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Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson was one of the great gospel singers - perhaps the greatest of all time - with a powerful contralto voice and wonderful emotional delivery. She recorded almost 30 albums and a dozen of her singles sold over 1 million copies. Although she never sang secular music, Little Richard cited her as an inspiration.

Mahalia Jackson was born in 1911 in New Orleans, Louisiana, daughter of a barber and preacher, and began to sing in church at age four. Her singing style was influenced by Bessie Smith, Ida Cox and Ma Rainey. In 1927 she moved to Chicago and found work as a domestic, while singing in churches and at funerals. She met composer Thomas Dorsey in 1929, and he helped and toured with her during the early stages of her career. She made his "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" her signature song.

After performing with the Prince Johnson Singers, she recorded for Decca Records in 1937, but with little success. However, after several years of touring gospel meetings, she gained a contract with Apollo Records from 1946 to 1954. Her recording of "Move On Up A Little Higher" in 1948 sold an extraordinary 8 million copies and catapulted her to fame. She began to tour with great success, singing in concert halls in the USA, including the Carnegie Hall in 1950, and in Europe after 1952.

In the 1950s, Mahalia Jackson sang on radio and television shows and performed on stage around the world. She began hosting her own Sunday night radio show for CBS in 1954, sang on the Ed Sullivan show in 1956, and in 1960 sang for President Dwight Eisenhower and at John F. Kennedy's inaugural ball.

Mahalia was prominent in the Civil Rights Movement from its beginnings in the 1950s to her death. She often performed at Martin Luther King's his rallies, singing the old slave spiritual "I've Been 'Buked And I've Been Stoned" before his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington in 1963.

Mahalia continued touring and recording until her death in 1972.

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