NRR Project: “Move On Up a Little Higher”
Composed by W. Herbert Brewster
Performed by Mahalia Jackson
Mildred Falls, piano; Herbert James Francis, organ
Recorded Sept. 12, 1947
First read the expert essay on this piece by Robert F. Darden at the National Recording Registry.
Mahalia Jackson was gifted with an enormous, resonant voice. She represents a new force in gospel music. Her full-voiced, keening sound is redolent with the blues influence. (The first blues singers who made it big in the 1920s were women such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey.) The ‘shouting” of lyrics, the big swooping lines of melody, the intense passion, all transformed gospel music and how we judged the practitioners of same. This was a soul-infused sound that combined a sense of urgency with deep feeling.
The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Jack Benny Show.
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