Discovering a Treasure – More Mahalia

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

It must have been like a prospector striking gold when gospel enthusiast Glen Smith discovered previously unknown recordings of the great Mahalia Jackson at the Historic New Orleans Collection. Aware of their significance, he immediately called Anthony Heilbut, a noted gospel historian, record producer and author who was always on the lookout for such treasures. Combined with other material, these recordings rounded out a superb new Mahalia Jackson album, Moving on Up a Little Higher, that includes an amazing 20 (out of 22) never before released cuts. It’s been 40 years since the world-renowned gospel singer’s last new album was released.

Recorded during the period of 1946-1957, we hear the power, sincerity and richness of Jackson’s voice in a variety of settings including Chicago’s Greater Harvest Missionary Baptist Church where she testifies with the congregation urging her on, at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, at a CBS television studio and in the quietude of her home in a duet with the renowned Thomas A. Dorsey, the “father of gospel.” This rare recording came via New Orleanian William Russell, a jazz historian, record producer, collector, musician and friend of Jackson’s who bequeathed it – along with thousands of other items – to the HNOC. “I helped her out anyway I could,” once said Russell, whose tape recorder found a home, during the early and mid-1950s, just behind a couch in Jackson’s living room. “The way I got paid was to hear her sing.”

MAHALIA JACKSON

To open the disc, we hear Jackson announce to the audience at the Newport Festival: “You know I’m really a church singer… I’ve got to feel this thing.” Then she jumps into the energized “Keep Your Hand on the Plow.” Her wonderful festival performance, also released for the first time, makes up a majority of the album. The singer’s longtime accompanist, the brilliant Mildred Falls is by her side here and throughout the recordings (except for the one with Dorsey). Falls’ piano opens the swaying, “Jesus Met the Woman at the Well.”

At over six minutes, Troubles of the World, is almost double the length of the other cuts that gives Jackson time and space to really stretch out. Her worldly pain can be felt in her vibrato and when she lifts her voice to the heavens. Applause rings out at her magnificence. “You make me feel like I want to sing now,” Jackson jokes.

Jackson is alone at the microphone for an acappella version of “When the Roll Will Be Called in Heaven,” another piece of gold uncovered at the HNOC.

Mahalia Jackson, who moved to Chicago when she was 15, was born in New Orleans and baptized in the Mississippi River. This collection, complete with a comprehensive booklet, further demonstrates her hometown’s influence. Jackson’s stylistic diversity is stunning moving from the solemn to the uplifting with equal strength. Jackson, like Louis Armstrong, represented New Orleans with her great talent and spirit. As captured on Moving on Up a Little Higher, Mahalia Jackson’s joy and praise live on.

Jazz Jumpin’ Around Town

New Orleans is the host city for the 8th Annual Jazz Education Network Conference being held at the Hyatt Regency from Wednesday, January 4, through Saturday, January 7, 2017. Beyond its importance for students and educators, the conference brings in national jazz artists who perform there (some concerts are open to the public by admission) as well as local clubs.

Snug Harbor is a major benefactor of having these musicians in town and will present three shows this week with artists affiliated with the event. On Tuesday night, January 3, trumpeter Sean Jones will join the Stanton Moore Trio – with drummer Moore, bassist James Singleton and pianist David Torkanowsky at its regular set. Thursday, January 5, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon plays with a Chicago group, the Low Down Brass Band and on Saturday, January 7, Peruvian trumpeter Gabriel Alegria & the Afro Peruvian Sextet take over the Frenchmen Street club. It wouldn’t be surprising if some of the other musicians playing or conducting seminars at the conference – greats like trumpeter Randy Brecker and saxophonist Branford Marsalis – don’t turn up to sit in or check out the action on the New Orleans scene.

Of those booked at Snug Harbor, Wycliffe Gordon has the deepest musical kinship to New Orleans and is perhaps best know to local audiences. Following the 2011 release of his album Hello Pops! A Tribute to Louis Armstrong, Gordon, who is also proficient on trumpet and tuba, played traditional jazz at the Satchmo SummerFest. He first came to prominence when, in 1989, he joined trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

“What made being in the band great is that Wynton had cats that could play the music that I grew up listening to – (drummer) Herlin Riley and (bassist) Reginald Veal,” Gordon once noted. “I was not only exposed to being around some of world’s greatest musicians, bar none, but those who also happened to be from New Orleans.”

His New Orleans musical roots are bound to be exposed again though this time with a brass band from Chicago. And the music goes ‘round and ‘round.

This article originally published in the January 2, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.