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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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Disc:
1
1. Didn't It Rain
2. My God Is Real (Yes, God Is Real)
3. Walk Over God's Heaven
4. If I Can Help Somebody
5. Come On Children, Let's Sing
6. What A Friend We
Have In Jesus
7. I Found The Anser
8. It Is Well With My Soul
9. Great Gettin' Up In The Morning
10. You Must Be Born Again
11. Elijah Rock
12. Jesus Met The Woman At The Well
13. A Satisfied Mind
14. Keep Your Hand On The Plow
15. Roll, Jordan, Roll
16. Calvary
17. In My Home Over There
18. I Will Move On Up A Little Higher
Disc: 2
1. In The Upper Room
2. The Christian's Testimony
3. If We Never Needed The Lord Before (We Sure Do Need Him Now)
4. A City Called Heaven
5. Trouble Of The World
6. Without God I Could Do Nothing
7. Take My Hand, Precious
Lord
8. Joshua Fit The Battle Of
Jericho
9. His Eye Is On The Sparrow
10. God Put A Rainbow In The Sky
11. He's Got The Whole World In His Hands
12. A Rusty Old Halo
13. Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen
14. Dear Lord, Forgive
15. I'm Going To Live The Life I Sing About In My Song
16. Search Me Lord
17. If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again
18. Walk On By Faith
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