Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)It is not the rather lame documentary that makes this item worthwhile but the bonus disc. It contains 2 hours with 38 live video clips recorded in black and white for American television in the late fifties. The performances are set against a sober kind of German expressionistic background. Most of the time the accompanying musicians (piano -must be Mildred Falls-, acoustic bass, electric guitar, drums and organ) are not in the picture. Without an audience the performances are rather serene but they are of high musical quality. Though some songs are more uplifting than others Jackson and the other musicians are in great form. They are randomly taken from the 80 video clip collection 'Mahalia Jackson sings' which lasts for 4 hours.
In regard of the documentary: it is apparent that there is not that much video footage left of Mahalia Jackson, except from the above mentioned footage. There is something to be said for the interview recordings used but for a visual documentary it is a pity that only two excerpts, lasting only seconds, are accompanied by moving pictures of Mahalia Jackson. This is the great omission of the film. To cover up for this problem a lot of irrelevant archive footage is used and the camera zooms in or out on tens of still photographs. Then there are a lot of chit chatting talking heads from people who where more or less close to her and on top of it all there's the annoying voiceover. Most troubling is that their voices are mixed through the soundtrack of the few interesting concert snippets, which are not fully shown in the first place. Most of the scarce concert footage is from one of her later and less impressive concert tours where her voice, music (without pianist Mildred Falls) and performance have lost power. This footage is earlier and to a greater extend used for Allen Miner's, mostly depressing, 86-minute tour report (released in 1974). On a slightly positive note: added up there are a few minutes of unique video material from earlier performances. The one-minute recording of 'How I got over' from the march on Washington is very impressive; she performs the song at the same lectern where Dr. M.L. King gives his famous speech. Unfortunately this recording is also interrupted by speech and visuals.
I have not much trust in hoping for a thorough documentary film on Mahalia Jackson's life and music. I do hope for complete video releases of the concerts, which are so barely touched upon in this documentary. For example nothing beats the overwhelming recording of a part of her concert at the Newport Jazz festival 1958, which was used for the impressive music documentary 'Jazz on a summer's day' (Bert Stern, USA 1960). And then there are the unpublished television specials she made for CBS in 1955 (not the same as the 'Mahalia Jackson sings' recordings), a bit of interesting audio material is used for this documentary.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Mahalia Jackson - The Power and the Glory: The Life and Music of the World's Greatest Gospel Singer (2002)
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