press prints MJ might remarry Galloway, chicken business gets started
Shapiro wants Galloway to sign a prenup, MJ drinks wine on dr.'s orders (scotch sometimes too -- not from dr.), Leonard Feather says MJ has big influence on popular music, benefit for Tom Bradley, big celebration in Long Beach for MJ big mass-city choir through Compton Los Ang, MJ gets nice gown atypical usually doesn't spend money on clothes, gets gold watch from long beach, Galloway refuses to sign prenup Mj would have willed everything to him if he had signed, Shapiro creates M-G investment co for Galloway funded by shares of the chicken franchise, has people claiming she's their mother (to charge stuff?), tour of Europe upcoming, Galloway takes Louise Weaver's place to Europe??
1969 London, dr restricted MJ to 2 concerts a week, Galloway goes off leaving MJ at hotel, Royal Albert Hall success, heart attack in London? Barclay tells her to cut trip short she goes on, great receptions everywhere, in Chic Galloway agrees to prenup interferes with managing, Salute to Black Women show lots of details putting it on, MJ has gastritis attack, salute show great, MJ seems OK? with Galloway cheating or accepts it??, Veterans day appearance at Arlington cemetery, Hockenhull still hanging around MJ gives him $500 will support him in business but not gambling, Galloway head of MJ foundation??, gets audited by IRS, sarcoidosis getting worse Mj depressed cramps part of the condition Ch. 79 pp. 536--549 Plays Bermuda, gets back NY checks herself into hospital, Galloway still unsure about prenup thinks MJ wants to be babied, MJ pays for Hockenhull's convalescence, MJ in NOLA stays at Royal Orleans, still cleans the kitchen, Barclay VP of AMA treats MJ personally MJ upset he abandons her she gets over it, tours caribbean big mob in Trinidad says ticket prices too high MJ gives free concert fight with concert sponsor, makes Galloway business manager high charges on credit cards, still touring playing shows, bad blood sugar high blood pressure chest pains still singing like a champ tho, cancels more dates bc not feeling well, Galloway charges liquor to MJ Mj refuses to pay, possible trip to Africa goes to Liberia (assumed it would be all jungle) treated like royalty president of Liberia full of himself v sensitive about protocol
1971? Johnny Cash show, California, tour of Japan invited to imperial palace first western singer (European harpist after WWII) huge statement about what gospel is and happiest moment of her life was when she accepted Christ (photos), first concert at Bunkyo Kokaido Hisamitsu Noguchi dean of japan's music critics: "Her gospel songs have not only the perfect musical beauty but also the very persuasive power by her belief... Though I am not a Christian I could not stop running tears; tears of joy."(562), fighting over money again demands to be paid in USD gets paid in yen then $10K USD keeps it jumbled in her purse bc harder to steal, japan forbids more than 200 yen leaving the country (so a wise demand?), strict protocol at palace no encores all songs must be timed 15 titles given in advance including Deep River (not sung since JFK died), private concert for princess gets applause and big grin from princess Takako Shimazu (Princess Suga), encore requested from Empress Nagako before entire royal family, U.S. Ambassador Armin Meyer re imperial palace visit: "Really, this was a great honor. We've been here two years, and I've never been here before."
In India singes for queen of Sikkim Gyalmo (Hope Cooke), St Paul's Cathedral (city?), New Delhi gets invited to private audeince with Indira Gandhi: "I will never hear a greater voice; I will never know a greater person."(575) MJ in pain but still singing, MJ great for diplomacy and goodwill, security guard asks MJ to touch his head w/ others as blessing MJ: "Just remember it's nobody on this earth, it's God going to bless you.", Madras, Bombay, home
Future plants to return to Europe Honorary doctorate of music Marymount College, persistent diarrhea with other regular symptoms, Dr of humane letters from DePaul and St vincent de paul medal "for serving God through the needs of man", potential location of temple Drexel and E 51st, dreads going on tour in almost constant pain, makes an offer on temple, in Germany depressed in pain knots in chest still tours and sings many encores, MJ admitted to military hospital in Munich in hospital for weeks, calls for Galloway can't find him, tour canceled on the way home via military transport
Arrival in Chic v weak and tired, still working on temple, backs out of temple deal, says going to marry Galloway again without prenup (died before it could take place), MJ liquidates CDs gets $100K from Shapiro resigns MJ asks hm back, admitted to Billings hosp leaves, days later admitted Little Company of Mary intestinal obstruction coronary heart disease abdomen distended, in for weeks, surgery to remove bowel obstruction, dies 60,000 mourners in NOLA, 4,000 inside Rivergate Auditorium 4,000 outside U.S. military color guard city police honor guard lay in state |
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p. 257 - 258 "Not until he heard the voice of seventeen-year-old Mahalia Jackson sometime in 1928, however, did it occur to him that he could find the blend of blues presence and spirituality that would convey the sentiment of his new, more emotive gospels. In his collaboration with Jackson, Dorsey distilled the essence of both singer types and then crafted it into the old-line caller who became the classic gospel blues soloist." p. 258. Dorsey: "I met Mahalia way back when I was a jazz musician. She was a goodmixer ... and she loved everybody, at least she acted like she loved everybody. She called everybody "baby, honey, darling." . . . She made a wonderful [impression]." Dorsey: "Mahalia, I think, was the only woman in [a] group at that time. [They] were really rocking them everywhere they went. Mahalia was with this group and was going and killing them off, I mean she was laying them out." Moved to Chicago 1927, joined Johnson Singers: Jackson and three brothers, first acted out religious plays written by the brothers, Jackson playing female parts, Harris: "One pastor was so offended by the group's singing that he threw them out of his church, saying "Get that twisting and jazz out of the church." On her way out of the door, Jackson replied, "This is the way we sing down South!" (see also Laurraine Goreau, Just Mahalia, Baby: The Mahalia Jackson Story) Johnson singers appeared at storefront churches, first churches to receive migrants from the South, (Great Migration) that allowed/condoned "urban bush harbor meetings" "Halie was a fresh wind from the down-home religion." Harris: "In Jackson, Dorsey thus found two of the caller's major attributes: her sense of oneness with her respondents and her ability to capture the communal spirit of a performance so as to play it out virtually at will." p. 259 Dorsey found two of the (bush harbor) "caller's major attributes: her sense of oneness with her respondents and her ability to capture the communal spirit of a performance so as to play it out virtually at will." "She sang so hard, and she so small, people used to say, 'That woman sing too hard, she going to have TB!'" Dorsey: "Mahalia's almost in a class to herself. She could do it, but used to sing the gospel songs on the books." Dorsey had background in coaching blues singers (for Paramount and Chicago Music Publishing), Jackson approached Dorsey for coaching, wanting to learn his songs, worked with her for two months, started songs by shouting, sang too uptempo for Dorsey's liking, worked on her breathing, "smooth the roughness out of her singing": "I wanted to train her how to do my numbers and do them with the beat— shake at the right time; shout at the right time. [You] don't get up to start off shoutin'. You lose yourself." p. 260 Harris: clapping and tapping her feet a integral element of bush arbor behavior from her home church in New Orleans, but in Chicago it was forbidden, Dorsey taught her slower more sentimental songs p. 261 begin her performances with slower song, contain her excitement, to connect with listeners better,: "The more Dorsey could get Jackson to begin her performances at a lower level of excitement, the more he could assure that she would commence her empathizing from a common emotional baseline with her respondents. The less she shouted and clapped her hands before her listeners wanted her to, the less she would risk sealing off her spirituality from the community's. The more he challenged her to include his "slow, gentle, sentimental" songs in her concerts, the more he could guarantee that she would be transformed into the lowdown, pricking hush harbor icon who would entreat old-liners who especially desired to do "just as we pleased." staple in Chicago churches throughout the 1930s, used by politicians for meetings and hired to sing at funerals "n almost unheard-of professionalization of one's sacred calling" (Harris) p. 270 Dorsey declared Jackson "the Empress of gospel singers" following a performance in 1939 |
Heilbut edit
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p. 34 Traveled with Dorsey between 1939 and 1944 p. 57 Heilbut: "If America knows no other gospel singer, she has conferred a blessed status on Mahalia Jackson. All by herself, Mahalia was the vocal, physical, spiritual symbol of gospel music. All by herself, Mahalia was the vocal, physical, spiritual symbol of gospel music. Her large, noble proportions, her face contorted in song into something resembling the Mad Duchess, her soft speaking voice and huge, rich contralto, all made her gospel's one superstar of the late fifties and early sixties." Jackson balked at being called "world's greatest", Heilbut: "easily boradcast gospel's appeal more widely than anyone else in history. Not necessarily in the church, where she's only one of many pioneers. But in Europe and white America, Mahalia is the the, ", p. 58 "single most important gospel singer -- not, alas without some diminution of her distinctive manner" "black Kate Smith" the finger lickin' good comment was said on Johnny Carson Jackson: "Don't go around criticizing Mayor Daley, that's a wonderful man." "Roosevelt fed me when I was hongry, A-men." said to Joey Bishop p. 59 parents devout Baptists, aunts? pro entertainers, idol Bessie Smith, Robert Anderson: "Mahalia was the first to bring the blues into gospel." Dr. Watts power quote, recorded with Percy Faith (presumably @ Columbia), witnessed Holiness church preferred their style, p. 60 Johnson Singers might have been the first pro gospel group, put on plays titled Hellbound, From Earth to Glory, The Fatal Wedding, earned upwards of $8 a night touring churches in Chicago, lasted mid 1930s, 1936 married Ike Hackenhull, graduate of Fisk and Tuskeegee, pressured her to sing jazz, she auditioned for The Jazz Mikado, singing "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child", quit mid-audition out of guilt, marriage split but used her mother-in-law's recipes for beauty products, trained at the Scott Institute of Beauty Culture, opened Mahalia's Beauty Salon YEAR?? p. 61 had good business sense Heilbut, on 1937 recordings: "The characteristic Mahalia style is already evident in these. Her voice is high and nasal, not quite the awesome instrument of later years. But the heavy breathing and irresistible swing, the Bessie Smith slurs and Willie Jackson groans are unmistakable." "God's Gonna Separate the Wheat From the Tares" influenced by NOLA wakes and funerals, "Keep Me Everyday" "wonderful artless purity and conviction, breathing between words and adapting the old Dr. Watts manner to a more recent composition" p. 62. Robert Anderson: "Mahalia took the people back to slavery times", though considered the personification of dignity later, at first criticized for breaking music rules, drawing out long notes, improvising rhythm and melody, Some guy: "The girl always had a beautiful voice but she was known for her hollering and getting happy and lifting her dress" p. 63 Dorsey's quote about breathing and phrasing, stereotype Heilbut on "I'd Rather Have Jesus than Silver or Gold" Columbia: "The note bending and spirit are magnificent, the metric typically loose and formless. An orchestra is clearly dubbed in; no violins could ever play so lethargically without direction." "An attendee at a Dorsey/Jackson event" is Dorothy Love p. 64 Her music resonated with Southern blacks, thought as too much by northern urban blacks Signed with Apollo in 1946, Bess Berman "imperious", 8 years with Apollo marked by fighting with Berman over royalties, records at Apollo are "uniformly brilliant" p. 65 Heilbut: "Her power on records and in person was downright terrifying. At her best, Mahalia builds these songs to a frenzy of intensity almost demanding a release in holler and shout. When singing them she may descend to her knees, her combs scattering like so many cast-out demons." Known for bowing, falling on her knees, skipping, pulling up her dress a couple inches, dancing, running, touching herself (patting her sides or belly), could sustain "Move On Up" for 25 minutes, intentional dramatic performances "house wreckers" that conveyed intense emotion to the audience/congregation Heilbut on slow hymns: "Her voice then (recording for Decca) was at its loveliest, rich and resonant, with little of the vibrato and neo-operatic obbligatos of later years. On Apollo records like "Even Me", "Just As I Am", "City Called Heaven", and "I Do, Don't You" the phrasing is perfect, the contralto sturdy and grainy, angelic but never saccharine." p. 66 "power, control, and feeling remain awesome. The spiritual depth of Mahalia's best hymns has seldom been surpassed. Together with her jubilant shouts, they made her a towering force in gospel's greatest era." "She has a characteristic vocal habit of combining slurs and blue notes in a disembodied soprano. It's a weird ethereal sound, part moan, part failed operatics." MJ: "Lately I've been learning all these terms. You know, I half-moan and bring forth those head tones with a groan... the tone is still sustaining. Child, I don't know how I do it myself." peppered her singing with "lordy", "yeah yeah yeah", "my luhds" Heilbut: "some of her gestures are dramatically jerky, suggesting instant spirit possession" p. 67 Studs Terkel began hosting Jackson on local TV program, got a following of jazz fans hearing Bessie Smith, first tour of Europe very successful, had to return home after 6 weeks, by 1954 was nationally known in the U.S. employed her own PR people p. 68 Once called out "Glory!" on her CBS TV show, sad "Excuse me, CBS, I didn't know where I was," but Heilbut insinuates her spontaneous calls and gestures intimidated sponsors, songs for Columbia from "the inspirational dung heap" "I can't get with this commercial stuff. I'm used to singing in church till the spirit comes. Here they want everything done in two three minutes." "priced herself" out of black churches, only white audiences could afford her, Mildred Falls accompanist "who completely understands and anticipates Mahalia's shifting moods and rhythms. By Chicago choir standards her chordings and tempos were old-fashioned, but they always induced a subtle rock exactly suited to Mahalia's swing." "Miss Falls is perhaps the only pianist who completely understands and anticipates Mahalia's shifting moods and rhythms. By Chicago choir standards her chordings and tempos were old-fashioned, but they always induced a subtle rock exactly suited to Mahalia's swing." p. 69 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, older fans not pleased with Columbia records, over produced with orchestras, stuffy?, songs not truly gospel, appeared in Imitation of Life singing "Troubles of this World", p. 70. MLK a big fan, featured "We Shall Overcome" at concerts, p. 71 retired from politics after MLK died, "black spokesman" for mass media, 1965 married musician Sigmund Galloway, (1966 autobiography has lots of attention on him) divorce was public and ugly, hurt her reputation, p. 73. remarried him?? wtf... "I'm a mood singer, I sing by feeling. Looks like I get more so by the year. I think when we're old, we become like David and look back over our life like it was a story. God knows I've something to sing about." p. 302 Heilbut compares the breakdown of her public life to her physical degradation leading to her death, Mildred Falls retired due to arthritis p. 303. appearances toward the end of her life disappointing, her utterances incoherent without purpose p. 305--6 Mj funeral at Greater Salem Sallie Martin sang It Doesnt Cost Very Much, Clara Ward Beams of Heaven takes off her mink stole and puts it on MJ coffin, Robert Anderson sings Move On Up, J Robert Bradley I'll Fly Away, Aretha Franklin Precious Lord Mildred accompanies Anderson "now so weak from arthritis that she had to be supported to and from the piano".
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Marovich edit
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p. 7 "And finally, six historic tipping points helped establish what is known today as gospel music. All of them occurred in Chicago:": 6. The 1947 release of Mahalia Jackson’s best-selling record “Move on Up a Little Higher,” which stimulated the gospel music recording boom. p. 55 Marovich posits Jackson's style may have been influenced by Hattie Parker Aunts Hannah and Alice Clark (p. 64) p. 77. Charity Clark and Johnny Jackson Jr. parents, unmarried, named for her maternal aunt, Mahala, birth certificate says born 1911, aunts insist it was 1912, raised by mother and aunts, in Greenville neighborhood of NOLA p. 78 Plymouth Rock Baptist Church singing debut at 4 years old in children's choir, mother died unexpectedly (30 yrs old) 1918 Mahala was 5, raised with half brother by aunt mahala called Aunt Duke, strict disciplinarian, threw Mahala out of the house if displeased, dropped out of school in 8th grade worked as a laundress, Marovich: "It was the last formal education that Jackson received and resulted in her championing academics throughout her adult life." Attended Mount Moriah Baptist Church, clapping and foot tapping common practice here, choir director Fletcher “Oozie” Robinson, learned music that had a "bounce" became a staple of her style Jackson: "It is the basic way I sing today, from hearing the way the preacher would sort of sing in a—I mean, would preach in a cry, in a moan, would shout sort of, like in a chant way—a groaning sound which would penetrate to my heart."43 fascinated by NOLA funerals second line, Jackson: "They would all get right into the jubilant feeling of this jazz music. So that’s how a lot of our songs that I sing today has that type of beat, because it's my inheritance, things that I’ve always been doing, born and raised-up and seen, that went on in New Orleans."45 p. 79. Older cousin a fan of blues and jazz, bought their records, Jackson would listen to them while Aunt Duke was away, broke curfew in 1927 and got thrown out again, moved to Chicago with aunt Hannah visited Greater Salem Baptist in Chicago, sang “Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet, Gabriel” met with silent disapproval, joined choir but only sang solos bc voice too big, Prince, Wilbur, Robert Johnson Louis Lemon Johnson Singers, first sang only at Salem Baptist but then hired out to other churches, then performed religious themed plays, p. 80 Jackson attracting more attention, then as a solo got hired for revivals, "When the spirit moved her during a song, Jackson hunched down, lifted her dress slightly above her ankles, flashed the congregants a knowing smile, and launched into a lively two-step holy dance." spontaneous expressions, claps typical of NOLA churches she grew up in, asked to wear loose fitting robe to hide body movements, met Dorsey in 1928 began singing his songs on street corners to help sell sheet music, making extra money from housekeeping job p. 122. May 15, 1937 first recording session, “God’s Gonna Separate the Wheat from the Tares”, “God Shall Wipe All Tears Away”, “Keep Me Every Day”, “Oh My Lord,” 25 years old Marovich: "The slower tempo allowed Jackson to embellish the melodies and wring every ounce of emotion from the hymns." accompanied by diverse playing styles Blues, Ragtime, Boogie-Woogie, Stride, and gospel. p. 123 Jackson didn't tell anyone about the recording session, not aunts or husband, Ike Hockenhull, single records put in jukeboxes in NOLA, family there found out about Jackson's records before family in Chicago did Decca dropped Jackson after urging her to record blues, Jackson refused all offers (Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines), husband a gambler (horse racing), Jackson made cosmetics then opened a beauty shop, became a center of activity in gospel music circle, singers who had affinity for the blues but preferred religious lyrics, p. 124 first performance outside a church DuSable High School 1938 audience of 1000 p. 156 Marovich: "She was the living embodiment of gospel music’s ecumenism and was welcomed everywhere" Morning Star Baptist Church 1940 Dorsey jumped up from piano bench, shouting "Mahalia Jackson’s the Empress of gospel Singers! She’s the Empress! The Empress!"48 p. 157 standing with Sister Rosetta Tharpe outside restaurant, erroneously reported in Chicago Defender they had been to a night club, reputation tarnished, when Jackson read it she nearly fainted directed choir at St Luke Baptist Church, bought a building, was landlord, started floral shop after selling beauty shop, p. 190. Apollo Records advertised itself as representing black artists ("first with hits by popular colored artists"), Jackson appeared at Golden Gate Auditorium in NY, got paid $1000 for this, so impressive caught attention of talent scout, introduced to Bess Berman, Rosalie Mckenny accompanist on 4 sides recorded with Apollo: "(I’m going to) Wait until My Change Comes", "I'm going to tell god", "I Want to Rest", and "He knows My Heart", none sold well, Berman wanted to drop her but scout Art Freeman wanted Jackson to record "Move On Up A Little Higher" used as a warmup @ the Golden Gate show. Written by Brewster. p. 191. Recorded the song at St Luke BC, "Freeman recorded the song in two parts to capture Jackson’s ability to build the emotional tension of a gospel song." sold 2 million copies, Jackson received $300K in royalties the first year, p. 192. signs 3 year deal with Apollo, becomes "official soloist" of Nat Bap Conv, developed lifelong friendship with Studs Terkel, Chicago DJ: "There's a woman, my friends, I've seen and heard, who sings like the great blues singer, Bessie Smith, only Mahalia Jackson of the South Side doesn't sing the blues. She sings what is known in her church as 'the gospel'." pp. 197 -- 198 1950 Carnegie Hall gospel revue, First Annual Negro gospel Music Festival, Jackson the final act, atypical case of stage fright before going on, critics loved her: one called her “a truly great artist in her field.” Nora Holt of the Amsterdam news dubbed Jackson “the diva of all gospel singers” and “a genius unspoiled.” Another reporter said she nearly “turned the afternoon into a revival meeting.”119 Francis D. Perkins of the new York Herald tribune wrote that Jackson “displayed a voice of range and timbre well suited to the character of her music.”120 John Hammond wrote in the Daily Compass that Jackson had “a voice of enormous power, range and flexibility, and she used these with reckless abandon.”121 gospel festival made recurring, Jackson became permanent headliner Marshall Stearns, Hunter College: [She] breaks every rule of concert singing... but the full-throated feeling and expression are seraphic.” p. 235 got Robert Anderson signed to Apollo, "oversaw" his first recording session, p. 255 1952 learns she has sarcoidosis, tours France, England, Denmark despite feeling very ill, cut trip short, Mitch Miller at Columbia offers Jackson $50K a year contract for 4 years, Miller tried to encourage (force?) Jackson to record secular, but she refused, p. 256 September 26, 1954, begins weekly half hour radio program The Mahalia Jackson Show, taped in Chicago, ran until February 6, 1955, canceled for lack of sponsors, “Rusty Old Halo” first release for Columbia, "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel 3rd release, second "Walk All Over God’s Heaven" sold 250K. Production values higher at Columbia, Jackson received mixed (confused?) reviews p. 257. First album for Columbia The World’s Greatest Gospel Singer 5 stars from Downbeat, caused surge in sales of gospel material across all record companies, buys a house in 1956, 8328 South Indiana in Chicago, white neighborhood, first day windows shot at, had good relationship with Richard Daley mayor had security around her house, Jackson interviewed by Edward R Murrow in her home as a response (he interviewed other stars in their homes, inspired by Jackson shooting) p. 282. On Studs Terkel show Stud's Place in 1951, Ed Sullivan 1952 Toast of the Town, 1955 Mahalia Jackson Sings, did well, but talks fell through, Jackson had gallbladder surgery, 1958 appears on Dinah Shore Show, Dinah Shore: "All the incredible shows we did in the years of that whole series, the one that people single out to talk about today is that one we did with Mahalia." Shore asked Jackson to be on the show for black representation, no other black person had appeared before on Shore's show, appeared twice more, 1961 TV show Mahalia Jackson Sings (same title as radio show previous) this time nationally syndicated show, p. 297. Jackson: "It’s time Negroes stop waiting on the Lord for help and start helping himself. They are turning dogs and water hoses on our people in the South. We must do something about it." source for this quote? Jackson pulled over at night in Louisiana, police did not believe she owned the Cadillac she was driving, fined $250 by a judge, Jackson believed police stole ~$200 from her purse (Jules Schwerin for this anecdote) p. 298 "They would have just as soon put me in the pokey, if they had found all that money I was carrying in my bra and other places."1 lol Jackson: "There was no place for us to eat or sleep along the major highways. The restaurants wouldn’t serve us . . . some gasoline stations didn’t want to sell us gas or oil. Some told us no restrooms were available. The looks of anger at the sight of us colored folks sitting in a nice car were frightening to see. . . . It got so we were living on bags of fresh fruit during the day and driving half the night, and I was so exhausted by the time I was supposed to sing, I was almost dizzy.”3 p. 299. Marovich: "of all Chicago-based gospel singers, Mahalia Jackson was the most ardent activist of the civil rights movement and passionate believer in its leader, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.", 1956 sang at event fundraising for Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1957 sang at Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. p. 300. Jackson one of many gospel singers associated with Civil Rights, but most prominent: "It’s time Negroes stop waiting on the Lord for help and start helping him- self,” Mahalia Jackson told reporters. “They are turning dogs and water hoses on our people in the South. We must do something about it.”12 <--- FIND THIS SOURCE, helped raise $50K bail money for protestors in jail, other benefits for SNCC, March on Washington sang "How I Got Over" and "I've Been 'Buked and I've Been Scorned", entire DC nearly evacuated in anticipation of riots p. 301 Jackson: “Driving into Washington the night before the march, it looked to me like we were entering a city about to be captured by an enemy army. Houses were dark and the streets were deserted. ere were so many police patrols and soldiers around, you’d have thought the Russians were coming."19 p. 302. Studs Terkel: "By god, there was a great rolling murmur from the crowds! But at that moment, during the singing, there was an airplane buzzing . . . and it was a noise that was quite disturbing . . . you might say, impiously buzzing. And she looked up. I knew what she was going to do. She just looked up at the plane, but she sang up to the plane. And, so help me, her voice drowned out the buzz! At that moment, the scores of thousands around the pool took out their white handkerchiefs and waved them as a wave of banners of triumph, for it was! She outsang, she, the human, had outsung the flying machine! p. 313 1968 recording A Mighty Fortress in LA, suspended recording to sing at MLK funeral, Jackson sings Precious Lord p. 318 October 1971 touring Europe became ill in Germany, flown home "The diagnosis was coronary artery disease or sarcoidosis, depending on the consulting doctor." died January 1972, three funeral services, p. 319 40,000 viewed her casket at Greater Salem BC, lining up the night before, Schwerin: "dressed in a long blue gown with golden threads. . . . Her hands, encased in white gloves, held a large Bible opened to the 20th Psalm of David.” Sallie Martin sang Dorsey's “It don’t Cost Very Much,” Clara Ward sang “Beams of Heaven.”, second service Arie Crown Theater organized by Richard Daley, 6K attended(Ella Fitzgerald, Coretta Scott king, Ray Charles, Pearl Bailey, Studs Terkel, Berry Gordy, and Ralph Abernathy), Coretta Scott King: “She’s not dead. She lives in the hearts and souls of each one of us.” third ceremony at NOLA convention center p. 320 Buried at Providence Memorial Park in Metairie, Louisiana |
Moore edit
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p. 55 With Sam Cooke, most important artists in black gospel in the 1950s At home in Baptist church, signed to Apollo by Bess Berman in 1946, Moore: "relationship with Berman was at times volatile and argumentative", songs for Apollo were "brilliant and definitive" performances were uniquely impressive, might spend half an hour on "Move On Up" in 1940s Hosted her own radio and television programs in 1954, signed by Columbia the same year, brought enormous publicity (September 26, 1954 CBS radio program began) sang at JFK inauguration in 1961 reputation tarnished after divorce from Galloway p. 85 Columbia recordings "toned down and polished" p. 95 "Young woman, you’ve got to stop that hollering. That’s no way to develop a voice, and its no credit to the Negro race.” (Boyer 1995: 88) |
Schwerin edit
This entire source is questionable. Unsure what to use from it, if anything.
Burford 2019: "The book is not without merit, drawing on interviews that Schwerin conducted with Jackson for the purpose of making a documentary film. Beyond Jackson, Schwerin's principal sources are two figures that were particularly close to the singer early in her career. Brother John Sellers and Studs Terkel. Commendably, the author devotes considerable attention to Jackson's longitme accompanist Mildred Falls. Over the course of the book, however, Schwerin's credibility crumbles in the face of an often misguided, shoot-from-the-hip representation of Jackson and her character... Schwerin's paternalistic tone and blithe comfort with making things up as he goes along--because his book, now a quarter of a century old, is the most recent monograph on Jackson..." (pp. 18-19)
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pp. 3--7 Jules: "Her Sanctified Church style was awesome: Moans and groans and shouts built to shivering climaxes, an exaltation of the life force in a voice that lifted the thousand souls into a state of astonishment, and probably grace."(3-4) Jules a documentary filmmaker wanted to make a film about NOLA, goes to MJ show wants to make a film about black ppl wants MJ on soundtrack and connections to ppl to interview
Jules meets with MJ at her house for 3 days (late 1950s, before Imitation of Life -- p. 71 says year is 1955) records her talking about her life between constant traffic of friends and family in and out, MJ lots of candor, Jules meets John Sellers MJ godson and Mildred, MJ swears: "What do you expect me to do with this? Wipe my ass with it?" re check, MJ not bitter about growing up poor in NOLA
MJ has a lavender Cadillac drives to meet Jules in NOLA, MJ stays at Johnny Jackson (half brother) house tells Jules she got stopped by Louisiana State Police outside Vicksburg unable to find a place to stop cops demand to know why she's driving a Cadillac assumes it stolen Mj says it's her "madam's" car (employer I'm assuming) uses "Miz Mildred Dorsey" tell her to take off her shoes then upend her purse find $500 make her follow them to the town marshal charges MJ with speeding fined $250 cops stole $200 lets her go she's relieved they didn't find $15K hidden in her bra and let her go without putting her in jail for a week typical of cops to make black women strip bare to see if they had money belts, MJ drives Jules around NOLA he has to sit in back bc segregation, no year given for this anecdote but b/w 1954 and 1958
Jules: MJ 3rd of 6 children (born in 1912 says Jules) in shotgun shack between Water and Audubon St rent $6-$8 month, MJ picks up driftwood from levee to use for warmth at home, mother dies at 5 has older brother William live with Aunt Duke whips them with cat o' nine tails, father generous with money to her and William, MJ did chores, never forgave her aunt, both sets of grandparents born in slavery, Uncle Porter tells details of slavery and sharecropping when blacks didn't make wage bc always owing for room and board (peonage) made MJ tenacious about getting paid for entire career, NOLA neighborhood was diverse played with white children until puberty, white family Aunt Duke worked for gave her leftovers (Rightors in Goreau, Ryders in Jules), big voice even at 12 yrs, music everywhere in NOLA re: second line MJ: "To this day, it shows the good-time spirit of the city. To cry at the incoming of a child and rejoice at the outgoing."(25) "Some people are a little ashamed of gospel songs and folk songs, because it doesn't take a lot of long study, and they are simple songs of people's hearts. Sometimes, folks don't even think it is art, or what they call "'art'--something complicated, and you have to go through a long period of study; they think that if a song comes from the heart, then maybe it's just too easy."(26)
Fred has records MJ listens to Bessie Smith repeatedly, Fred urges MJ to leave Duke's, MJ scared of Chicago at first bc Al Capone, home at Mount Moriah silent movies Saturday nights, baptisms in the Mississippi River, loves Holiness church music better Baptists have organ but Holiness only percussion "tears to my eyes"(30) Holiness speaking in tongues MJ took similar Jules: "She believed in 'the power of tongues,' and she knew she had the Holy Ghost. She was 'carried away by the spirit.' By that she meant: the extraordinary passion that filled her, the prodigy of musical talent that possessed her as she performed, transported her, literally, out of herself. Mahalia could be unutterably happy."(31), Fred killed MJ more motivated to leave, MJ never liked Mardi Gras bc violence b/w tribes free-for-all cops didn't care about the violence bc black on black, cops run in blacks for no reason no trust in police, preachers have clout and can act as intermediaries between arrested and police, "a groaning sound which would penetrate to my heart"(35)
MJ goes to Chicago with Hannah 3 days to get there segregated cars, MJ carried $100 in her bra that she saved, became laundress joins Greater Salem, Depression hits Chicago harder than NOLA bc poor in South "more of the same", credits Depression for her career, Johnson Singers earned $1.50 night through offerings, started getting invites out of town, prof DuBois singing lesson, touring with Johnson Singers would stay in minister's house paid room and board through offerings, preferred domestic to factory work, 1935 MJ calls herself "fish and bread" singer sang for money and God, meets Hockenhull chemist wanted her to be concert artist married in 1938, Ike's mother sold cosmetics door to door as "Madame Walker"???, buys salon does OK buys floral shop and sings at funerals, MJ sold tickets to her own show counted the house, MJ: "Gospel songs had become so popular that men who didn't care about the church or religion were moving in to prey on the public and the singers. I began to have real trouble with them on the road... and some were up to such slick tricks with the cash box, I had to make it a rule not to sing until they handed me the money they promised me, before I sang."(43) cash only, MJ meets with voice coach Madam Anita Patty Brown suggests arias and classical for MJ, works with Dorsey (Jules says Dorsey and Rainey played his gospel songs but this is contradicted in Harris's history of Dorsey), Dorsey writes many songs for MJ Jules: "they became her trademark"(45), Ike says gospel not art, Hot Mikado audition MJ gets the role turns it down, Ike gambles, marriage ends
John Sellers born in Clarksdale MS, raised in bordello lots of blues in Clarksdale, Sellers grew up in violent racist Delta saw lynchings hungry hates thinking about childhood, learned music in Sanctified church, at 9 Sellers in tent show w/ MJ impressed with his voice connect to his aunt in Chicago comes to get him a year later take to Chicago, doesn't adjust well, goes to see Johnson Singers, Sellers aunt works for Capone as maid, Sellers not getting along with Aunt Carrie begins hanging out at MJ beauty salon errand boy visiting MJ and Ike at home then living with them slept in same bed as both then a cot next to them Ike nice to him buys him ice cream cares about school, Sellers gets job as building super and apt, betrayed by both aunt and mother re: crystal bowl, still visits MJ sings w/ her at church also studies Big Bill Broonzy became friends, Sellers becomes MJ sub sometimes if she can't make it to show, Sellers says money changed MJ sought approval from whites "became hard and domineering, impossible to live with"(60), Sellers criticizes MJ buying condo not working on temple MJ calls him ungrateful, ministers criticize MJ for sensuality while singing robes she donned to hide herself caused more popularity MJ gets with the spirit often while performing
Studs Terkel show in Chic The Wax Museum mostly white audience but soon began playing "ethnic music" hears MJ in music shop, he hunts her down through ministers, plays "I'm Going To Tell God All About It" repeatedly on air introduces MJ to white ppl (ensconced in black chicago she didn't know anyone outside of it), Terkel: "Watching her in a church, particularly a church where poor people came... her relationship to the congregation was something to experience. You didn't forget--the call and response, the give and take; she didn't sing with her voice alone, it's the body, the hands, the feet... She explained to me that plain spirituals are slavery songs. Gospel is post-Civil War. Mahalia would sing both, but gospel had the bounce though there were spirituals with life in them too, as well as the sober drive, the singing drive toward freedom. She explained to me that the spiritual wasn't simply about Heaven over there, 'A City Called Heaven.' No, the city is here, on Earth. And so, as we know, slave songs were code songs. It was not a question of getting to Heaven, but rather to the free state of Canada or a safe city in the North--liberation here on Earth!"(65) Jules: "Studs Terkel's timing was stunningly correct about what kind of sound was needed in the post-World War II years--the up feeling, an affirmative cry for peace and prosperity. With the gospel sound, all would be, could be, right in the world, and God was in His Heaven. There it was, a new beat, a musical stirring that white ears had never before heard--the celebratory life force, the segregated healing sound that had sustained black people in their anguish and separation from the mainstream of American life. Jazz and the blues had been embraced by whites; now it was the time for gospel, and the sound that Mahalia could create so magnificently."(65), Apollo Records Bess Berman catering to black markets offered MJ $10K year, slow sales made MJ depressed for weeks told Berman gospel not commercial enough for whites spoke on the phone MJ wants to record another Move On Up A Little Higher by Brewster already performed at Nat Bap Conv by Queen Anderson, Bess wants to record on two sides (no mention of Art Freeman in this anecdote) of 78 rpm, MJ improvises every performance, $300K royalties first year Berman's husband has jukebox "empire" puts single in jukeboxes sells again well MJ in Miami to perfom at Juke-Box Operators Convention, Rosetta Tharpe has contractual power to veto other gospel singers?? disallows any more MJ songs on jukeboxes?? Golden Gate in Harlem Joe Bostic rents Carnegie Hall for MJ promotes it: "I worked my ass off. I always do. No one could ever get the attention I got, because I used my own mnoey to get attention. And that's that!"(69) (Jules mixes up first and second Carnegie Hall appearances or combines them into one performance)
Jules film Kinfolk didn't get funding, MJ disappointed but asks Jules to help with upcoming TV appearances, Jules: "Unschooled and lacking alleged sophistication according to the standards of white society, she had fierce instincts, dead-right, and exquisite insight about everything that had to do with her career, talent, and the circumstance of being a black woman."(72), TV in the 50s didn't know how to light black ppl, Jules supervised lighting conditional for MJ to appear
Music Inn with Marshall Stearns 1951 Mj first gospel artist invited, MJ:"Some of the market out there is falling into the hands of hustlers and sharks in the business. You know there's plenty of weak-headed gospel singers around, and many of them can be charmed off their feet into helping make gospel 'entertaining'. Now I hear a lot of sound, like it's half jazz. Well, gospel isn't! The way I see it, if you sing the gospel, you never need any artificial anything... Now you know there's nothing wrong in being commercial, but the work has to inspire."(78) gospel can be sold fine just has to be pure, black gospel evolved from white gospel influenced by call and response and improv in African music southern tent shows for poor people, Mj says jim crow gotta go, MJ self taught: "I just found myself doing what came natural to me."(78) meets John Hammond approached her first from Columbia warns her she'll lose her black audience she signs anyway after thinking over it for weeks, Miller arranges CBS radio show in chicago, MJ wants Terkel as writer, Mahalia Jackson Show ran 20 weeks last 3 weeks 10 minutes long, appears on In Town Tonight TV program in Chic, executives and producers wanted to control what she sang MJ not used to that battle with TV ppl how to sing gospel they didn't understand, George Avakian A&R at Columbia Avakian saw her 1944 in Navy San Fran says MJ got along with him and Miller, Hammond says Columbia gave polished accompaniments but rawness of apollo gone, MJ on Columbia: "I begged them to let me record one of my favorite songs, 'God Is Good To Me', but they gave me a hard time. The song was so very much a part of my life, like I thank God for bringing me down in Louisiana to my life today. You know, I'd forget for a moment or two that I was in a studio, standing before a mike, while singing that song. Let me tell you this: There was more of the original Mahalia in the Apollo album 'Bless This House' than in all the other albums I ever made for Columbia!"(105), doesn't like time constraints on songs
Jules: "weird contradictions that still existed between the enthusiastic white response to her concerts and TV appearances and the more often than not cruel reception still reserved for touring black talent in the South: "The minute I left the concert hall I felt as if I had stepped back into the jungle."(109), touring the south difficult to impossible to find a place to stay slept in her car white audiences weeping and loving her but still can't find a place to sleep or eat, gets a visit from Abernathy in 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott concert, buys a house (Jules says in 1957) in white neighborhood window shot out (says a week later), Edward R Murrow Person to Person interviewing at home MJ invites kids over for interview feeds them all plus tv crew, Dinah Shore insists on MJ who insists on Mildred leading orchestra w/ piano, sings He's Got The Whole World In His Hands and Down By the Riverside great reception, leads to appearances on Bing Crosby, Perry Comoe, Steve Allen, Red Skelton, Ed Sullivan again, Milton Berle, Danny Kaye, Jimmy Durante, Dinah Shore agian, Imitation of Life 1958 Mj plays funeral singer Jules says sang 23rd Psalm (Troubles of the World instead) calls the performance "ill-advised"
no one equals Mildred Falls as accompanist, Jules: "a genius in her own right"... "Without Mildred's blues chords, her triplets and four-four irresistible, inimitable bounce pushing Mahalia's voice on like a jockey's whip, Mahalia's art would have been the poorer."(120) John Sellers says MJ didn't pay Mildred or anybody that's how she got and stayed rich, says MJ fired Mildred for asking for a raise and abandoned by MJ, when on TV producers told to send Mildred's check to MJ then MJ decides how much to give Mildred earned thousands by MJ paid $200 week and expenses when Mildred asks for $100 more MJ fires her, Sellers says MJ never took criticism, Sellers: "When Mahalia had money, nobody could talk to her. She used to close out anything she didn't want to have anything to do with."(121) Sellers regrets he didn't have courage to escape MJ temper
Dual concert with Martial Singer french and german art songs at Town Hall, Avakian says he's the only person ever pay Mj by check, details about Big Bill Broonzy appeared with MJ at Royal Albert Hall 1952 (Jules says 1955) lackluster reception MJ unhappy has second thoughts being paired with Broonzy as blues singer, Sellers says MJ "zealous chase after her own fame and fortune" wrapped him up in it made him dependent?
Civil rights movement w/MLK and Abernathy, Jules: MJ "clearly saw herself as a player in any future black resistance movement", MJ sings @ Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom 1957, summary of Brown v Board of Ed and Little Rock Nine B'ham campaign murders of Schwerner Goodmaan chaney MJ rendition of Precious Lord @ opening of Mississippi Burning film Malcolm X JFK and RFk in civil rights, Mj upset with black ppl who don't support march on Washington, MLK asks Mj to sing I Been Buked starts off slow but gets into spirit and picks it up, I Have A Dream speech, Jules: "She had a definite place beside someone she looked upon as a living God. It enriched her and caused her to become a more politically sophisticated woman whose voice carried beyond the concert halls. She had acquired responsibility beyond her image as a gospel singer."(144) Terkel's reaction to MJ performance per looking up while airplane overhead
JFk shot 1963 Mj sad, trip to Europe and Holy land planned (took place 1961), starts feeling ill tired low energy, Sellers and MJ have repeated "hostilities", Jules: "Fame and fortune were the raison d'etre in her character and had been from the time she was a teenager. He reminded her that she had been on a roll, hell-bent in her chase of the almighty dollar, and warned her that falling ill would be the only thing that could put the brakes on her drive. She admitted she was insatiable."(148), MLK asks MJ to help in Chic politics b/w black Baptist leaders in Chic and MLK, MLK and Daley, Daley and Chicago black ppl, MLK gets assassinated Mj appears at Ebenexer in Atlanta (no mention of funeral singing), RFK killed Mj sings I Been Buked on TV
Introduces Galloway (says Minters is nickname -- in Goreau his full name is Minters Sigmond Galloway, prefers Sigmond MJ often calls him Minnis), marriage dissolves divorce finalized in 1967, MJ goes to NYC for Salute to Black Women (occurred in 1969 per Goreau) stays with Sellers while organizing and performing three weeks also bringing Theodore Frye (died in 1963) and Alan Clarke (spelled Allen Clark -- MJ second cousin so spelling of her family name is important here -- in Goreau), Sellers says all of them can't stay will put him on the floor MJ doesn't care brings $40K in cash puts in dresser drawer counts it out before Sellers missing $100 accuses Sellers of stealing Sellers says "Clarke" is the thief, MJ petty about paying him what she said she would changes from $150 week to $100 week, huge fight with Sellers MJ leaves both angry at each other
Benjamin Hooks attorney then judge fan of MJ knew her when traveling in late 40s and 50s knew she was getting cheated by promoters and why MJ demanded she get paid properly, lots of politics in black churches makes civil rights ministers familiar with politics on national scale, intro to chicken franchise Hooks finds MJ shrewd in business asking "questions you'd expect from a Wall Street lawyer", chicken stores v. profitable (don't understand Minnie Pearl's involvement not explained well) Mj gets into canned foods says both companies bankrupt a year after Mj death, Hooks says MJ thought MLK "the ground he walked on, to her, was holy"(169), re: I have a dream speech Hooks says MJ leaned over and whispered "Martin, give 'em the I have a dream", Hooks: "Her veneration of the ministry transcended almost any human expectation. I often wondered, even now, what would have happened if she'd had formal voice training. It might have ruined her! Since her death, I've listened to all the people who call themselves kings and queens of gospel music, but they can't touch her -- side, top, bottom -- they just can't do it!"(170), Sellers comes to Chic to work for MJ fight from NY forgotten Sellers wary of being paid as promised chats with Mildred cast out now only Sellers from MJ circle speaks with her, Jules misspells Eskridge to Estridge says MJ fired black law firm to hire Shapiro (1968), says MJ cajoled and finessed manipulated to do it, same year she started having health problems and depression (started 1964), Sellers says MJ started using skin lighteners??, recordings at Columbia commercialized to be inauthentic to gospel she sang earlier, included songs Danny Boy, Summertime, Sunrise Sunset, Trees, Lonesome Road, Without A Song, The House I Live In, Mj adores Elder Lucy Smith bc bootstrap preacher Jules says temple idea was for vanity a monument to herself "a living monument to mark her earthly achievements"(174), gets check from Rockefeller for temple puts it in her purse
MJ funeral, names Cylestine Fletcher as secretary transcribes MJ on death bed note to all: "Jan 11, 1972. 6:35 pm. Pslam 119. Verses 17 and 18." Deal bountifully with Thy servant, that I may live and keep They word. Open Thou mine yes, that I may behold wondrous things out of the law." Greater Salem viewing tens of thousands wait in the snow, church clears and Daley comes in and speaks to MJ in casket, Aunt Hannah arrives says "No tears! No tears!" Aerie Crown theater next day CSK gets standing ovation CSK: Mj "black and proud and beautiful... A woman with extraordinary gifts as a singer, singing songs of her people. She was my friend and she was the friend of mankind."(179) Ella Fitzgerald: "This great woman is gone from us. I tell you, there's not another singer like her in the world!"(180) Sellers not invited to sing, Jules says Polly/Cylestine switched him with Aretha Franklin and Sellers v hurt, Jesse Jackson holds radio service Albertina Walker sings Move On Up, scandal about CL Franklin and drugs (year?) Aretha asked MJ to appear at trial as character witness?? MJ refuses bc CL "snuffed the white stuff, and besides, everybody knew he was a womanizer", Aretha mad maybe they never spoke again?? Jules: "it is believed" ok dude, Aretha sings Precious Lord CL speaks, Clara Ward refuses to smile for cameras "not a good day for me to be smiling"(182), Bessie (Jules says Betsy) Griffin sings Move On Up in NOLA funeral, Belafonte: "she was the most powerful black woman in the United States, the woman-power for the grass roots. There was not a single field-hand, a single black worker, a single black intellectual who did not respond to her Civil Rights message."(183), says she got a second line in NOLA
Sellers and MJ argue about final album and MJ image, will says 75 beneficiaries (not Sellers) Greater Salem gets $5K + titles to 3 properties, maybe had $9 mill in assets and properties? Mildred gets $2K, Jules gets the green light for Kinfolk in 1975 calls it Got To Tell It (same title as book)
APPENDIX/DISCOGRAPHY 67 singles recorded for Apollo 17 albums recorded for Columbia, not including concert/live albums (not included: 4 singles for Decca)
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Obituaries edit
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Price, Richard, "Mahalia Jackson Dies: Jackson: Praise for Her God", The Washington Post, (January 28, 1972); p. A1
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Academic journals edit
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Jabir, Johari, "On Conjuring Mahalia: Mahalia Jackson, New Orleans, and the Sanctified Swing", American Quarterly, (September 2009), Vol. 61, No. 3, pp. 649-669.
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Burford, Mark, "Mahalia Jackson Meets the Wise Men: Defining Jazz at the Music Inn", The Musical Quarterly, (Fall 2014), Vol. 97, No. 3, pp. 429-486.
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Discarded sources edit
- Cornell, Jean Gay, Mahalia Jackson: Queen of Gospel Song, Champaign, IL: Garrard Pub. Co., 1974. ISBN 0-8116-4581-9. JUVENILE
- Jones, Hettie, Big Star Fallin' Mama: Five Women in Black Music, Viking Press, 1974. JUVENILE
- Viale, Gene D (2010). I Remember Gospel and I Keep On Singing. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4490-7681-8.
- Autobiography, mentions MJ in passing, may be good for stylistic impressions, may get later