Word: mahalia
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...Mahalia Jackson Show (Sun. 10:05 p.m., CBS). Rousing gospel singing...
Last week untrained but talented Mahalia was rehearsing in Chicago for her own radio show (Sun. 10:05 p.m., CBS). Her arranger, Jack Halloran, suggested that she start singing on the eighth bar of I Believe. Said Mahalia: "Jack, don't talk to me about bars. What word do you want me to start on?" When she is learning a song, Mahalia listens intently as her longtime accompanist, Mildred Falls, plays the piece over and over. Then Mahalia works until she feels both the words and the music. She never sings the same song twice in the same...
...Mahalia still sings in churches. But her deep, creamy contralto has also been heard five times in Carnegie Hall, where she fills the house without benefit of advertising ("You just get a feeling she's coming," explains one New York fan). Two years ago, on a European tour, greetings came from Queen Elizabeth and Winston Churchill before an Albert Hall concert...
...will sing only such numbers as Danny Boy: "That's a sad song. It tells the experience of one who has grieved, so I can sing it. I love to sing songs with a sorrow aspect." She refuses to do blues numbers because "they're sinful." Explains Mahalia: "Blues only touch the heart. Gospel singing is a heart feeling, too, but it's also got His love, and that's what I've got to sing if I'm going to sing...
Fortunately for radiomen's peace of mind, the show is recorded, and the rapt studio audience thunderously liked whichever way Mahalia sang a song. She has a surge, vitality and emotional genuineness that crackles across her listeners like electricity. When the audience began cheering and stamping, Mahalia warned them: "Don't you start that or we'd tear this studio apart. You got to remember, we're not in church...