You Tube has many wonderful videos of Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972). Here is one you can watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq7Kf25Dou0

 In the 1950 -1960’s Mahalia came into our house every week day at about 3:50pm via KING or KIRO tv in Seattle, WA. I believe it was a 5- minute tape the local stations used to fill time between soap operas and the locally produced kiddy shows ( eg:JP Patches, Stan Boreson’s [yep, THAT Stan Boreson] Clubhouse, and Captain Puget). This was in the days of black and white tv. In the short taped segment, Mahalia sang a hymn, in her inimitable style, wearing a choir gown; sometimes there was a black background and a circle spotlight on her alone, and sometimes I think there were other choir-robed singers in the background. I was mesmerized every time. What a voice! I wonder where those video tapes are now? I hope someone had the foresight to save them.