Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'A City Called Heaven' by Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson, properly and respectfully called “The Queen of Gospel Music,” is the voice and face of gospel music for most people around the world – even decades after her death. No artist before or since has commanded the stage and the public’s imagination like Halie. Her classic recordings for the tiny Apollo label, with Mildred Falls on organ or piano, comprise the pinnacle of traditional gospel music... “Moving On Up,” “In the Upper Room,” “How I Got Over,” “I’ve Been ‘Buked and I’ve Been Scorned” ... friends, there is nothing like them.

So let me add one more: her majestic reading of “City Called Heaven” from 1951 – it’s a master class on tension and release, of piety and power, and a majestic voice for the ages.

I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.

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