Mahalia Jackson, the "Queen of Gospel Music", died on January 27th 1972

Born in 1911 in New Orleans, Mahala Jackson,as she was christened (she added the "i" when she was about 20), she grew up in a large extended family, watched over by her aunt after her mother died when she was 5, in a strict and unforgiving regime. She sang in the local churches from an early age, and when she moved north to Chicago in the great migration of the late '20s, she immediately found herself singing solos in the churches there. She was invited to join the choir and then the Johnson Gospel Singers, one of the first professional gospel groups. She met renowned gospel composer Thomas Dorsey, and they began touring together performing at large church gatherings. She married Isaac Hockenhull in 1936, but the marriage lasted only 5 years - she divorced him because of his gambling and his pressure on her to sing secular material. She recorded for Decca during the '30s without much success, but having signed to Apollo in 1947, she had a multi-million seller in 1948 with "Move on up a little higher", launching her into national and international stardom. She became the first gospel artist to perform at Carnegie Hall in 1950, and began touring Europe in 1952, becoming a familiar face in concert halls and on TV, as well as becoming influential on the political stage, establishing a reputation as a powerful civil rights activist. She sang at President Kennedy's inauguration, and at the March on Washington in 1963, scene of Rev Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech - she sang five years later at his funeral. She recorded her final album in 1969, and made her last concert appearance in 1971, dying of heart failure from diabetes complications in 1972. She leaves a legacy of unique recordings. Acrobat has on catalogue two albums of her work - for details click here.