Talk:Mahalia Jackson

Reese
I cut references to Mahalia Jackson's aquaintance with Della Reese and the fact that she inspired character names in Victory Gundam. Both may be true, but I don't think they merit inclusion in an encyclopedia article. Jackson was one of the most important singers of the 20th century; she knew many of the important musicians of her time quite well (Duke Ellington, for example) and has inspired countless others. Singling these two examples out at random in an article of this length looks bizarre, and suggests that they are somehow more important than Jackson herself. NoahB 18:47, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

Lord's Prayer
I took out the words "The Lord's Prayer" from "Popular Culture" because they had no place or meaning there. I suspect that they were meant as a song, but since I cannot verify that this was a well-known songs of Jackson I did not move it into "Well-Known Songs". 129.79.144.144 17:55, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Too short
I am surprised at the briefness of this article! As one of the most important singers of our time, I expected this article would be much more detailed. I'll start trying to find more information to include in Ms. Jackson's article James 18:50, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Your right Godessofmagic223 (talk) 19:08, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

Year of birth
Has anyone else noticed that all sources cite her birth year as 1911, yet her headstone cites it as 1912?James 20:06, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I did and although the headstone reads 1912, the websites and encyclopedia I checked both confirm 1911 as her birth year.

Diabetes
Our article states that she died of diabetes and heart failure. The New York Times obituary, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Findagrave all state that it was heart failure alone. What is the source for the diabetes claim? Capitalistroadster 09:02, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Mahalia jackson 1998.jpg
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BetacommandBot 04:35, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

IPA request
Add IPA of "Mahalia". Jidanni (talk) 01:46, 20 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Done. Rilkas (talk) 18:03, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Birth name
Her birth name was Mahala, not Mahalia. That's the name she later adopted, as the article states; therefore, it should be moved to Other names alongside Halie. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Liz Niña (talk • contribs) 17:18, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Her mother's last name
What was Mahalia's mother Charity last name? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.240.214.231 (talk) 02:02, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Secular music
The article says that she "refused to sing secular music, a pledge she would keep throughout her professional life." I honestly don't know much about Mahalia Jackson, but I do have a recording of her singing "Summertime" and "You'll Never Walk Alone," both of which are pretty much secular. Maybe someone who knows more about her work could revise this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Godoex (talk • contribs) 07:15, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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Mildred Falls?
Why no mention or a section on Mahalia Jackson's longtime accompanist Mildred Falls? The Gospel/Blues piano of Mildred Falls was a very important part of the sound of Mahalia Jackson. You can hear her prominently in so many of Mahalia Jackson's recordings. She was her exclusive pianist for over 20years. Try to imagine the live recordings of "How I got over" without her rocking/blues piano. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kyle kursk (talk • contribs) 13:46, 19 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Checking back I see that the new version of the article has added a nice section on Mildred Falls. Nice job explaining how Mildred Fall’s piano skills added to the success, sound, and feel to Mahalia Jackson’s great performances. Kyle kursk (talk) 13:26, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

External links modified
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Unsourced statements
I removed an unsourced sentence: "When she recorded The Power and the Glory with Faith, the orchestra arched their bows to honor her in solemn recognition of her great voice." (and 2011 "Citation needed" tag), that runs afoul of the B-class criteria (#1), to prevent reassessment. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Otr500 (talk • contribs) 09:13, 12 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Thought I forgot something (to add signature) --- Otr500 (talk) 13:49, 18 February 2020 (UTC)

New article
Well, I wrote this article and posted it today, February 7, 2021, and God (etc.) willing, this will be the last time I edit it. So I and the entire human race are counting on you to make sure it doesn't die the death of a thousand dumb edits. Here's the sandbox I wrote this article in and the other where I summarized the majority of sources. If someone has a question that should answer most of it. And of course the sources themselves.

A word to future editors: I used Jules Schwerin's Got To Tell It as a source but I didn't cite anything from it because I don't consider it reliable. Neither does Mark Burford, author and editor of two books about Jackson (the exception is the chapter of Jackson recalling growing up in New Orleans, but this period is well documented in Goreau's book). So I removed Schwerin from the Further reading section. Be very skeptical of anything added to the article from this source.

There's now a Mahalia Jackson discography too. Moni3 (talk) 19:18, 7 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your work! nyxærös  19:24, 7 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Wow, thanks very much; great work as usual! Thanks also for your notes re sources. I've copyedited the article and added a little tidbit about her and Duke Ellington (I'd found the ref for it before reading the source details on your sandbox talk page). I've been watching this article since the end of 2009 when I discovered some major vandalism to it and I don't intend to stop anytime soon. Graham 87 14:49, 8 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the copy edits (I tried to get it perfect...), and thank you to everyone who watches the article to protect it. Moni3 (talk) 00:33, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

"God's word through song."
"She found a home in her church, leading to a lifelong dedication and singular purpose to deliver God's word through song."

Firstly, 'lifelong dedication', sure--but 'singular purpose' is speculative and superfluous.

Secondly, why are we using sentimental religious parlance like "God's word"? This read like a bio on a church website. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.121.142.230 (talk) 15:48, 21 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Fixed, thanks for the note. I don't like what I replaced it with but it's probably better than the original. Agreed especially re "God's word". Graham 87 03:52, 22 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Disagree with this. Singular purpose -- she did nothing else in her life because she was motivated to sing only gospel. She rejected all manner of opportunities when both rich and poor, to focus entirely on gospel. "Lifelong dedication" doesn't do the idea, and the language used in sources, justice. There's no sentimentality in the language and this needs to be understood. This language, "deliver God's word through song" reflects Jackson's motivations. Her mindset. This article is about, essentially, a religious figure akin to a saint, monk, or someone similar. It doesn't make sense to address the biography of someone whose entire life was dedicated to a religious cause and not be direct about why she did it. Excluding it diminishes to details of her life. She didn't sing because she was paid, for fame, or other rewards. She did it because she earnestly believed she was delivering God's word through song. It's essential to convey the how serious Jackson was about this. Service to God was her duty, and the reward was an eternal placement in heaven. The statement conveys this succinctly and accurately. Accuracy is more important than neutrality of tone here. This edit does not help the article. Moni3 (talk) 15:57, 22 June 2021 (UTC)
 * OK, I've self-reverted for now, until/unless we can hash out something else. To me the article does sound like it's saying that Jackson literally sang God's word through song, implying that the Christian conception of God exists and is the only correct one, in Wikipedia's voice ... which I don't personally believe ... but I can't find a way to fix it without making that passage sound clunky. Even adding something like "as she saw it"/"as she perceived/conceived it" to the end of that sentence doesn't really work for me; she sang songs written by others but she certainly put her own unmistakeable stamp on them. Graham 87 02:26, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

"Queen of Gospel Music" honorific
Graham87 pinged me about this. The article before I rewrote it mentions Jackson as the "Queen of Gospel" or some similar designation. Originally I left this out of the lead and article because the sources don't refer to her this way. She was marketed by Apollo using this description. Maybe called this by MCs at concert appearances. It was a way to designate her kind of music for people who were unfamiliar with her or her style. So it seems like a marketing gimmick in the same way Atlantic Records referred to Ray Charles as a "genius" in their album titles.

Jackson didn't refer to herself this way. But gospel singer Clara Ward did while Jackson was touring and recording. Jackson also didn't refer to herself as "the world's best/greatest/etc gospel singer" but she was marketed this way by Columbia.

Also, using "Queen of Gospel etc" makes Jackson smaller than she was, confined to the gospel genre as opposed to her influence over popular music as a whole. Anyway, that's the reasoning. In the scope of the article I didn't put much thought into it as it's such a minor detail.

What's the citation standard for an honorific? When I wrote Thomas A. Dorsey's article, I included mention of the honorific "Father of Gospel Music" because sources use it repeatedly if only to clarify that Dorsey didn't invent gospel or wasn't the first to use "gospel" to refer to black church music. They elaborate on his influence by discussing the honorific title. Moni3 (talk) 13:47, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
 * With that explanation, I tend to agree that it deserves little or no elaboration. Maybe a short paragraph in the "On music" section, if even that. I can't find an actual standard on these things but FWIW Ray Charles's article mentions the "genius" thing right in the lead and nowhere else, which is not the best practice. There's Louis Armstrong, but that's not exactly comparable. Hmmm ... Graham 87 14:08, 1 September 2022 (UTC)