Mahalia Jackson - Queen of Gospel BIOGRAPHY








Seeds of Success
"The secret of life, I am told, is keep on moving.        
You got to have heart, you got to take hold. Keep on movin..."
By 1937, Jackson had made her first set of recordings with Decca Records. Her first side, "God's Gonna Separate the Wheat from the Tares," only saw moderate commercial success. Despite her A&R representative's suggestions, she refused to make a blues record, remembering her pledge to sing only gospel music. As a result, she lost her contract with Decca. Then married to her first husband, Ike, Jackson decided to buy real estate and invest in her own business, a beauty shop. High-paying offers for work in the theater rolled in, and though Ike protested, Jackson kept her vow. Gospel music was becoming popular in Chicago churches, and Jackson was building a community of gospel musicians. Among these was Thomas Dorsey, a talented Atlanta-born African American composer and pianist who had migrated north with a vision for gospel music. He chose Jackson out of all the singers in Chicago to be his partner, and, as a traveling act, the two ushered in the Golden Age of Gospel.

Mahalia and Thomas Dorsey
Mahalia and Thomas Dorsey




"Move On Up A Little Higher"



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