Confession: Deaf to Gospel

I read some of your comments regarding Mahalia Jackson. The religion part in most instances is problematic. However, It was the understanding of Jesus Christ that gives Mahalia's singing "life" that has not been surpassed up to our present time. Mahalia came from poverty in a society that X'd the Black Female. Her only choice living in the segregated American south was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She made much of this understanding and shared her discovery with the whole world!!!!

HM: I'm glad it worked for her, and whoever else it works for -- what helps get you through the night or out of poverty (of $ or spirit) shouldn't be scorned. But not for me.

>reports on Addis Ababa's "Ethio-jazz" innovator Maluta Astatke

Actually, his first name is Mulatu [moo-'lah-too], not Maluta. Sorry for nitpicking.

HM writes -- thanks Cyril (editor of www.jazz.ru.com), if there are nits to be picked, someone's got to do it -- glad to publish correct info rather than mistakes.

HM: Organized religion: problematic.

VERY problematic. However, there may be several definitions to "religion." Doesn't it basically mean "linking", from the latin "religo"? In the broad sense then, "linkage" is no problem when it is cast in the tenet of André Breton's 1929 Second Manifesto of Surrealism:

"Everything leads to the belief that there exists a certain point of the mind at which life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low, are not perceived as contradictions." Isn't this the language of poetry, analogies, love, art?

HM: Certainty of faith: dangerous, organized or not?

Religious-wise, most often VERY, VERY dangerous if not perceived metaphorically. But artists need to have faith in THEMSELVES, don't they, believe in their art and basically not care about what others think of their work?

P.S. Speaking of swinging, not many can top the grace or fun of Velma Middleton

Funny. I'd just completely ignore the religious overtones and enjoy the voice and the feeling for the great pleasure that they convey. Just as I admire Louis Armstrong the moment he hits his horn, while being able to ignore his clowning antics later in life. Just as I admire the Coffee Cantata by Bach, one of the most glorious pieces ever written, while ignoring the subject matter - the new fad of coffee! Religion or coffee - the subject matter is not very important to me in music. Likewise, why do people fret over Mozart's childlike behaviour in so many respects? I couldn't care less -- he created Don Giovanni and Cosi fan Tute. They were all geniuses, extra-ordinary, and through their art they continue to make our lives so much more enjoyable and meaningful, and that's what's important. We should give these artists some slack on the "ordinary" aspects of their personalities; it's all secondary. Organized religion is the problem. Not the transcendental experience of beauty or poetry or love or longing that a Mahalia Jackson or Bach or Mozart or Louis Armstrong are experiencing and are conveying to us, mere mortals. -- S. Fredericq

HM: Transcendent experience: good (in moderation, with perspective). Organized religion: problematic. Certainty of faith: dangerous, organized or not?

I had a shock listening to Mahalia Jackson's a capella rendition of "Come Sunday" in Duke Ellington's "Black, Brown and Beige" released by Columbia Jazz (CK65566). It is magnificent and overpowering. No-one but Marian Anderson comes close. I never had warmed up much to Mahalia Jackson, and in many regards I still don't, but this a capella rendering is about all what's truly great with humanity. -- Suzanne Fredericq

Dear Ms. Fredericq: Thanks for your note. Yes, Mahalia sings "Come Sunday," Mahalia's at the march on Washington, at Dr. King's funeral, ending the Newport Jazz Fest in Jazz on A Summer's Day. Mahalia's great, and not the problem -- it's the religion part.

Here's a great Mahalia Jackson performance, early and according to YouTube (or whoever posted it there) from Chicago. She generates a lot of rhythmic power. There's a distortion about a minute in, but keep watching, she nails this bit.

Here's one where she strikes me as scary.

Greg Tate, whose writings I admire, urged me to write the "Epiphany" for The Wire, saying it was the gospel itself (what's that in German? ) that shook me. If he was right, as I suspect, my only defense is to laugh. So here's one that's got to be a spoof -- say, YouTube, you really think that's Mahalia swinging "Just A Close Walk With Thee" in her "last tv show" "? - HM