Editing Mahalia Jackson (section)

===Singing===

{{quote box
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| quote =[Jackson would] sometimes build a song up and up, singing the words over and over to increase their intensity... Like Bessie, she would slide up or slur down to a note. She would also break up a word into as many syllables as she cared to, or repeat and prolong an ending to make it more effective: "His love is deeper and deeper, yes deeper and deeper, it's deeper! and deeper, Lord! deeper and deeper, Lord! it's deeper than the se-e-e-e-a, yeah, oh my lordy, yeah deeper than the sea, Lord." And the last two words would be a dozen syllables each.
| source = – Author [[Hettie Jones]]<ref>Burford 2020, p. 89.</ref>
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Though the gospel blues style Jackson employed was common among soloists in black churches, to many white jazz fans it was novel. As she was the most prominent — and sometimes the only gospel singer many white listeners knew — she often received requests to define the style and explain how and why she sang as she did. Jackson was mostly untrained, never learning to read or write musical notation, so her style was heavily marked by instinct. She answered questions to the best of her ability though often responded with lack of surety, saying: "All I ever learned was just to sing the way I feel... off-beat, on the beat, between beats — however the Lord lets it come out."<ref name="ebony obit"/> When pressed for clearer descriptions, she replied: "Child, I don't know how I do it myself."<ref name="Heilbut, p. 66">Heilbut, p. 66.</ref>

Jackson's voice is noted for being energetic and powerful, ranging from [[contralto]] to [[soprano]], which she switched between rapidly. She resisted labeling her voice range instead calling it "real strong and clear".<ref name="ebony obit"/> She used [[Blue note|bent or "worried" notes]] typical of blues, the sound of which jazz aficionado Bucklin Moon described as "an almost solid wall of blue tonality". She moaned, hummed, and improvised extensively with rhythm and melody, often embellishing notes with a prodigious use of [[melisma]], or singing several tones per syllable. Author [[Anthony Heilbut]] called it a "weird ethereal sound, part moan, part failed operatics".<ref name="Heilbut, p. 66"/> Gospel historian [[Horace Clarence Boyer|Horace Boyer]] attributes Jackson's "aggressive style and rhythmic ascension" to the Pentecostal congregation she heard as a child, saying Jackson was "never a Baptist singer". He continues: "bending a note here, chopping off a note there, singing through rest spots and ornamenting the melodic line at will, [Jackson] confused pianists but fascinated those who played by ear".<ref>Boyer, p. 87.</ref> Bucklin Moon was enamored with her singing, writing that the embellishments Jackson added "take your breath away. As a member of a Sanctified Church in Mount Vernon once told me: 'Mahalia, she add more flowers and feathers than anybody, and they all is exactly right.' She breaks every rule of concert singing, taking breaths in the middle of a word and sometimes garbling the words altogether, but the full-throated feeling and expression are seraphic."<ref>Burford 2020 p. 48.</ref> Writer [[Ralph Ellison]] noted how she blended precise diction with a thick New Orleans accent, describing the effect as "almost of the academy one instant, and of the broadest cotton field dialect the next".<ref>Burford 2020, p. 68.</ref>

By her own admission and in the opinion of multiple critics and scholars, Bessie Smith's singing style was clearly dominant in Jackson's voice. In ''[[Melody Maker]]'', [[Max Jones (journalist)|Max Jones]] contrasted the two: "Whereas Bessie's singing can sound harsh and unlovely, even to jazz students, on first acquaintance, Mahalia's voice is obviously an instrument of uncommon beauty... Her bursts of power and sudden rhythmic drives build up to a pitch that leave you unprepared to listen afterwards to any but the greatest of musicians."<ref>Goreau, p. 132.</ref> Other singers made their mark. In her early days in Chicago, Jackson saved her money to buy records by classical singers [[Roland Hayes]], [[Grace Moore]], and [[Lawrence Tibbett]], attributing her diction, breathing, and she said, "what little I know of technique" to these singers.<ref>Burford 2020 p. 37.</ref>

Improvisation was a significant part of Jackson's live performances both in concert halls and churches. She often stretched what would be a five-minute recording to twenty-five minutes to achieve maximum emotional effect. In black churches, this was a regular practice among gospel soloists who sought to evoke an emotional purging in the audience during services. White and non-Christian audiences also felt this resonance. After one concert, critic [[Nat Hentoff]] wrote: "The conviction and strength of her rendition had a strange effect on the secularists present, who were won over to Mahalia if not to her message. Most of them were amazed at the length of time after the concert during which the sound of her voice remained active in the mind."<ref>Burford 2020, p. 56.</ref> Jackson explained that as God worked through her she became more impassioned during a song, and that what she felt was right to do in the moment was what was necessary for the audience. As her career advanced, she found it difficult to adjust to the time constraints in recording and television appearances, saying: "When I sing I don't go by the score. I lose something when I do. I don't want to be told I can sing just so long. I make it 'til that passion is passed. When I become conscious, I can't do it good."<ref>Burford 2020 p. 53.</ref>