Search - Mahalia Jackson :: Amazing Grace

One of my favorites!

Steve Booth | Chitown | 06/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Whether or not the background music is adequate is inconsequential to me. Mahalia Jackson has moved me to tears (Somebody Bigger Than You and I), and elation (There Is No Color Line Around The Rainbow). The songs she sings on this album are some of my all time favorite performances."

Moving hymns by the greatest of all gospel singers!

Thomas L. Burns | Columbus, Ohio | 07/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Some of the reviewers here reject this album because it's not 'toe-tappin' gospel music, but (pardon me for saying so), they are confused a bit about the genre. This is an album of hymns, not 'spirituals' or what we have come to think of as gospel songs. Comparing 'I Believe,' the most moving of all hymns, IMO, with 'Walk in Jerusalem' is like comparing a gentle road trip through Italy with racing in the Indy 500. Hymns are supposed to be moving, not toe-tapping. Songs like 'I Believe,' one song alone that makes this CD worth owning, are meant to be deep statments of faith. It moves me every time, and I'm an agnostic, and plan to remain so. Don't get me wrong. I love up-tempo songs like 'I'm on my Way.' I just wouldn't compare it with 'Amazing Grace.'



If you love the sonorous, emotionally-charged sound of Mahalia's voice at its best, check out this CD!"

Mahalia's start at Columbia

William V. Cleland | 01/05/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Mahalia had just left Apollo when she made these songs. Apollo music was called at that particular time "race records," everything from Mahalia's gospel to Calypso and the list goes on. Naturally Columbia did not know quite what to do with her then. I classify this album as an experimental musical event. It was music alien to Miss Jackson, but after all, she had signed a contract and had a producer over her. In her autobiography she would moan about being forced to sing drivel. She complained about missing her old southern, soulful sound. I've always admired Mahalia for trying new things. She despised the old hit "Rusty Old Halo," but white people loved it then. She, like Nat King Cole, was a cross-over singer at a time when whites dominated entertainment and television. Mahalia used to sing in the fifties and sixties on New York and Hollywood variety hour shows. She complained then about being stuck between clowns and elephant acts. "How am I going to bring out the Message," she would cry. Well, she did. She did for all time. She approached different genres, sometimes with trepidation and anxiety, but she plowed ahead. She was not always satisfied, but she touched the hearts of people without realizing perhaps that she had done so. What a feat! Mahalia has fantastic performances out there: Lincoln Center, Europe, Newport, Percy Faith and so on. Then there are really nice ones with a different twist. I put this one in that latter category. Her voice is marvellous. . . the three star rating I attribute more to the repertoire and vocal backings, dated and pure fifties. You either like it or you don't, but remember that Mahalia was doing her job. I think she did a good job here. The civil rights issues of those times are reflected in some songs here. She was working through history in the form of music, striving to unite people and foster understanding. People nowadays would do well to make that transfer into society today."