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If
the bazillion packagings and repackagings of Mahalia Jackson's music confound
you and you don't know where to start, this expertly compiled, carefully
annotated double-disc box set is for you. Jackson wasn't just gospel music's
first international superstar--she was among its earliest adherents and
inventors. Working with the great composer and former blues singer Thomas A.
Dorsey in the late 1930s, Jackson gave a distinctly blues-trained, jazzy sass
and grace to Dorsey's material and the other hymns and spirituals she sang. More
than any other performer, she helped to define gospel music itself as a
transcendent, rootsy, melismatic, and heady spiritual sound. Culled from her
sides for Columbia in the 1950s and 1960s, some of the arrangements in the set
are not ideal and may sound quite a bit dated, but that voice shines and soars
and dives straight to the center of your heart. Whether backed by a simple organ
or piano or with full studio accompaniment, Jackson's booming, instantly
recognizable contralto is indescribable, exciting, and forever a wonder to
behold. And if you think that's an exaggeration, you don't own this record.
--Mike McGonigal
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1.
Part I
2. Part II
3. Part III (Aka Light)
4. Part IV (Aka Come Sunday)
5. Part V (Aka Come Sunday)
6. Part VI (23rd Psalm)
7. Track 360 (Aka Trains) (Alternate Take)
8. Blues In Orbit (Aka Tender) (Alternate Take)
9. Part I (Alternate Take)
10. Part II (Alternate Take)
11. Part III (Aka Light) (Alternate Take)
12. Part IV (Aka Come Sunday) (Alternate Take)
13. Part V (Aka Come Sunday) (Alternate Take)
14. Part VI (23rd Psalm) (Alternate Take)
15. Studio Conversation (Mahalia Swears)
16. Come Sunday (A Cappella)
17. (Pause Track)
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